Bayeux – A Traveling Fool

Probably as part of my love of history, I also trace my family roots. Some people just stick to one part of their family. I don’t. I trace both sides and all the little branches that stem off from them. It has been some of those branches where I have found some of the most interesting ancestors, including the occasional saint or not so much a saint.

Full disclosure, one of Richard III of England’s henchmen, William Catesby, who has been considered to have possibly been one of the men who murdered the two princes in the Tower of London, and who died at Bosworth along with his boss, is a 16^th great grandfather. But then I share that particular ancestor with the Game of Thrones actor, Kit Harington, so that’s alright. I’m descended from Catesby’s daughter, Elizabeth, while Kit is descended from his son, George.

Since I had some Viking (Norse) ancestors head down from Norway to settle on Orkney, I definitely loved being able to spend some time on Orkney, exploring some of the places they would have been. Then we get into Scotland where there were many, many ancestors running around. One was actually murdered in Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh.

Loads of ancestors all over England and Wales too. A Scottish de Ros ancestor acquired the original version of Belvoir (pronounced “Beaver”) Castle through marriage in the 13^th century. When his male line died out, the Manners family (a de Ros nephew who became the 1^st Duke of Rutland) took over and still owns the place. When I visited the castle, I was on a tour. But my tour group was small and given a private tour of the castle by a member of the staff. We were also greeted by the Duchess at that time.

In the United States, I have a lot of ancestral ties to Massachusetts from the 1600s in places like Plymouth, Boston, Marblehead, and Salem. In Boston especially I know where my ancestors lived and where some of them are buried. It was so wonderful to be able to walk around in that area and try to imagine back to when they were there.

For the Grand France River Cruise, I had printed out the names, dates and birthplaces of my French ancestors. There were a few hundred of them. That way, as we traveled around, I could have some context of which ancestors were from where and when.

In Arles, all of my ancestors were from such an early period of time that it was possible that some of them might have lived in houses that were built in the Arena when that was no longer used for its original purpose. The time period that those houses existed was the same as the time period of my ancestors.

I had ancestors from all over Burgundy, but I don’t necessarily know the individual towns. So, when we got to that part of France, I just took loads of photos of anything really old. I also drank a fair amount of the wines from that region.

In Normandy, I had many, many ancestors. A couple of the main towns in which they lived were Bayeux and Rouen. There were parts of both places where I felt transported back in time and could easily imagine what it might have been like in their day.

I started on my genealogical quest back in the days when I had to physically go into a library and study the microfiche and other items they might have and then send away for birth, death and marriage certificates, etc. Having access to online data sure does help enormously. There are a lot of things that can be found out without ever paying any money to anyone.

Although I love traveling to every place to which I have traveled so far, I have to admit that I get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I am someplace where I know my ancestors have been and I can get an idea of what their lives might have been like.

First, let me say that, in case you haven’t already figured it out, I truly do love French food. On this trip, all of our meals were on our ship except for the one day that we spent the entire day off the ship on an adventure in Normandy. The meals on the ship were wonderful, but I was looking forward to our lunch.

There were three choices of excursion that day: 1) Normandy World War II United States D Day Landing Beaches, 2) Normandy World War II Great Britain & Canada D Day Landing Beaches, 3) “A Taste of Normandy”, which included Bayeux, Beuvron-en-Auge, and trip to a Calvados distillery. Since I had already toured all of the landing beaches (US, UK & Canada) on a prior trip, I chose the third excursion.

I was really excited about seeing the Bayeux Tapestry and the town of Bayeux. This was another place where some ancestors had been born. Just three this time, but still.

Apparently Bayeux had originally been founded as a Gallo-Roman settlement in the first century BC. It became famous as the location of the Bayeux Tapestry.

The tapestry (which is really an embroidery) was created in England, although from the Norman point of view, shortly after the Normans conquered England in 1066. It depicts the events leading up to William the Conqueror’s conquest of England. The main characters are William (who was Duke of Normandy at the time) and Harold (Earl of Wessex and King of England). The action shown culminates with the Battle of Hastings.

No photos were allowed. However, they said I could use video. Fortunately, I had my camera that records video directly onto miniature DVDs. So I filmed nearly the entire length of the 230 foot (70 metres) cloth. It is roughly 956 years old!

In addition to the tapestry itself, the building contained an exhibit presenting the secrets of the creation of the tapestry, an overview of the historical context and the Anglo-Norman kingdom in the 11^th century. There was also a film that interwove the scenes from the tapestry with reconstructed scenes from the Battle of Hastings.

I was looking forward to having a special three-course French lunch at one of the restaurants in town. The vast majority of our fellow passengers went on one or the other of the D-Day tours, so there were only four of us on this excursion. We had a choice of three options for where we could eat. We all chose the same option and so had a nice leisurely lunch together at a lovely restaurant specializing in local food.

My appetizer was a puff pastry filled with seafood. It was very light and delicious. The main course I ordered was filet mignon with a Camembert sauce. It too was absolutely delicious. The dessert was a chocolate mousse. I have made chocolate mousse several times. However, this one far exceeded what I have ever created. It was much more delicate in flavor – whispering chocolate instead of shouting it.

After lunch, we visited the cathedral. It is thought that it was in the cathedral where the Bayeux Tapestry was originally displayed. It is also thought that the cathedral may have been the location of where William the Conqueror forced Harold Godwinson to take an oath of fealty to him.

We rejoined our coach and driver and set off for Beuvron-en-Auge. The tiny village has the official designation of being one of the most beautiful villages of France. I certainly couldn’t argue with that. It had been raining just before we got there and everything was wet. The village center had a manor house and several smaller buildings that mainly had shops or restaurants on the ground floor and homes above. The main purpose of the village was definitely tourism. I explored a few of the antique shops during the time we had there.

The region we were in was called Calvados and was part of the province of Normandy. Apple orchards and breweries in the area were mentioned as far back as the 8^th century by Charlemagne. In the early 16^th century, apple brandy (called Calvados) was mentioned and a cider distillation guild established about 50 years later.

All of the apples used for Calvados must come from Normandy, where there are roughly 200 different varieties. First the apples are fermented into a juice, which then becomes cider as it ages. The cider can just stay cider and be sold as such, or it can be distilled and aged in oak casks for a minimum of two years to be become Calvados. The longer the aging, the smoother the taste.

Our final stop of the day was at the Le Breuil-en-Auge Calvados Distillery. We learned all about the creation of Calvados and sampled some of the finished product. I felt that the amount in the glass was a tad stingy until I actually tried it. It is about 82 proof so, it has been known to take off the back of a person’s head when drunk too fast. It made my eyes water and my voice go raspy.

We were told that the first glass of Calvados was simply called “a glass”. I don’t remember what the second and third glasses were called, but the fourth glass was called “the Gloria” because the drinker would start to sing. The fifth glass was called “kicked by a mule”. There didn’t seem to be anything else after that. I personally felt a little bit like I had been kicked by a mule after the second glass. When we returned to the ship, everyone was given a glass of Calvados to sample. That was glass number three for me. I started thinking of potential songs to sing just in case a fourth glass came my way.

Next time — Rouen