‘It’s like losing a member of the family’: Bayeux bereft without its tapestry

“When you're from Bayeux, you grow up with the tapestry,” said Mathis Laîné, who works at a restaurant opposite the Bayeux Tapestry Museum. “You go to see it at school, everyone talks about it, and then you see the tourists streaming in all year round.”

The embroidery has not been on view in Bayeux since September 2025, when the museum that houses it closed for renovation. Local businesses felt the effects immediately.

“We noticed a drop in footfall straight away,” Laîné said. “It's knocked 20 percent off our takings at lunchtime and at least 10 percent in the evening.”

In July, the Bayeux Tapestry left France for the first time in more than 900 years. The 70-metre chronicle of the Norman conquest of England was painstakingly transferred to the British Museum, where it has drawn thousands of visitors since going on display this month.

The exhibition runs until July 2027, but the tapestry won't be back on show in Bayeux until the museum reopens in October next year.

Laîné isn't looking forward to the prospect of another tourist season without it.

“We've always relied on what we earn in the summer to get us through the winter,” he says. “That's when it all comes down to, whether we survive going forward.”

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Counting the loss 

A few hundred metres away at Le Balto, a bar and souvenir shop, postcards and magnets depicting the town's star attraction are gathering dust.

“I actually ordered very few souvenirs this year, and I've still sold almost nothing,” says manager Marie-Laure Lamare. “It's simple: if tourists haven't seen the tapestry, they're not buying.”

Some are staying away altogether, she reports.
“It's plain to see there are fewer tourists than usual,” Lamare says. “Usually you hear all sorts of languages in the streets, lots of English – you wonder if you're really in France. Since the tapestry's gone, it's a completely different story. It's much quieter.”

In front of the town's Gothic cathedral, some remaining visitors gather to listen to the bells. Local tour guide Estelle Isidor-Leroux asks a group the first thing they associate with Bayeux. The answer is always the same: “The tapestry!”

For Isidor-Leroux, born and raised in Bayeux, its absence goes beyond her earnings. “In a way,” she says, “it's as if I'd lost a member of my family.”

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Alternative attractions 

The town's tourism industry is trying to fill the void. “Those of us working in tourism had to really think hard about what to offer while waiting for the tapestry to return,” says Isidor-Leroux.  

She now gives tours of the town showing visitors all the various places the tapestry has been kept throughout the ages, while other local museums are hosting exhibits about how the centuries-old fabric is preserved. In December, the town is also planning to launch an “immersive experience” giving visitors a close-up.  

But local officials are also keen to sell Bayeux's other attractions.  

“Of course the Tapestry Museum closing has an impact on local businesses. Fortunately!” Didier Llorca, director of the tourist office in Bayeux and surrounding towns, says with a smile.

“Otherwise it would mean that the closure of somewhere that gets 500,000 visitors a year has no bearing on the liveliness of the town centre. That would be the real anomaly.” 

But the museum is just one reason to visit, he insists. Spared the bombing that destroyed much of Normandy during the D-Day landings in 1944, Bayeux also boasts a medieval town centre, cathedral and the nearby D-Day beaches. 

Figures from the town council suggest that the Tapestry Museum in fact accounts for only 20 percent of tourism in Bayeux, with most visitors drawn instead by the cathedral and the landing sites. 

“Bayeux hasn't put all its eggs in one basket,” says Llorca. “We can certainly cope with the closure of a museum like the Tapestry Museum, even for as long as two years.” 

This article was adapted from the original in French by Léa Boutin-Rivière.