Bayeux in a day, while the Tapestry museum is being renovated
Bayeux is 18 km from the campsite, a 15-minute drive. It is the easiest outing to organise from Le Picard, and the only one you can do entirely on foot once the car is parked.
The Tapestry museum is closed until 2027
Let’s be clear from the start: the Bayeux Tapestry museum is closed for a two-year renovation project, with reopening scheduled for autumn 2027. Visitors still turn up at the door without knowing, and leave disappointed.
The town’s two other museums remain open, and the exhibition De lin et de laine, devoted to the history of the Tapestry’s conservation, has been held in precisely these two venues since May 2026. It is the best way to get close to the work in the meantime.
Morning: the cathedral and the medieval centre
Notre-Dame Cathedral towers over the town. It escaped the bombing of 1944, which is why the old centre around it has survived intact: half-timbered houses, narrow lanes, and the River Aure flowing through the tanners’ quarter.
Allow a good hour for the cathedral, and as long again to wander around it. Nothing needs booking, nothing needs planning.
Saturday morning: the market on Place Saint-Patrice
If you are there on a Saturday, arrive in time for the market on Place Saint-Patrice: cheeses, cider, produce from the Bessin. It is the best moment of the week to fill the boot before heading back to the campsite.
Afternoon: the Baron Gérard Museum
The MAHB occupies the former bishop’s palace, next to the cathedral: porcelain, Bayeux lace and paintings. An hour and a half is enough, and the building alone is worth the visit.
End of the day: the Battle of Normandy
The Museum of the Battle of Normandy tells the story of summer 1944, from the beachhead to the liberation of the town. Just opposite is the British war cemetery, the largest Second World War British cemetery in France, free to visit.
If you are heading on to the coast afterwards, our three-day itinerary of the D-Day landing beaches passes this way on the final day.
