Les Grandes Medievales 2015

My gorgeous new tent!

 What better reason to break a long silence than to ramble endlessly about my favorite event of the year: Les Grandes Medievales d'Andilly? This French Ren Faire has been going strong for 19 years.. and I have been a fan since early days.  I first went in 1998, when it was a tiny event held in the heart of a tiny village.
These days, it is the biggest one in France.  Over the five days of the most recent festival, there were 57,000 people attending! And there was a new record set on May 24: 18,000 people in a single day!

Check out Severin being awesome!

And I am happy to say that my family is part of what makes the event fun!
Ever since 2010, I get together a group of my pals from the Music Conservatory and we perform Renaissance music. It started out very casual, but now we have great costumes and a big repertoire of songs.
And of course, my kids are there, looking gorgeous and  doing various cool things like sword fighting, calligraphy, embroidery and music.

There was also a great innovation this year, we have our own camp!
We are now officially "La Compagnie de La Rose Anglaise"!

Severin and Mallory battle it out!

Valentine looking epic and  medieval and lovely.

Mallory in the adorable new outfit I made for her!

Severin, Valentin, Alexa and Mallory

Mallory as Joan of Arc. Wow! She could definitely mess up any English invaders.

Life in camp.

Fancy hairstyle by Valentine.

Sisters

Valentine looking gorgeous!

Relaxing after a long, fun, busy day of  singing.
 I am super proud of the head gear I designed and made.
It was complicated and I owe thanks to Valentine for helping a lot!

Life in camp

Valentine and Mathias are so cute!

Valentine making Illuminated manscripts

Coming soon: Photos of our music performances at the event.

This has been an odd summer...one that, for a variety of reasons, I haven't been too inclined to blog about.

But here's a nice topic for a post:

Along with three friends from the Music Conservatory, I performed last weekend at a medieval faire in a charming mountain village.

It was a long, hot day, but lots of fun....

Grandes Medievales D'Andilly 2011:
Part III, In Which My Girls are So Beautiful

Grandes Medivales d'Andilly 2011: Part II, In Which Severin Is Totally Awesome

We just spent the last two weekends in the late 15th century, and it was fantastic! Severin was a knight in the daily shows at the fair. He was great and looked pretty impressive.



The photo of him and Valentine appeared in the Geneva newspaper last week, so it's not only me who thinks my kids are gorgeous and amazing!

Grandes Medievales d'Andilly 2011: Part I, In Which Ae Terribly Geeky and Proud of It!

We spent last weekend in full-on geek mode, enjoying ourselves at the huge Andilly Medieval Fair.


This is the third year we've gone, but the first in which we were actual, official participants!


Since September, Sev has been in a medieval combat group, and when it's time for the fair, they put on quite a show!







As you can see, there's quite a crowd- this is one of the biggest historical fairs in France!











In the photo below, Severin is just behind the flag bearer, carrying the group's blason on his back.







And you can see him in the doorway of the tower, ready to defend it from enemy incursions!

To add to the fun, I managed to convince some of the people that I sing with at the Conservatory to come out to the fair to sing with Tya and me!

Three showed up on Sunday and we had a great time walking around and entertaining the crowds. It reminded me so much of the good old days with the LHS Madrigal Singers!

The fair continues for three more days next weekend and we'll be there for nearly all of it.
And on the 12th, there will be lots more people from the Conservatory to sing - at least 10 besides Tya and myself.

(Also- please note that Sev and Tya's rock band has a concert on the 11th!)

We just spent the last two weekends at the Andilly Grandes Medievales, with the Full Package Family Four-Day Deluxe Pass of Awesomeness.
Because that's how we roll.

(Please be sure to take note the sewing that has been keeping me busy: a new green skirt for Valentine, a complete red, black and white costume for Alexa and flower crowns for the twins.

Also, on two days, I dressed up a bit myself! )

One merchant that I talked to at this huge French ren faire asked me if I found things at this faire that I'd never seen in other places. I had to admit that I hadn't been to a faire in the USA since about 1990 and had no clue what's on offer these days. But I hastened to assure him that this one was really lovely and well-done and all the things on offer very charming. The diplomatic answer and, fortunately, also true.

