During our time in Brittany, I knew I wanted to make it over to Mont Saint Michel and hopefully to the Bayeaux Tapestry. We realized that the Tour de France route was near the route we would take, so Shawn did his first riding on the tour route on this trip. Above you'll see where we dropped him off to begin his ride. Below is the point on the map where we said, "We'll meet at the church in Town X." Shawn rode quickly and we got a bit lost, so he waited around quite a while for us and had plenty of time to take some photos of the town.
We decided to spend the night in Bayeaux, which is a delightful little town (below). The next morning, Shawn joined us to see the Bayeux Tapestry before going off for another ride. The entire tapestry is on display and visitors get personal audio headsets which tell you about it as you go. They also have a good short video about the tapestry, not unlike the one here.
I was particularly struck by the section of the tapestry depicting the beginning of the battle. The bishop is second from the front and he carries a mace rather than a sword because in those days, bishops were expected to protect and defend their people. Bishops were not supposed to draw blood (as would happen with a sword), but could beat another senseless (as with a mace). I continue to ponder what this might mean in our ecclesiastical life today.
My main souvenir of our sabbatical is a reproduction of a large section of this tapestry and the wool to embroider it. Without hyperbole, I expect I'll be working on for the next 7-10 years.
The boys and I had a great time at Mont Saint Michel, an island/monastery/fortress that was really fun to explore. In the photo below, you can see the boys' Kenyon sweatshirts which they wore day after day during the cool days of our Sabbatical. We were so impressed that we brought Shawn back the next day and gave him the family tour.
No comments:
Post a Comment