Bayeux is the one town in Normandy almost every guest asks about, and the one where we have to begin with a warning. The Bayeux Tapestry is not in Bayeux. Its museum closed in September 2025 for a complete rebuild and will not reopen before the autumn of 2027; meanwhile the embroidery itself has gone to London, where the British Museum shows it from 10 September 2026 to 11 July 2027. If the tapestry is the reason for your trip, wait until 2028. If it is not, read on — Bayeux without it is still a very good day, and it is only an hour and five minutes from the château (72 km, mostly on the N13).
The town itself
Bayeux was the first French town liberated after D-Day, on 7 June 1944, and it came through the battle untouched, which is why it still looks like a small Norman cathedral city of the eighteenth century: stone houses along the river Aure, water mills, a pedestrian rue Saint-Jean lined with restaurants. The cathedral is the heart of it — consecrated in 1077 by Odo, William the Conqueror’s half-brother, Romanesque below and Gothic above, and the building for which the tapestry was made. Entry is free, every day, 9 am to 6 pm from mid-April to 1 November and 10 am to 6 pm in winter. Give it an hour; the crypt and the chapter-house floor are the details people miss.
Battle of Normandy museum and the British cemetery
On the southern bypass, the Musée Mémorial de la Bataille de Normandie covers the whole campaign from 6 June to the end of August 1944 — the ten weeks after the beaches, which the beach museums do not tell. Open every day from February to December (9:30 am to 6:30 pm from May to September, with a lunch break the rest of the year), €8.50, free under ten, tickets on the door only; allow an hour and a half. Across the road is the Bayeux War Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery of the Second World War in France: 4,144 Commonwealth graves and some 500 of other nationalities, mostly German, under the same lawns. It is open at all times and the memorial opposite lists 1,800 names with no known grave. Leave the car at the museum; the cemetery is 300 metres on foot.
Market, museum of art, parking
Saturday morning is the day to come: the market fills place Saint-Patrice from 7:30 am to 2 pm (a smaller one on Wednesdays in rue Saint-Jean). The MAHB, the art and history museum in the old bishop’s palace beside the cathedral, shares its hours and its €8.50 ticket with the Battle museum — a €14 pass covers both. Parking is simpler than in most towns: the free green zone has 3,200 spaces, the blue zone is free for four hours with a disc, and the centre is a few minutes’ walk from any of them (the town’s parking map).
How to fit it in
Bayeux is on the way to the eastern beaches, so pair it rather than driving there for itself: Omaha Beach and the American cemetery are twenty minutes beyond it, Arromanches fifteen. The classic Calvados day from the château is the Pointe du Hoc first thing, Omaha and Colleville late morning, Bayeux for lunch and the cathedral, Arromanches for the Mulberry harbour at low tide, home by the N13 in time for dinner. Done the other way round, Bayeux’s Saturday market makes a civilised start. Directions.
Last checked 7 October 2026. We will update this page when the tapestry museum announces its reopening.
Stay at the château
Make the château your base for this and everything else in the guide: four B&B rooms from €95 a night, four self-catering cottages from €100 a night, 35 minutes from the Cherbourg ferry. Best rate when you book direct.