Besides the usual jousting and falconry and the rest, we also lucked onto something extra-great: a fencing club from a town near where we live had a camp there! Sev was able to talk to the arms master and see about taking medieval sword-fighting. Sev did "normal"(Olympic-style) fencing back in Ouaga, but we hadn't found anything here in France nearby.

The guy was really nice and said Sev could start in September and see if it suited him.

So, that was a lucky circumstance!

We all had a great time and I especially enjoyed hearing the compliments roll in over my "magnifique" children.

Now i have to get back to work. the kids and I have been cleaning and re-arranging all day.

Our good pals from Portland (and Ouaga) are arriving tomorrow night!

Fun shall ensue....

This morning we packed up a picnic and headed for the village of Cluses, where they were having a medieval festival to celebrate their 700th anniversary of the town charter.

All I can say is, if that's how they celebrate 700 years, I'd hate to see them when they weren't making an effort, because it was sad.
Srsly.
My kids offered some of the best entertainment that was to be had and will be appearing the the photo albums of many French families. Not that the kids did much- they just walked around looking good...but that was enough for the crowd of people who came out on a rainy day for a family outing and were disappointed not to find much entertainment.
Severin showed his Tuareg sword to impresse small kids.
The little girls all loved the three "princesses", of course.

(Sorry that Sev made a funny face here, but the girls look cute and the photo turned out mostly pretty well)

Here's the new cape I sewed up for Mallory this week:

Valentine got an elaborate hairstyle and a new cape, too:

Alexa wore some amazing celtic-looking earrings we found at the thrift shop for 2 euros. Win!


After we got back home, we quickly changed and went to a flea market being held in a village near our home. I found EXACTLY what I needed: A toddler car seat for only 3 euros (for some vistors we'll be having next month!) and some boots and shoes that fit Tya for only 1 euro per pair. I even got a good deal on plants for the garden- six cabbages and six lettuces for only three euros! That far outdoes the price at the garden centers around here!
Today was a good Mother's day for me!
Hope all you other moms out there had a good one, too!

The first bit of news I have is that our Mr. Darcy is looking a lot better. The meds have eased his breathing and he seems to enjoy life again. It's a pretty calm life, as he spends most of the day in a chair by the fireplace. He gets up for the litter box and food and that's it.
So, he's not the cat he was. but we're glad to have him around for as long as he can stay with us...
I was very relieved to see Mr. D feeling better, as I had a busy weekend planned.
Today was the day I'd promised to help a friend (single mom) clean the junk out of her yard and garage. My two eldest elected to help out, too. And the twins came along to play with the cats there. As the friend is a cat breeder, there are plenty of them.
We ended up filling a huge bin:


This was only about a quarter of what needed to be thrown away (And no, I'm not including Tya, Sev and their pal in that statement!) but we only had the one bin.

It only took us about an hour to do it, which was good, as I still had sewing to do back at home.
Yes, we're going to yet another Faire and I needed to get a cloak sewn for Tya. This Faire is tomorrow in the village of Cluse, which is celebrating the 700th anniversary of the town charter. Should be great fun!
I might even dress up myself!

The weather forecast yesterday evening announced that the next day would be rainy. And that's why I was sewing cloaks until late at night. If the twins didn't have cloaks, you see, they'd get too cold and wet at the Medieval Faire!

Yes, we just attended our first Faire of 2010. It was a small one, but good and also FREE, which is always a plus.

All four of the kids came, as well as Tya's good pal Valentin.

There was plenty to see and do.

Despite the gray skies, it wasn't all that cold. We even managed to have a nice picnic.
The lady at the stand below had some interesting old plants: rue, angelica, borage, hyssop, burdock...lots of stuff I'd herd of, but never seen before.

The Faire was held in the village of Arthaz-Pont-de-Notre-Dame, just a 15 minute drive from our house!



BTW:
Happy International Workers' Day!