One of history's great stories, well - presented with an excellent audio guide
Disadvantages:
It can get crowded in the main room
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
According to my parents, I had seen the Bayeux tapestry on a family holiday to France many years ago, but I was too young for it to have made any impression on me. So, when on a trip to Normandy and Brittany earlier this summer, I had to take the opportunity to visit Bayeux to have a look at this piece of artwork that plays such an important role in the basic history taught at British schools. Well, I assume it still does - you read so much in papers these days about the 'dumbing down' of the educational system that I do wonder how many of today's students have more than a vague idea of the events and the story behind the tapestry… but I digress - that's a topic for discussion elsewhere.
So, back to the tapestry - if you're travelling to the picturesque town of Bayeux by car, the museum is signposted from all approaches ('Tapisserie') and you are guided to one of the public car parks that are placed around the town centre. From there, just follow the pedestrian signs and you will find the museum easily enough, and this is also the case if you arrive on the train (Bayeux station is on the Paris St Lazare - Cherbourg line). If you've got time after viewing the tapestry, I also recommend that you take the time to explore a bit of Bayeux on foot, as it has a well-preserved old town and the cathedral is also worth a visit.
The entrance to the museum itself is housed in an imposing stone edifice that was previously the Bayeux Seminary, which itself was constructed upon the site of a medieval priory. You ascend a few stairs to the main doors (stair-free disabled access is available from the other side of the building) and can get your tickets from one of the cash desks in the hall. The fee charged is €7.70 for adults and €3.80 for children, with various discounts for tour parties, OAPs, and so on.
Between the cash desks and the tapestry hall itself, the queuing system in place makes it easy to see that this is a tourist destination that attracts thousands of visitors in high season - we were lucky enough to visit just before the main summer holidays started in France, so only had a 15-minute wait before we could enter the darkened room where the tapestry is displayed. As you approach the doors, museum staff provide audio guides to the tapestry, available in a selection of languages (French, English, German, Spanish, Japanese and several others). It is definitely worthwhile listening to this as you walk along the 70-metre tapestry, which is displayed in a U-shaped wall mounting, allowing you to walk along and examine its entire length.
The tapestry is marked at regular intervals with numbers on its top edge, and these numbers correspond to scenes in the story that the artwork tells. The audio guide (which is very well translated, something that is often taken for granted but less often the case) uses these numbers to help explain the figures displayed and the events that are taking place - this story of the Norman Conquest is a fascinating one, and even if you've learned about it at school or elsewhere, there are many fascinating facets to it that only become apparent on closer examination. The viewing of the tapestry takes about 15 minutes in total if you follow the pace of the guide. Of course, there are those who push past or dawdle but the experience is most effective if everyone follows the sedate pace set by the audio guides - this is of course what the museum wants to happen, so that there are no bottlenecks at the entrance, and all visitors get to see the tapestry with as little stress as possible.
After viewing the tapestry, signs direct you to a new museum room up on the first floor, which contains a lot of information about how the tapestry was made and the various locations in which it has been displayed in the last 900+ years. You also find out that after the French Revolution, the tapestry was almost lost for good, only to be saved at the last minute before it was due to be carted off. There is plenty of information about the methods used to preserve the tapestry in its climate-controlled display case in the room below, and you can also find out more about the way of life in 11th-century Normandy and the people who (experts maintain) were responsible for making the now priceless artefact. Another feature of the museum exhibition is the cinema, which shows a short film about the history of the tapestry several times an hour, alternating between the English and French language versions - this seems to be aimed primarily at visiting school groups.
The museum (which was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World programme in 2007) also houses a large shop in the vaulted basement, which contains a huge array of tapestry memorabilia and a wide range of material dealing with the history of the Normans, on both sides of the English Channel. This is a very professionally run museum that clearly is used to catering for large numbers of visitors, many of whom only stay to view the tapestry before boarding tour busses and heading for their next destination. This means that the main room can get crowded - but the way the museum is set up helps to avoid this, as far as possible. And if you can take the time to visit the exhibition rooms after seeing the tapestry, this gives a far more rounded and in-depth feel to the visit - and all in all, paying just over a fiver to get in is very good value for money!
For extensive visitor information, check out the official website: http://www.tapestry-bayeux.com/
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