April 25 - A day in Bayeux

 

Today we stayed in Bayeux all day. After a sumptuous breakfast, served by the owner, Frank, we took a walk into the center of town and then along the Auge, the small river here. It was not as long a walk as we'd thought or hoped. 

It was lovely weather and we listened to lots of birds, but didn't manage to see most of them flitting about in the trees. But, we did see a beautiful grey wagtail in the river and we did see a Common Chafinch. We heard a lot of blue tits, but, try as we could, never saw one.

When we spotted the wagtail, a French woman was also interested and we got to talking. She pointed us to the farmer's market, so we walked there and bought fresh strawberries, asparagus, cheese of Normandy (Liverot), baguette and some of the yogurts made in St Malo that we so liked - even Mark who is not a big fan of yogurt.

   We strolled "home" to our room in the tower and microwaved the asparagus and had a lovely lunch. We both liked the cheese, which is a bit like Camembert, but harder and a little stronger.

    We also talked to Nick as it is his 53rd birthday today.

    After a short rest, we walked out again, this time to the Cathedral (another Notre Dame)  which was dedicated in 1077 (!) by Odo, the half-brother of William the Conquerer who was the bishop here. It is a huge cathedral and so very old. We did not stay long as Barbara had a migraine coming and we went back to the guesthouse. We had a quiet evening of reading, corresponding and blogging.