Bob, Peter, Richard, and I got back to our house this morning at 2:45 am (ugh).

Those visa commercials come to mind...
Tank of gas to get to to Canada: $85
Dinner at Wendy's: $30
Making new friends: Priceless

Day One: The departure

Friday found us departing 2 hours later than we'd hoped. This plus a traffic incident (an overturned vehicle) that delayed us another 1.5 hours had us arriving at Mont St. Anne at 4 am Saturday morning. The drive was an easy one. The roads were uncomplicated. Which is good when you're in a strange place at 4 am. It's REALLY Dark!

I am going to skip the Dorm experience.

We met up with Martin and Ingin in the Monestary parking lot that morning. Very wonderful people and it was a real pleasure to finally meet them both face to face. Together we convoyed to the Chateau in hopes of getting some breakfast. There we found Marie and her son. After snarfing down breakfast, we headed for the event site...Plateau B.

The day was originally scheduled to start at 9 am, but due to some additonal site preparations, the opening of the event was delayed until noon. This was good as it afforded us time to get the tents unloaded and raised and all the goodies unpacked.

We met Hugo and several others from Compagnons d'armes. From the moment we arrived, they made us feel like family and we were all very delighted to finally meet each other. There were some language barriers at times, but everyone was patient and worked to overcome them. I'm starting to pick up some French and hope that by next year, I will be able to hold some basic conversations.

We were once again pleased to see Bernard, Carmen, and Kenneth.

Once the tents were set up, people set about the activities as they came about. The schedule seemed chaotic at best, but we all did our best to roll with it.

There were about 1500 visitors to the site the first day. Pilgrims dressed in basic white, brown, blue, green, etc... covers. They would stop by and ask what people were doing, and about the equipment. In the camp, people drilled, stood on guard duty, and assaulted the "castle". The Burgundians we fighting against a French garrison. On the other side of the trees, you would hear the music from the lists. Duke Philippe and his nobles were running at rings, quintain, and breaking lances. The did not make a bad impression. The horses had trappers with coats of arms and Philippe wore a suit of "gilt" armour. While not the real thing, it was a good impression. He wore his coat of arms as did his horse. They would occasionally ride through camp and the entire group would go by the path and pay their respects.

The Compagnons d'armes ran a very nice camp. Everyone was in character and they ran it like a good military one. Ranks and names were known and "Mon Capitaine" could be heard frequently. They ran a muster where soldiers were called, their profession listed payment for their services. There was food, song, and combat, and weapons practice.

Martin set up his writing slope and pigments, and Ingin worked on her embroidery. Occasionally "pilgrims" would come into the tents to see what was going on.

Marie worked diligently on her son's clothing to make sure that he was protected from the elements and was able to participate with the host. He had the cutest 15th haircut.

Everyone was so nice. We felt like we'd been adopted.

The weather was cold, but for the first time it wasn't something I focused on. Good company does that for you.

At the end of the day, we went and had supper in a HUGE striped tent and then sat through a tent meeting where grievences were expressed by everyone seeking a way to improve the problem. By this time everyone in our group was "dead" on our feet. We were cold and tired and we all retired to the dorms. We moved into the gymnasium and set up our own little enclosure with Martin and Ingin.

To be continued in "Day Two"...I'm still tired.

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Sleeping in the dorms is an experience. Tons of people. It's like the calm before the storm. An alarm clock here and an alarm clock there. This time we were ready, unlike the day before. I was up and hit the showers before the rest of the denizens had roused themselves.

Ingin had the beginnings of a terrible cold. The weather was so raw on Saturday, that she had practically turned purple. It didn't matter how many layers you were wearing, it cut right through you.

Once everyone was organized, we headed for the Chateau. Our timing was getting better and we actually got hot breakfast. Unfortuneately, Martin and Ingin had to go home. Given that the temperatures didn't improve that much, it was for the best as we didn't want Ingin's cold to get worse.

After breakfast they headed home and the rest of us piled into the truck and Pieter's VW and headed for Plateau B.

The weather was better and things were settling down. Still lots of "pilgrims" to watch as they came into camp and handled things.

There were many skirmishs that day. The Burgundians and French shouting taunts at each other, handgonnes firing as well as what looked like a ribalkin (I am sure I horribly misspelled that) to me. They had a trebuchet, that was great a lobbing stones WAY short of their target. This was due in large part to the fact that the event organizers didn't listen to their historical consultants. However, the garrison took great pleasure, in an almost Monty Python-esque way, of yelling insults about the treb's shortcomings.

