I must admit I didn’t get his name. Vivian did though. In fact she spent more time talking to him than she did looking around the rest of Bayeux Cathedral, and we were in the building for more than an hour.

If I remember correctly, he was a retired baker who had decided to make a replica of the Bayeux Tapestry. I forget the exact circumstances that motivated him to start (since I was told the story second-hand) but his original intention hadn’t been to do the whole thing, all 70 metres of it. But as is the case with some projects, they just take on a life of their own. Now at 80 he is wondering if he will be around to complete the project.

His tapestry is in many ways also a work of art. I forget what material he used and how he did it, whether it is woven, embroidered or painted. As I said, Vivian spent a lot of time finding these things out, but she isn’t here right now and my memory is fallible. It looks authentic, and that is the main thing.

A lot of work for one person!

It is also something you can get up close and personal with. If you visit Bayeux, and take in the original Tapestry in the museum built to hold it, you have to view it behind glass in a climate controlled room where you are herded along to make room for those coming behind you. There was no rush in looking at this display, and you could observe the detail, though you still weren’t supposed to touch. I found it to be a nice complement to seeing the original.

It did get me to thinking as well about the choices we make as we get older. For most of us our days of paid employment does eventually come to an end in our sixth or seventh decade, then we retire. But unlike a century ago, when life expectancy was shorter and many people died before reaching retirement age, we can now realistically look forward to a couple of decades when we are freed from paid employment (hopefully having accumulated enough resources beforehand to make that possible) and can do what we like. The question then is, what is it that we like to do?

Great attention to detail.

There are those who plan to spend their time in leisure activities in warm sunny climates. When it is minus 30 in Ottawa that does have a certain appeal – but I suspect that after a while golf becomes pretty boring. I think pretty much everyone would rather be doing something productive or useful with their time. We’re designed to be doing some sort of work, though not necessarily the type we were paid for all those years. Again that leads us to the question of what to do.

I doubt the baker in Bayeux woke up one morning thinking his life’s work was to reproduce the famous tapestry. But having started on a small project he found he liked it, so he continued as it grew in scope. I don’t think his work is on permanent display in Bayeux Cathedral, but it was there when we visited this past July. And he was there too; to talk with the people and answer any questions they might have about his work.

It seems weird to me that my peers are approaching retirement age. Indeed some have already retired. That serves as a wake-up call to me in a way; it is time to start thinking about what I want to do when I grow up. I don’t think I’m going to retire, just do something different. Whatever I find to do, I hope I can bring the same passion to it that I observed in the baker of Bayeux and his tapestry.