Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux

We drove from Paris to Bayeux. We wanted to use Bayeux as the starting place for our day of Normandy WWII site-seeing. Bayeux was a beautiful city, and we were lucky enough to have a great view of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux from our hotel room window (we stayed at Churchill Hotel and highly recommend it). I photographed the cathedral two nights in a row – the first night was foggy, so I couldn’t resist taking more pictures of the cathedral against a dark, clear sky on our second night in Bayeux. On our way out of Bayeux we stopped at the cathedral so that we could walk around the inside of it – it was fairly early, so I was surprised and thankful that it was already open. I would have been sad had I not gotten to see the inside of the cathedral that I had thoroughly enjoyed photographing the exterior of the building.

The cathedral was consecrated on July 14, 1077, and was rebuilt following extensive damage during the 1100s.

The fog provided both a nice challenge and a beautiful, blue backdrop against which to photograph the cathedral.

Notre Dame Cathedral – Bayeux

This was one of my favorite parts of the cathedral. I don’t recollect every having seen a cathedral that had windows in a place similar to where these windows were located.

Notre Dame Cathedral – Bayeux

Though I appreciated the fog, I was thankful that the sky was clear on our second night in Bayeux. The darker sky made for better night-time photos and did a better job of bringing out the cathedral lighting.

Notre Dame Cathedral – Bayeux

As much as I enjoyed getting to see the outside of the cathdral and photograph it at night, I was even more excited to get to examine the detailed cathedral inside and out during the daytime on our last morning in Bayeux.

Vines & Notre Dame Cathedral – Bayeux

Notre Dame Cathedral – Bayeux

Red doors

I had never seen gargoyles before going to Paris and didn’t anticipate getting to see them outside of Paris, so I was thrilled to discover that Bayeux’s Notre Dame Cathedral also had gargoyles. Apparently, the pigeons like them, too.

Gargoyle