Viking will include a visit to the newly renovated Bayeux Museum on its Paris & the Heart of Normandy river cruise on the Seine, giving agents an opportunity to capitalise on consumer demand to see the medieval masterpiece
The museum is set to open to the public in October 2027, marking the 1000th anniversary of Willaim the Conqueror’s birth.
Interest in the Bayeux Tapestry has soared thanks to the once-in-a-millennium exhibition at the British Museum, which has seen it the artefact return to British soil for the first time in nearly 1,000 years.
Due to run from 10 September 2026 to 22 July 2027, it has sparked a scramble for tickets, with the first batch selling out in 24 hours following virtual queues lasting up to nine hours and peaking with almost 80,000 participants.
Intense media coverage and attention from famous figures, including the royals, means demand is likely to climb still further. In the last week alone, traffic for queries such as ‘how did the Bayeux Tapestry end up in France’ rose over 5,000 per cent according to Google Trends.
This indicates that the second and third releases of exhibition tickets will match or exceed the record-breaking launch, which resulted in the British Museum’s biggest day of exhibition ticket sales in its 273-year history.
Agents are well placed to convert this national interest, presenting Viking’s 2027 Seine river cruises as the answer to anyone who missed out on tickets and still wants to see the tapestry once it is back in France. Lead-in fares for the sailing star at £2,495 per person for a November departure, with October from £3,195.
Viking, which supported the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum as a member of the 1066 Circle, extends the theme across its ocean fleet, where careful reproduction of sections of the embroidery are complemented by tours led by resident historians on select sailings, and special lectures on voyages around France and the UK.
You can find Viking’s travel advisor portal here.
