And if you want to get away from the tapestry rabble in London then just slip away to Angers for Apocalypse then… Bayeux’s oui cousin.
The Tapestry of the Apocalypse has less of a cut-through, of course, than Bayeux but it is bigger news.
At 103 metres, the longest in the world and 30 metres further than William of Normandy’s story.
Sew 14th Century
So let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start… with sew, a needle pulling thread.
And the ambitious Duke of Anjou, brother of the King of France, Charles V, in the 14th century.
With apologists for the duke playing that age-old trick of setting his story in history, that of St John’s last book of the Bible.
To talk about his own political times.
With, naturellement, all those characters that still fascinate us today and make up the tapestry of the lives we amplify.
Dragons, angels, demons, fortified towns, mysterious women and knights.
And, of course, this being Normandy, the English don’t get a pass.
With references to the English enemy, this being the middle of the Hundred Years’ War.
A real curtain-raiser
Now Bibliophiles among you and certainly those with the stomach for St John’s Apocalypse will certainly point out.
That the story is incomplete.
But it has had quite the journey, like us.
Bequeathed to Angers Cathedral, it was then transformed into covers.
And it was used to protect orange trees or curtain linings.
Prepping for the Apocalypse
Now our Angers amis promise us the Apocalypse interpretation route as if you were there.
Or L’Apocalypse comme si vous y étiez, which d’accord we know you know it as.
Through six rooms and seven centuries, meet the creators of the tapestry, consider the secrets of its making and message.
And go back in time to the Middle Ages.
With videos, games, sound and touch devices.
Costumes to try on and even Playmobil diaporamas (no, we’ll have to learn that too).
All the world to us
The tapestry is housed in the 14-tower medieval fortress of Château des Ducs d’Anjou (Castle of the Dukes of Anjou),
All impressive enough but even more as UNESCO has included it among the pantheon of great documents of history.
The Memory of the World Register which boasts.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the Appeal of 18 June 1940 of General de Gaulle and films of the Lumière brothers among others.
Now our Medieval forefathers and mothers didn’t have the advantage of high-speed, not their fault.
And we dare say Leonardo Da Vinci was working on it.
But we do and our go-to site Omio flag up £9 tickets from Paris.