Bayeux Tapestry (Tapisserie de Bayeux)

The Bayeux Tapestry, which is one of the most historically important, and unusual, chronicles of its day, is now located in the town of Bayeux in Normandy. The 70m-long (231ft) tapestry offers a splendidly vivid depiction of the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It begins with Harold of Wessex’s visit to Normandy and his meeting with Duke William in 1064, and culminates with the flight of the English army at Hastings. All the main intervening events are covered in painstaking detail. Although it was almost destroyed in 1792 when French revolutionaries used it as a wagon cover, the whole tapestry (with the exception of the final section, thought to have depicted William’s coronation in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066) has survived to this day and can still be viewed by visitors to the town of Bayeux.
Air: Caen-Carpiquet Airport. Rail: Train: Bayeux Station. Road: Bus: Public services. Car: N13, A14, A13, N413, N175, E46, N13 and D6 (from Paris).