TRAIL TALE BAYEUX'S BOMBSHELL BEAUTY

This normandy town, so gorgeous that it was spared a violent onslaught during World War II, still holds many remnants of a difficult past

- Shuchita Jha

Wandering through the narrow lanes of Bayeux, a quiet little town in the Normandy region of France, I stumbled upon a rather strange looking building with a big red sign that read ‘Musikoblokos.’ I gathered that it had something to do with music, but given its rather unsightly facade, I thought I might be mistaken.

I had come to this part of France shortly after landing in Paris, right in the middle of the pandemic, thanks to a professional programme run by the French Embassy in India. Juggling three suitcases and a cup of chocolat-chaud and with a queasy feeling in my nostrils from the numerous RT-PCR tests, I made my way to Bayeux, where I was supposed to be the assistant teacher for English at the Alain Chartier high school.

Bayeux, 265km from Paris, is famed for being spared from Nazi bombing raids during World War II, solely owing to its beauty. It also happens to be the first city of importance to be liberated from the shackles of Nazi Germany. I was in a historic town, and it dawned on me that my plans of enjoying la vie française– visiting vineyards, indulging in desserts in petite cafés, exploring chateaus and admiring the Mona Lisa in the Louvre–would not work out quite how I had imagined.