The Burgundians advanced. The arrows flew. The engagement lasted a few minutes before the Burgundians left the field with the French hurling insults.

Pieter Lauscher had to leave early Sunday, so he's been declared "Over the Hill", for those of you who don't know what this means, he's technically AWOL. So, next Saturday should bear a lovely surprise for him upon his return.

It was the next assault where things got really interesting. Richard was made a Srgt. and was near the pennon. The officer had stepped away to protect the banner bearer when the arrows started flying. As he stepped away, Richard was making sure everyone was in line, as he looked back, he heard Pascal yell "Flech!" Which sounds like "Flesh" to our American ears. So, Richard looked up.

BONK! This sound could be heard by the crowd. Richard stood there for a moment. The first thought was "Ow"...his next was "That was a really good shot." Finally, he thought, "I've been hit, I should fall down" so he did. The next thing he new Pascal was leaning over him asking him questions. Richard said "I've been hit, I'm dead." Pascal says to the others "He's incoherent!" Richard protests thinking there's some sort of language barrier, "No. I'm not incoherent. I took a hit (like a re-enactor) I'm dead." Suddenly two big guys in armour are trying to lift him from the ground. Richards say "Wait, let me roll over and I'll stand up." So they let him roll over and the next thing Richards hauled off the ground and hurriedly removed from the field and hustled into a tent.

Back on the battlefield, the arrows continue to come in FLAT. They are not being lobbed. So several people are receiving direct fire. Bob had one strike his black helmet. He pretended to go down on one knee and shake it off. As he stood, the pike line started to waiver. They had seen Richard go down, at the time, they thought for real as they'd all seen the hit. Many were now taking several hits in the chest and they began to break. Bob took control and started pushing them back into line. They were the last to leave the field with Bob giving "the gesture".

Back to Richard. It turns out that the arrow that struck him, had hit his bevor and bounced UP into his sallet and hit him in the left cheek just below his eye. It was a small cut but bleeding profusely. It was swollen almost the size of a golf ball. It became evident why Pascal was so concerned. He's fine and the wound already promised to have the makings of a spectacular "shiner". Richard now seems to regale in the telling of the wound.

A few things came out of that encounter. The archers were spoken to that due to the nature of the arrows, there'd be no more flat trajectories and that bevors and visors were to be worn and that visors were to be kept DOWN. This was another gaff by organizers not listening to the historical folks. They had asked several times to see the arrows in advance. By the time they got to see them, it was late at night and too late to do anything about it.

Needless to say, everything was okay and Richard was in the next battle. It was an intersting dynamic to see how the second line began to break when they thought they were taking serious fire and actually saw someone "go down".

Bernard killed Bob a few times, but Bob's looking for pay back at the end of the seige. Aparently the Duke of Burgundy will actually be on the field with the troops when the castle falls. So that should make for a wonderful display. THey were on the field briefly as some of the French captives were brought before the duke. There was a little impressive horse on foot soldier action. It was impressive. The rider had absolute mastery over his horse. THWACK! the footman goes down. It was cool.

Camp broke at around 6 pm. It was too cold to stay in camp. The Compagnons took pity on us and invited us to stay at their Chalet. We were very grateful. It was a large building with a nice kitchen and plenty of room. They had this incredible shower with jets. It was great for washing the chill out of your bones. We were treated to several interesting songs that are not exactly G-Rated.

We had spagetti for dinner and they opened a bottle of claré. It was a lovely beverage with a nice blend of flavors. We sat and talked about the event and just enjoyed chatting about various topics.

I think everyone finally went to bed or starting bleeding off between 12:30 and 1.

Day 3: Monday, October 10

Cold and Raw. We met everyone for breakfast and then headed for Plateau B.

It was about 10 am when the sky began spitting. The duke and his entourage came into camp to review the troops then headed for the tournament field.

A large procession of pilgrims arrived despite the weather and an impromptu battle occured. Arrows flew as did the trebuchet rocks (way far of their target). There was a field skirmish. Once again, Bob was killed by Bernard. Some pilgrims came to "loot" the bodies. One of the kids was heard to say as they came over to Bob, I'm going to take his sword and run. At that point Pascal said to them "That would be most unwise my friend."

Everyone cleared the field.

Marie and I ventured into the LARP land. There we were threatened by Zombies. EW... and a vampire. Marie pulled out her knife to play along, one of the Zombie's laughed and showed us a shovel. Marie said, "Maybe not". (We were actually looking for a friend of Marie's who was working there).

Beating a hasty retreat from LARP Land, we headed back to camp to discover that the event might be called due to rain.

