Blog

Bayeux, France

Section of the Bayeux Tapestry showing the Norman Conquest

A section of the Bayeux Tapestry, which tells the story of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066

A tour of Bayeux is a unique experience in the Normandy region, adding to the learnings about the battle of Normandy. The quaint medieval city of Bayeux is home to one big ticket item – the fascinating Bayeux Tapestry, housed in the Bayeux tapestry museum, which depicts the Norman Conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. Though the origins of the tapestry are debated by historians, it is of great artistic interest and is an important historical source.

Small Group Tour

Anglo French Tour: Normandy, Brittany and the Channel Islands

22-Day Tour · Paris to London · Small group, up to 16 travellers, solo travellers welcome

Bayeux is the group’s base for the first days in Normandy on this 22-day journey, with days for the abbeys of Caen, the D-Day beaches with a battlefield expert, and the town itself, before the route moves on to Mont-St-Michel, Brittany and the Channel Islands.

View the Tour

The Bayeux tapestry is a piece of linen nearly 70 metres (about 225 feet) long and 50 cm (about 20 inches) high, on which are embroidered 58 scenes from the Norman invasion of England. Unabashedly a work of Norman propaganda, the story begins with Harold’s visit to Normandy and ends with the English army in flight after Harold’s death at the Battle of Hastings in 1066; the final section of the hanging has been lost. Along the edges are decorative borders, depicting animals, scenes from Aesop’s Fables, and events related to the main story. Designed to educate a primarily illiterate population, the tapestry is akin to a modern-day comic book, with gruesome and vivid depictions of decapitated heads and bloody limbs at the Battle of Hastings, and ribald scenes of everyday life on the edges.

The existence of the Bayeux tapestry was first recorded in 1476, in an inventory of Bayeux Cathedral, but historians believe it to be much older. French tradition claims that it was the work of William’s wife, Queen Matilda, and her ladies, though there is little evidence for this claim. Historians today believe that it was likely commissioned by William’s half-brother Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux, in the decade after the Conquest, possibly for the consecration of Bayeux Cathedral in 1077. Similarities with English embroidered works of the period indicate that the tapestry was likely completed in England. It has been displayed at a museum in Bayeux since 1983. The museum closed for renovation in September 2025, and the tapestry is on loan to the British Museum in London until July 2027, the first time it has been shown in Britain since it was made, before returning for the museum’s reopening.

Notre-Dame de Bayeux, the Gothic cathedral at the heart of the old town

Beyond the tapestry, it is worth making some time on your tour of Bayeux for a stroll around the charming historic centre, packed with 13th to 18th century buildings and the beautiful Bayeux Cathedral, a stunning Gothic cathedral.

Along with the nearby town of Sainte-Mère-Église (Sainte Mere Eglise), Bayeux claims to be the first town liberated by the Allies in the Normandy invasion of World War II. Today, the city commemorates this history at a first-rate memorial museum and the largest Second World War cemetery for Commonwealth soldiers in France, the final resting place of more than 4,100 soldiers from Britain and the Commonwealth who died in the Battle of Normandy, along with some 500 war graves of other nationalities, mostly German. Across the road is a memorial to the more than 1,800 Commonwealth soldiers whose remains were never found.

Just over two hours by train from Paris, Bayeux is an ideal location from which to visit Normandy. In close proximity to Gold Beach, Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery above it, and Utah Beach further west, it is an ideal departure point for a day tour of the D-Day Beaches. A Tour of Bayeux is also an ideal point from which to explore Normandy’s medieval treasures, including Mont St Michel and the historic abbey and chateau of William the Conqueror in Caen. Make sure, too, to make time to enjoy the delicacies of the area: fresh cheeses, including the world-famous Camembert, local ciders, and Calvados, a unique brandy made from apples or pears.

On Odyssey’s Normandy, Brittany and Channel Islands tour, the group reaches Bayeux on the second day, after Monet’s garden at Giverny and an afternoon in Rouen, the old capital of the Norman dukes.