Bayeux: Part One - Hôtel Tardif

We left Giverny to drive to Bayeux but the many miles of highway travel made it impossible to stay awake, despite our habit of staying up to help adjust to the time change. We pulled into a rest area and all four of us passed out, which must have been quite a sight for passers by!

Click here to see more photos of Hôtel Tardif .

Click here to move on to the town of Bayeux and the cathedral there.

Click here to start back at the beginning.

Getting back on the road after an hour, our printed directions were right on the mark until we entered Bayeux. However, after a few trips around the block we located the Hôtel Tardif and the owner, Anthony. He helped us to move our car into the parking area in the back of the building and to carry our suitcases up the spiral staircase to our beautiful suite.

A hallway had 2 large bedrooms leading off of it and ending with the large bathroom. Everything was beautifully decorated and we had lots of room. The windows in the hall and bathroom overlooked the front courtyard and the bedrooms overlooked the yard in back with the circular gravel driveway. It was a perfect distance for walking around town. Everything was clean, there was parking, the rooms were beautiful and light filled.

Here is some history about the hotel from their website: “Tardif was built in the middle of the 18th century to welcome a great botanist, Master Moisson de Vaux. He had previously left Versailles and his King to discover the new world and its natural wonders, but returned after a few years to settle at Tardif to study the plants he brought back with him from America … When Master Moisson de Vaux, royal botanist, left Versailles before the French revolution to settle here he brought many rare trees and plants from the whole world: northern America, Eastern Europe, India, Jordania, Lebanon... Abandoned after the French revolution, Hôtel Tardif became property of the Empire and was offered to the Tardif family, by Napoleon himself. Their first idea was to open this park to the public as the 1st botanical garden of Bayeux.”

There was no phone in the room but WIFI was available so during our stay we were able to check our email. We ate breakfast in the beautiful dining room a couple of times and enjoyed delicious croissants, baguettes, ham, cheese, hot chocolate and coffee.




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