A stitch in time

In 1066, Anglo Saxon Britain came under attack from a well organised army under the command of Guilliame de Bastard - soon to be known as William the Conqueror. Guilliame had been really put out because King Harold had claimed the English throne on the death of Edward the confessor, when Edward had quite clearly stated that Guilliame, his cousin and someone he'd spent a lot of time holidaying with in Normandy over the previous 20 years, should actually become king on his death. Indeed, in the absence of the BBC, Edward had asked Harold to go and tell Guilliame this himself. Guilliame welcomed him with open arms but, just to be safe, made Harold swear on the bible, the altar and anything else he could find, that Harold would honour this. Of course, said Harold, anything you like so I can get outta here & back to England. And besides I had my fingers crossed when I took that oath.
Once back in England, Edward popped his clogs and Harold promptly claimed the throne himself = Harold II of England.
Zut alors!!! Said Guilliame. Now who is the bastard?!? And he quickly pulled together an army and sailed to England.
Arriving at the hell hole which is Pevensey, we are surprised he did not turn back, but he continued towards Hastings. there they met Harold's army and a huge battle took place. Norman archers, cavalry, infantry, Anglo-Saxon bows and foot soldiers, Halleys comet etc etc.
Like JJ at Hever Castle, Harold was made to look a bit of a tit as a carefully placed arrow hit him in the eye. And so ended Anglo-Saxon England and we can consider Norman England as the beginnings of the Team GB we know so well.
And that's what the totally amazing Bayeaux Tapestry has taught us today. There's none of the complex backstory about Harold Hardrada and the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Nothing about the resistance in the northeast, but as William the Conqueror's 11th century Facebook timeline substitute, we think it does a pretty good job.
It's 70m long and you need an audio guide to help you work along it, which is amusing considering it was created (probably in England) for a largely illiterate population. It's housed in a huge museum with a cinema & exhibition (see photo). A must see.
We then went into the lovely cathedral which was originally built by William's half bro the Bishop Odo (who also fought in the battle). Despite being party destroyed by Williams sons as they fought over which one of them should become king of Normandy, it was rebuilt and enlarged.
In the 19th century the main tower nearly collapsed and was rebuilt again by the same engineers who built the Paris-Cherbourg railway (Andrew was pleased about this).
When Normandy was liberated in 1944, Bayeaux remained largely intact so it still has some medieval charm. Quite pretty - not as pretty as Talinn though.
We lunched on a croque Monsieur from a street vendor and headed back to the car.
Next stop was the Musee America Gold Beach in Ver sur Mer. A rather misleading name as this is the only British focused museum on the Normandy coast and the America bit relates to a plane carrying the first air mail from the US that crash landed in Ver sur Mer. We were the only visitors there so we had time to look at all the maps and photos - including a map if Middlesborough and photos of HMS Belfast.
After that we headed back to our Hotel Superieur and the bar for a cafe et wifi gratuis. We may head to the beach after dinner as the sun is still shining.
Bite looking much better but ankle gets tired easily. Any excuse for cafe!