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

The Bayeux Tapestry is outside France for the first time in 900 years, on special loan to the UK while the museum that usually houses it undergoes renovation. © AFP - MYCHELE DANIAU

As thousands flock to see the Bayeux Tapestry in London, where the 11th-century artwork is on loan for the first time, residents of its hometown in northern France say they’re feeling its loss.

“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.”