Am I a Viking? Bayeux, 6-12 June 2018

This weekend was the wedding of my nephew Josquin, with Violaine. The ceremonies were taking place around Bayeux, Normandy, and we flew from Stockholm to attend to the celebrations.

The tapestry of Bayeux, 1066

As the Swedish national day is the 6th of June, we came to Bayeux on the 6th, and stop on the way to Giverny, the home port for Monnet. 

We were struck by beauty in Giverny. Lots of tourists, mostly from Asia, but pure emotional experience.

Picture taken from Monnet bedroom window.

Picture from the main entrance of the Monet house in Giverny. 

The pound where the nympheas were painted.

On the way North West, then we stopped in Omaha beach, the location of the American cemetery of the D-day. Very moving place, with so many thousand dead soldiers buried here, and a symbol of freedom.

Omaha American cemetery. Very intense emotional experience...

Vety intense emotions of the dead youngsters landing in such a place, without forgetting those dead in France countryside, in particular in Saint-Lo, destroyed by bombers in a successful attempt at breaking the German front.

On a more funny tone, some side weaving representing erotic scenes on the Bayeux tapestry. Life must going on despite so many death around he Hafting battle...

On the side of the bottom Bayeux tapestry...

The Bayeux tapestry tells the tory of the conquest of England by the French lead by "Guillaume le conquerant" called "William the Bastard" by the British... The French won the Hasting battle and ruled the UK for 21 years...

What struck me most in that place was that the Vikings had settled for quite some time in the area where I am originally from, and when it came to invading the UK, they start building locally, in Normandy, the ships that would allow the conquest of Brittany.

As I am enjoying so much sailing in the Baltic, I cannot refrain from thinking that I came with some "Norman"invasion along the normandy coast in France in a past life. Am I a viking???