Behind the historic efforts to transport Bayeux tapestry from France to UK

Special, secretive operation will ship 11th-century artwork across Channel without jolts, bumps or shakes

As the Bayeux tapestry wends its way across the Channel in a top secret operation there will be no jolts, no bumps, no shakes or vibrations - unlike the voyage of William the Conqueror whose 1066 victory at Hastings the artefact recounts.

Nothing has been left to chance," Catherine Pegard, the French minister of culture told a gathering to mark the historic loan, which will be physically achieved with the tapestry, which is really an embroidery, transported in a specially constructed cradle within a container, the minister said.