Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the end of the 1939-1945 war in Europe. It was commemorated in various ways. In France it's a jour de ferié so all sorts of things are closed whilst others are definitely open. It was the day we moved to Bayeux, first city to be liberated and where general de Gaulle proclaimed the fourth republic in the sous prefecture. Robert told me he had read that the yanks weren't best pleased by this because they wanted the Vichy mob under Pétain to take over, rather than be executed as traitors. Obviously you will know that didn't happen, except to Laval.
Well, anyway we had a nice day as the weather had bucked up some.
We found a nice little restaurant near the cathedral and had déjeuner.
Wandering round the old city we chanced upon the cathedral and marvelled at its size and then the fact it was intact. Clearly the Germans had neither Henry Tudor nor Thomas Cromwell there to do a proper job.
There's a beggar on the right of the west door who must have been doing a reasonable trade as he stayed the whole afternoon.
I was both curious and impressed that the national flag of a republic that is most definitely secular and often anti-clerical should be seen in a catholic cathedral. I know Napoleon had a concordat with the Vatican, which apparently lasted even after he was excommunicated, but the Third Republic was pretty strict in its anit-clerical stance.
We followed the Tourist Office map official guide to old places in Bayeux. This involved walking through several car parks.
I had not realised just how old car parking was.
Nor indeed that height barriers were a feature of the medieval street furniture.
Don't be silly, this is just to make absolutely sure for certain that camping cars cannot enter this hallowed place of the iCar.
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