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Bayeux

Housed in an impressive eighteenth-century seminary on rue de Nesmond, the Bayeux Tapestry – also known to the French as the Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde – is a seventy-metre strip of linen that recounts the story of the Norman conquest of England (daily: mid-March to April & Sept–Oct 9am–6.30pm; May–Aug 9am–7pm; Nov to mid-March 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–6pm; last admission 45min before closing; €6.40). Although created over nine centuries ago, the brilliance of its coloured wools has barely faded, and the tale is enlivened throughout with scenes of medieval life, popular fables and mythical beasts. Technically it's not really a tapestry at all, but an embroidery; the skill of its draughtsmanship, and the sheer vigour and detail, are stunning. The work is thought to have been carried out by nuns in England, commissioned by Bishop Odo, William's half-brother, in time for the inauguration of Bayeux cathedral in 1077.

Visits are well planned and highly atmospheric, if somewhat exhausting. First comes a slide show, projected onto billowing sheets of canvas; you then pass along a photographic replica of the tapestry, with enlargements and detailed commentaries. After an optional film show, you finally approach the real thing, to find that it has a strong three-dimensional presence you might not expect from all the flat reproductions. The tapestry looks – and reads – like a modern comic strip. Harold is every inch the villain, with his dastardly little moustache and shifty eyes. He looks extremely self-satisfied as he breaks his oath to accept William as king of England and seizes the throne for himself, but his come-uppance swiftly follows, as William, the noble hero, crosses the Channel and defeats the English armies at Hastings.

The Cathédrale Notre-Dame (daily: July–Sept 8.3am–7pm; Oct–June 8.30am–6pm) was the first home of the tapestry and is just a short walk away from its latest resting-place. Despite such eighteenth-century vandalism as the monstrous fungoid baldachin that flanks the pulpit, the original Romanesque plan of the building is still intact, although only the crypt and towers date from the original work of 1077. The crypt is a beauty, its columns graced with frescoes of angels playing trumpets and bagpipes, looking exhausted by their performance for eternity.

Set behind massive guns, next to the ring road on the southwest side of town, Bayeux's Musée de la Bataille de Normandie (daily: May to mid-Sept 9.30am–6.30pm; mid-Sept to April 10am–12.30pm & 2–6pm; €5.40) is one of the old school of war museums, with its emphasis firmly on hardware rather than humans. By way of contrast, the understated and touching British War Cemetery stands immediately across the road.

Although the Musée-Mémorial Général de Gaulle, at 10 rue de Bourbesneur near place de Gaulle (mid-March to mid-Nov daily 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–6.30pm; €3.05), is aimed squarely at French devotees of the great man, it does make an interesting detour for foreign visitors. The sheer obsessiveness of the displays, which focus on the three separate day-trips De Gaulle made to Bayeux during the course of his long life, somehow illuminates the extent to which he came to epitomize the very essence of a certain kind of Frenchness, which seems scarcely removed from self-parody.