Representations of Nordic boats exist in France, particularly in religious art. There is notably a Scandinavian-type clapboard boat on a portal of the cathedral of Bayeux, in Normandy. Which makes sense. On the other hand, there are two other remarkable representations of this type of ship. A fresco depicting Noah’s Ark can be found on the ceiling of the church of the Abbey of Saint-Savin. Now, it sports a dragon’s head, a resolutely pagan theme since the figurehead was intended to frighten the spirits reigning on the lands that the men of the North were approaching. Equally remarkable is another clinker boat, also with dragon heads at the bow and stern. The latter is located on the portal of the Cathedral of Bazas. These representations are not found in Normandy, the quintessential Viking land, but in Aquitaine. Saint Savin is located in Haute-Vienne and Bazas in Gironde. The national novel tells us that Aquitaine was spared by the men of the North, but the simple fact that in the twelfth century people continued to depict ships with dragon heads on religious buildings, without any allusion to the men of the North, stresses that this type of ship was endemic to the Duchy of Aquitaine.
