The Bayeux Tapestry

We saw in in Bayeux too and I also bought the folding paper one but have never displayed it and it is still in my knicker draw for some reason ?. I used the headphones and really enjoyed learning what the different scenes depicted - I’d love it to come over here. It was the length that surprised me, as well as the narrow width. Always imagined a large floor to ceiling square hanging up before I saw it!

We stopped to see it en route back to the ferry one year when we had all the DC with us and just happened to have some spare time.
I'm so glad we did, it was impressive and quite awe-inspiring; now I have to find the folding paper replica I bought and study it!

Thought it was beautifully presented when we saw it, with all the explanation and the “replica” displayed first so that we appreciated what we were seeing when we got to the “real thing”.
It’s a significant gesture by the French and comparable perhaps to the world tour tge Hereford Cathedral copy of Magna Carta made a year or so back.
DD’s godfather accompanied it - Magna Carta got to travel First Class, he didn’t!

My first thought was I hope some idiot doesn't try to damage it when it's here...

I thought Jura was asking if we thought Macron was right to lend us the tapestry ( which is not technically a tapestry but a work of embroidery). Now everyone is arguing about the Norman French fighting the English.
I think it would be lovely for it to return home, even if just for a short time. Modern thinking is that it was embroidered by groups of Nuns in Canterbury and was commissioned by Bishop Odo, who later became Duke of Kent. I might manage to see it in England, but doubt that I would ever travel to France just to visit it.

When we went to see the tapestry in Bayeux it was in March and we went in just after 2pm. We were the only people walking round the tapestry and had been given devices with all the info in English on them - the tapestry is in numbered panels so easy to follow.

I am NOT arguing with Jura’s version!
I am arguing that not everybody makes the mistake that “it is about the French beating the Brits”.
Isn’t that obvious?

We were fortunate to see the tapestry several years ago in Bayeux. As someone else mentioned, it was surprisingly narrow - hadn't expected that, don't know why. However, as with all such famous exhibits, the visit was marred by the crowds of people jostling to get close to it, mainly a large group of French schoolchildren who were having the tapestry explained to them loudly by their group leader. In French of course.
I would love to see it again, though I don't harbour any hopes of it being any less crowded in Hastings or London

jura's version is the one we were taught at school, 1950s/60s, MawBroon

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc92zC0P0Iw

There you go!
(I recommend skipping the dreadful ads at the beginning)

Sorry MawBroon- could you give me the version of events you understand, as I am confused:

Not a version I have come across Jura2, we must talk to different people.
Perhaps the fact that Paw was a keen and knowledgeable historian and with both a UK and a French education, had something to do with neither of us ever coming across the misconception you describe from anybody we know.

That's just the simplified version, jura!

lol this is what I tried to say in OP ;)

That's just the simplified version, jura!

The 'English' were a pretty mongrel bunch by 1066 anyway as they were a mix of Celtic (the 'original' Iron Age population), whatever blood came in with the Roman legionaries, who came from all over the Roman Empire, Germanic (and, I think, Gaulish) Saxons and Scandinavian Danes. And that, too, is a simplified version...

As I understand it the worst thing the Normans did was to introduce the Salic Law of inheritance (male line only) whereas women had been pretty much equal with men for inheritance in pre-Norman society.

I saw the tapestry many years ago at Bayeux. It was very nicely displayed but there were hordes of people there making it annoyingly slow to reach and then to view (because there was always someone obscuring the bit you really wanted to look at..). I thought the French explication of it was a tad triumphalist...

Have also been lucky enough to see it in Bayeux. It's stunning, quite stunning. Not as high as I'd expected, in fact quite narrow. Think they'd have to bring its long display case and lighting with it. Even if reason is because they need a home for it while it's current space is being restored, Good for Macron.

The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman conquest of England.

Oh I see- my comment is because this is always how the Battle of Hastings is portrayed.

The Normans that invaded England in 1066 came from Normandy in Northern France. However, they were originally Vikings from Scandinavia. At the beginning of the tenth century, the French King, Charles the Simple, had given some land in the North of France to a Viking chief named Rollo

I know that Normans is a corruption or version of Northmen.
It was the comment about the French beating the English that I take issue with.

It would seem the tapestry will have to be moved somewhere as the museum is to undergo major refurbishment. So maybe Macron has an ulterior motive for his seeming act of generosity.

and all mixed up with the other immigrants from Germany, the Anglo-Saxons.

Mawbroon- all the history books - Harold and Wilhelm were cousins - one group of Vikings had invaded England, another Normandy.

Greyduster- thanks, never knew that about Reading- interesting.I've never seen it- but was planning to go and see it in France. Personally, I feel it would be best not to disturb it. It would be easy to see it in Hastings or London, as both are on our regular drive up.

I know it’s not quite the same, but isn’t there a replica of it in Reading Museum?

Not possible now Welshwife sadly.
If it comes to London I shall go and see it though.

LG you could go and see the tapestry almost on a dat trip to Caen! - The tapestry is well displayed and lit and within walking distance is a lovely little restaurant for lunch.
Bayeux is a very pretty town.