Viking decline; Eating and Drinking with a View; Medieval Church Surfeit

 Leaving Rouen on Stage 2 of the TdF KV (Ken Variant), my shuttle (aka rental car) took me to Honfleur, a harbor town on the English Channel founded by the Vikings some 1100 or so years ago (I lost count).  I was disappointed to discover that the Vikings have declined somewhat in their martial rigor and seriousness as pillaging and slaughtering were nowhere to be found they seemed to have turned to frivilous profiteering instead)-

I don't if it was the riots or not, but most everyone France seemed to have come to Honfleur to do what the French (and admittedly most tourists) do, which is find a nice place to eat and drink outside-

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Honfleur is mostly famous for its tall skinny houses (c. 1700) lining the harbor (mostly elbowed aside nowadays by the eating and drinking crowd) and for its very rare 1400s wooden church which looks like an upside down Viking boat-

I guess that is what happens when you have sailors descended from Vikings design a church.  

On the way to Honfleur, I stopped by a rare fully intact Romanesque church (c. 1050) and an ancient abbey ransacked during the Revolution but with some extant parts as old the reign of Charlemagne (c. 780)-

The comparison of the Romanesque churches (c. 11th century) with the Gothic churches (c. 12th+ century) is quite interesting.  

Today I toured Bayeux and saw the famous Bayeux Tapestry (c. 1080) depicting William's cartoon like conquest of England and the battle of Hastings.  Who knew his army was composed mostly of stick figures?  Harold should haven ashamed of himself losing to such a skinny and pencil- necked crowd-

William himself still seemed ready to go if a bit stiff, tho maybe that is a few battles and 960+ years will do to you-

And saw the justly famous Bayeux Cathedral, which like most of Bayeux was spared destruction during WWII.   In a land of seemingly endless beautiful medieval churches, it appears as if the next church is more magnificent than the last.   William the Conqueror attended its consecration in 1080, nearly 1000 years ago-

The church is bigger than Notre Dame in Paris and I would submit perhaps just as impressive.  

Interestingly, Waze took me over the Seine on this free ferry-

I guess all the Roman bridges in this part of Europe were gone.  

Tomorrow we hope to land on Omaha beach via mechanized transport (bicycle).