After a short stop in Lille, we drove to Bayeux in Normandy. It’s about 250 miles / 4.5 hours but it’s a beautiful drive. We were treated to a rainbow on the way plus some cool bridges (this bridge reminds me of the Arthur Ravenel, Jr bridge in our new home in Charleston, SC).
Once we got close to Bayeux, we decided to stop at the Longes-sur-mer battery. As you can imagine, there are a lot of WW2 and D-Day sights around Normany. We were only spending 1 night to see some friends then moving on to Brittany and we’ve toured Normandy in the past but the battery was an easy quick stop near Bayeaux. It’s a set of 4 German casemates that were part of the Atlantic Wall – an important part of the German defense – and these guns could fire up to about 12 miles. These casemates are the only original coastal artillery in place in the region. They sit atop a cliff overlooking the English Channel and played a strategic role on D-Day. The Allied forces captured this battery on June 7, 1944. (https://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/museums-and-heritage-sites/batterie-allemande-de-longues-sur-mer/)
If you haven’t been, Normandy is worth a visit for at least a couple nights to explore all of the D-Day sights. There are day trips from Paris but that’s a long day! I’ve been out here 3 times before and renting a car to drive around to the sights on your own is definitely the way to go (you can take the train from Paris to Caen and rent a car there to avoid driving in and out of Paris). Bayeaux is a great town to base yourself in for all of these sights too.
We stayed at the Hotel le Lion d’Or right on the Main Street in Bayeux for this trip (https://www.liondor-bayeux.fr/en/). It’s in a former 18th-century post office building and was a neat boutique hotel that made an easy base to explore Bayeaux for the evening.
I loved that I had a parking spot at the hotel with my name on it!
We took some time to wander around Bayeux a bit before meeting up with friends for dinner.
There was a great informational sign about the district we were walking in that explains the history of that part of Bayeux:
“One of the oldest craft districts in the city lies just behind the Tourist Office.
Here the layout of the Aure river banks bear witness to the presence of former tanneries and dye works.
In those days, the river played a major role in supplying water to the workshops and for evacuating high-polluting waste. It also provided an indispensable energy source for the mills used for grinding oak bark to extract the tannin, the substance used to prevent leather from rotting.
The Bayeux tanneries flourished until the 15th century and then went into decline to be replaced by another fast-growing industry: dyeing. This 15th century evolution can be seen in the change in the name of the Rue de la Tannerie – Tannery Street, which became Rue des Teinturiers – Dyers Street.
In the Middle Ages, the most used vegetable colours in Bayeux were yellow, red and blue.
For two months, in 1822, the writer Balzac stayed with his sister in this district, at n°23 in the Rue des Teinturiers, formerly owned by an ancestor of the famous painter Toulouse-Lautrec.”
Not too far away from this district is the museum that holds the Bayeux Tapestry – an 11th century piece of embroidery that depicts the 1066 invasion of England by William the Conqueror. Very briefly – after the death of Edward the Confessor, William led the Franco-Norman army to victory of the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson (Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066) and ultimately William became the first Norman king of England (he was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066). The tapestry is 230 feet long and 20 inches high and chronicles the events of the Norman Conquest of England.
We have had a chance to visit the Bayeux Tapestry before and it’s definitely worth a visit. But if you want to see it in Bayeux, you will have to wait until the museum’s renovation is complete in 2027. However, it is on loan to the British Museum (in London) and will be on display there from September 2026 through July 2027. (https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/bayeux-tapestry) (https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/PRESS-Release-The-Town-of-Bayeux-supports-the-loan-of-the-Bayeux-Tapestry-to-the-United-Kingdom-July-9-2025.pdf)
We took some time to walk down one of the main streets, Rue Saint Malo, to admire the architecture. This half timbered house definitely stood out!
Then we met our friends for dinner at Le Saint Jean for some good pizza. We actually met our friends at Delirium Cafe in Strasbourg earlier on our trip – they are an American expat couple who now live in Bayeux. We decided to spend the night in Bayeux on our way further west so we could catch up with them!
After dinner we enjoyed some great beer with them at their house – which incidentally is directly across the street from where I stayed with my parents when we came in 2015 for the 71st anniversary of D-Day. These pictures are actually from their balcony and the white arrow is the building where I stayed with my parents. Small world!
We made the short walk back to our hotel for the night and enjoyed the quiet calm of Bayeux at night.
Next up – Le Mont Saint Michel!
