Meeting Place for Kings

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From Guernsey, our destination was Bayeux, but our Ferry arrived in the port of St. Malo after the last train, so we went to Dinan to stay the night.  The next day we decided to explore this Medieval town and was surprised to learn that it played a part in the history of the Bayeux Tapestry, which we were on our way to see for reasons explained earlier.

This is but one of 57 panels from the Bayeux Tapestry. It portrays the meeting, and the
oath taken in 1064 in Dinan between two cousins, the Duke of Normandy and Harold the Great of England.  Harold has his hand on the Bible swearing to William that he will not stand in William's way to become the next King of England. However, the sacred oath taken in Dinan, was broken by Harold two years later, which led to the Battle of Hastings, where Harold was fatally wounded and the Duke of Normandy became William the Conqueror and changed history and the blood line of the monarchy from Saxon to Norman!

Traveling through such old towns and learning about their significance to the world of today is fascinating.  The ghosts from the past linger in the mammoth cathedrals, monuments, and statues built to preserve both their bad and good deeds.

In the square of Dinan a great statue watches over the town.  Sir Bertrand du Guesclin (1314-1380) was the winner of four of the conquests that he led.  A native of Dinan, and seasoned soldier, he became the Constable of France because of secret alliances and loyalties to those higher in status than himself.

The St. Malo Cathedral nearby testifies of the great architects, stone masons, and faithful laborers of Dinan who took such pains, over the centuries, to preserve what they deemed so important.  Their efforts have lived on, through chain-mailed battles, nature's ravages of time, and two World Wars.  Indeed, their very footpaths are traveled daily by the residents of Dinan.

These massive edifices give us great respect for the Masons, whose skills were unsurpassed in their own time and lives on as a model and mystery of architectural and artistic complexity.






How were huge stones brought to the sites?  How were they lifted into place?  What tools were used to craft such intricate stonework? The human efforts seem impossible.

We are quite sure that ancient residents' palate did not include Pizza with "saumone fume."  It was so delicious, but we could not even finish all of it!

A book and set of CD's, by Simon Shama, art historian of Columbia University, put us on the trail to the Bayeux Tapestry; and we are very excited to actually see it and learn its significance first hand.  The next blog will be from Bayeux.