Museum of the Bayeux Tapestry (Musee de la Tapisserie de Bayeux), Bayeux, Basse- > Reviews > An arrow in the eye for Harold

Author's product rating:   

Prices	Good
Is it worth visiting?	Excellent
Transport links	Good
Family Friendly	Good

Advantages:	Get to see a reproduction of the tapestry up close with clear explanations of what is going on in every scene
Disadvantages:	The conveyor belt feeling you can get when viewing the actual tapestry on a busy day

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Museum of the Bayeux Tapestry makes a great family day out and a chance to see how the French portray this important piece of history. On entering the museum, you pass through a larger than life reproduction of the tapestry, with an audio commentary and clear descriptions of what you can see in each scene. The occasional display cases showing life in the times depicted also help to bring the whole battle to life. You can spend ages in this bit of the museum, before even getting near the real thing.

Your experience of seeing the real tapestry will be very much affected by how busy the museum is. On a busy day you shuffle past it slowly in a darkened room, with other visitors directly behind and in front of you. Dawdlers are reprimanded and hurried on. However, I have also visited on a quiet day when we had the tapestry gallery almost to ourselves and could walk the length and back again at a leisurely pace. Even if it is busy it is an amazing experience to see the tapestry, having learnt so much about it in history lessons. We even took our 14 month old daughter and she was fascinated by the images of horses, dogs and Harold with an arrow in his eye!