The Weather Gods smiled…

Tags

galgo rescue, galgos, Medieval Market, Medieval Swordfighting

and Les Journées Médiévals were a rip-roaring success.

Despite the weather being so filthy that we couldn’t hand out flyers at all the local markets there was a record number of people there.

There was a great variety of stalls from leather jewellery and accessories

to exotic fruit syrups, medieval clothing, supposedly “medieval” leather wear that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Fifty Shades of Grey,

artisanal beer made locally (strangely enough that had a lot of people around it!), a local artist, pottery, manuscript maker, a seller of leather-bound dream books, all the gear a small wanna-be medieval soldier could want

though sometimes it took a long time to make up minds about what colour of sword to have.

The blacksmith was doing his stuff and it seems impossible to think that this elfin creature (she comes up to my shoulder) is a stone mason and worked on the restauration of the doorway at the château.

Lots of people came dressed in the spirit of the day;

This gentleman turned up in a car with “Mage” written across the back.

Over in the medieval camp by the castle there was fighting going on,

This lady could have been the inspiration for ‘kick ass female’, her opponents never seemed to win.

Brian Blessed’s relation was doing a splendid job of demonstrating basic fighting techniques

and in getting on with people…Lots of people got to try their hand at archery (more of that later!)

and much use was made of the rack

Out of delicacy I haven’t included the picture where the torturer gave feathers to a crowd of grinning girls who then stripped the victim’s socks off…

And one of the most pleasing things of all: the rescue association for the galgos, Spanish hunting dogs that are treated appallingly, was there.

These dogs are so loving, so forgiving, and there are associations all over France desperately looking for homes for them.  One of my daughter’s friends adopted little Cara, the smallest of the galgos,

All being well Cara starts her new life next weekend.

Fingers crossed

Tags

Journées Médiévals

Each year, my daughter who is chef de project for the restoration of the Vieux Chateau du Cros organises Les Journées Médiévals for the château.  There’s a medieval market in an oak wood next to the château, pony rides, visits around the château itself which is normally closed to the public, wine tastings, demonstrations of medieval swordfighting, archery, rides around the vineyards in a carriage.  The association for the rescue of Spanish galgos (Spanish greyhound type hunting dogs) are usually there too as galgos look very like the dogs you see in medieval manuscripts with an assortment of the most beautiful, soppiest rescue canines you have ever seen in your life.

It’s a really fun event, low key but friendly, the stallholders love it saying that they really enjoy the ambiance, the medieval swordfighters usually camp and have the time of their lives, and the people who visit say it’s so nice doing something a bit different.

Last year’s event was bidding fair to be the most successful ever.  Then in the middle of the night before the first day the heaven’s opened.  By the time the first stallholder turned up the track had become a quagmire and no one could get up it.  There was no choice but to cancel everything.

You can just imagine what it’s been like this year…  Long faces all round, anxious perusal of the weather forecast.  On Monday there was rain forecast for the weekend.  By Wednesday as it was tipping down abundantly outside it said it might stop raining this afternoon.  Yesterday as a monsoon hit the windows (and found its way under the roof tiles into my office) the forecast said, unbelievably it would stop raining in the evening.  For the first time for several days I wasn’t woken in the night by the sound of raining hitting the roof.

And this morning we saw a bit of this:

yup that really is blue sky.  There’s quite a decent wind too, so with luck, a lot of luck, it’ll dry out the ground just enough….  My daughter’s up there with her army of helpers working on the presumption that it’ll all be OK and crossing just about every digit she’s got.

Keep crossing!

 

 

Medieval Day at Château du Cros – reprise.

Tags

journées du patrimoine, Medieval Market, Medieval Swordfighting

Some people might remember that my daughter organised a medieval day in June at the vieux Château du Cros where she’s chef de project in charge of the restoration. There was going to be a medieval market in a clearing in an oak wood next to the château, carriage rides, tours around the château, entertainments from the group of medieval swordfighters she belongs to, and she’d had enough feedback to indicate that it was going to go pretty well.

The evening before it started to rain.  And rained.  They had to cancel.  All credit to Diana, my daughter, who picked herself up from acute disappointment, said, ‘Right, we’ll reschedule for les journées du patrimoine,’ and got on with it.

It was by no means going to be a guarenteed success.  The weather isn’t reliable in September (or June, for that matter), medieval days are a summertime affair, most of the orignal stallholders couldn’t do the new date so she had to look for a new lot who had interesting, different things that people like to look at and buy.

Diana got up at 6 on Saturday – the first day of the journées medival to start setting up… and it was raining.  It had stopped by 6.30 so she decided she wouldn’t kill herself after all.  I went along that afternoon and everyone was cautiously pleased.  The weather was perfect, 24°, the oak wood is a lovely setting for a market, there was a really good range of stalls, everyone was in costume and looked great,  and her sword fighting troupe was doing a brilliant job of entertaining people, showing children how to do archery, holding up the man who was giving carriage rides through the vines, fighting each other and parading around in costume.  The next day when there were too many people about for it to be safe to roar through a crowd waving large swords they stormed the castle which was much enjoyed by everyone there.

Visitors starting to arrive…

The fight for the caleche…
Photo by Olivier Serre

I had a feeling on Sunday afternoon that it was going well, there was a buzz to the ambiance and everyone, visitors and stallholders, looked happy – something you don’t always see in France.  When Diana got back after packing up I asked her how they’d done.  A grin spread from ear to ear.  ‘It was awesome.’

Two redheads, daughter on left.

They’d had over 900 people, the most they’d ever had before was 350, they made a profit after all the expenses had been paid so that’s another small bit of restoration for the château paid for and she was told by several of the stallholders that they’d never enjoyed a medieval day so much.  Everyone wants to come back again.

Yes, I’m one proud mother – my girl did really well.  She’d be the first to admit though it was a group effort, the members of the Association (some of whom are not young, to put it mildly) chipped in handing out leaflets and manning stalls, the owner of the horse and carriage donated all the receipts to château, her friends helped make signs and went round putting them up, helped out during both days, organised the parking, and her group of medieval swordfighters performed for fun and good food (they are French after all).

Payment in kind…

Medieval Day at Chateau du Cros

Tags

Medieval Market, Medieval Swordfighting, Medival Day

Tomorrow, Sunday 10th June, my daughter is organising the third Journée Medieval at the 12th century Chateau du Cros.  For anyone who is close enough to the sud Gironde there are going to be visits around the castle, a medieval market in an oak glade, carriage rides, a buvette and displays of Medieval swordfighting.  Entry is free.

One of the swordfighters handing out leaflets. He’s very friendly, really.

Do come if you can, it’s always a great day and even if you can’t please cross everything you’ve got that it doesn’t rain!