Wednesday 18 July 2018

Back to Medieval Times! (kind of...)

We heard about the Medieval Festival whilst exploring the historic town of Josselin for the first time, and although we had a good look at their website to know roughly what would be happening at the event, we weren't too sure what to expect (I think I'm too used to events promising to be amazing and in the end being a bit disappointed)! But, this one was great!

The weather was lovely, there was so much to see and do from 10am to 7pm and we loved the way that the whole town had been transformed to feel more medieval. We were surprised at the amount of people that dressed up for the occasion too! We told ourselves that if we're going back next year, we should go dressed up too. I can see myself as some kind of Joan of Arc. I mean, my name is Chevalier (Knight in English) so it would fit me well, right?!







How can you not like this town?! The atmosphere was so good and the people were lovely. There were loads of artisanal stalls and all the cafés and restaurants were open, offering local food and beer. What more could you ask for? We could see how hard the people organising this event worked and it felt good to be a part of it.



We went back to the castle as the garden was opened to visitors for the occasion and it felt almost like we were discovering it all over again because this time it was super sunny! I mean, the view wasn't the same at all a couple of weeks back (see the previous post here). I miss North Wales but I have to say, we're definitely lucky to live in this beautiful part of France :)

We packed a picnic for lunch (trying to save some money), and we found this little peaceful island in the middle of a river, not far from where we parked to enjoy it. A few other families had the same idea as us and it was great to enjoy our food somewhere else than in the busy town centre with all the festivities.








We quickly realised that they were a bit loose with the term 'medieval' as they had many different performances and shows that were more on the fantasy side. There were orcs, weird viking people and we even saw a vampire circa Brad Pitt in "Interview with a Vampire" haha. However, it was great fun and in the end it didn't even shock us.

The highlights were definitely the groups dancing around town and the bird of prey show. Everybody sat down so that the birds could swoop just above our heads and it felt very special. I tried taking photos but it's never easy with birds! Also, there was always some music around which put us in a good mood.



Being the 14th of July (French national day, or Bastille Day as a lot of people call it), they planned some fireworks at 11pm so we stayed up until the end so that we didn't miss it! It was a really good display to be honest and they had some music in the background to go along with the different themes so even though I was a bit cold, it was really nice!

I'm now getting ready for my long weekend to celebrate my birthday and I'm super excited to spend it with Jason for a couple of days first, and then my parents for the rest of the weekend :)


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