Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Travel Blogging V

At sea one day’s sailing out of Cherbourg: I’ve always heard the Bay of Biscay has rough water. I probably got the idea from the Hornblower and Aubrey novels of the Royal Navy in Napoleonic times.

Who knows, it may at times be fearsome. If the conditions we’ve experienced the past day or so are any indication, it is also sometimes calm as a millpond. I can’t say I’m disappointed though, rough water is no particular thrill.
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The other DrC and I, plus a friend from FL who is along for the cruise, have a standing dinner reservation at a table which seats six. Each night the other 3 seats get filled with walk-ins, people who have “anytime dining.”

Last night’s three were nice folks and the other DrC asked if any of them were going to see the Bayeux Tapestry in Normandy. It turned out they’d never heard of it and showed no particular interest therein.

To be fair, the tapestry’s subject matter - the Norman conquest - is thousand year old news. It is sort of amazing no nation has successfully invaded Britain since 1066. The Spanish Armada tried, and we know that failed. Napoleon couldn’t do it. Hitler planned Operation Sea Lion, but never made it happen.

If you’ve never seen it, the thing should probably be called the Bayeux ‘Tapestry’ since it doesn’t resemble a true tapestry, it is far from ornate. Think of a roll of whitish muslin or linen cloth a couple of hundred feet long with a linear narrative of the steps involved in the 1066 Norman Conquest embroidered on it in colored yarn.

It resembles a Hollywood film maker’s storyboard of cartoon-like sketches of various scenes in sequence,  as though sketched by a competent but not particularly gifted draftsman. The background is left natural, not filled in with stitchery.

You see armed men and horses assembling, boarding ships, attacking, and fighting. It covers a period of weeks, perhaps longer. I suppose it was intended as a history teaching aid for non-readers, much as the cathedral frescos of various Biblical stories were.