The sky opened up and the event was called for the day around 12:30 or so.

So we headed back to the Chalet to wait for Pascal and Alex. We didn't leave the site for home until around 7 pm. We arrived back in NH at around 2:45 am on Tuesday. UGH. I'm still beat.

We are heading back on Friday.

We have a lot of pictures that we hope to post in the next day or two.

A cool aspect was that Bob was interviewed during the fair.

That's all I have for the moment. I am sure Bob and Peter will fill in any details I might have missed.

J

[ 10-12-2005: Message edited by: Fire Stryker ]

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Martin

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1. The 'gesture' incident was part of the first day, the first scenario, and done after a volly had been fired at me and struck everything around me but me. I was trying to get into the spirit of play-acting for the crowd, and unfortunately at the time I felt I had no 'voice', as I assumed my audience was primary French speakers - little did I know that English would have been as good as French for effect.

Fortunately those arrows did not hit me - they were completely unacceptable from a reenactment standpoint, they had been provided to use by the organisers immediately before the event, and without a viewing prior to use. They were in essence plain undoctored arrows with the smallest plastic or rubber blunt point I have ever seen, and the garrison of the castle was unsafely firing them in direct fire - I am told by one of the appalled occupants of the castle, with 55-65 lb bows, and drawn to full draw and beyond normal draw in some instances - they were burying themselves 4-5" into the ground, and they might as well have been using field points at that juncture. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and after the incident an experienced reenactor was put in charge of them, but they needed constant watching, and threatened ejection at several points for unsafe practises (firing ove the camp, for instance, with fair goers wandering around).

2. The incident where Richard was hit (on the second day). The rear of the pike block was formed of recruits from a new group, and I was assigned to keep them together, and to keep them from dropping their pikews at an inopportune moment and whalloping their comrades - and also assigned to look out for ropes and other obsticales criss-crossing the field. The recruits are very nice chaps and eager, but they ahd no expeirience with marching and little with pike drill, provided impromptue by Pascal at first, and later (after the incident)in an intense bit of square bashing to get them to be able to wheel as a group - they got much better, but at the time of the incident they had two left feet and hands apiece, although they did their best.

As the Canadians and our group can attest, I have no troubles with dying, having been 'killed' at least a half-dozen times over the weekend, voluntarily as part of the script, but when I took a hit to the helmet (from examining the streak on the blacking, it was clearly a graze and not a solid hit, it wouldn't have done a blessed thing to me), the pike formation began to come apart - no real issue there, they were supposed to retreat, but with the reaction to Richard taking that dramatic (and unintentional - he had been stuck on the lame of the bevor, and the chest had been the intended target) hit to the face, they understandably became worried. The field had multiple casualties on it, and the ropes (which I don't understand why this had not been taken care of by this point, as this was later in the day), as well as being a rough field with holes and gullies, I decided to act as if I had been grazed, dropped to a knee, and shook my head as if dazed, and then got up and pushed them back into good order (they never entirely fell out of order to their credit), and helped them retreat backward when Pascal gave the command. We got out of there without any further injuries. A lot of the guys in the pike block have whopping, oversized swords, and I would strongly reccomend in future that any pikemen in formation ditch any large swords, and carry nothing bigger than a large dagger or a falchion, because when they go down wearing their lengthy swords, they instantly become even more of a triping hazard to their fellows, and potentially place themselves and others in danger of falling/being fallen upon. It would not be much of an issue as skirmishers, but for a unit marching in close formation, it is an issue.

The scenarios were a little silly to start out with, but as les Compagnions and Bernard began to organise them, they became better and better, and were quite fun, if unrealistic in ways. I am very interested in seeing the cavalry interaction with infantry this coming weekend. As the horsemen are skilled, it should not be much of an issue unless someone in the pike block or an archer does something stupid - my reccomentation would be to disarm all of the normal garrison of their bows, save Bernard or his second if he is among them, until the cavalry scenario is over.

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Martin

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Some of our new friends pose for a group picture.

Lining up for Action:

Bob and Bernard skirmish

The Captain is wounded!

More action:

Wounded in action (arrow to the cheek)

Some knights from the Equestrian display. Don't let their armour fool you, these guys are incredible horsemen and when fully decked out, make a great impression.

Looks like an excellent event in most ways. How do people become involved in participating?

I am also very interested in seeing more photos.

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire (1370-1400 English in France)
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus

I think they were soliciting reenactors here and on Armour Archive back in August. I believe they will be doing the event closer to Montreal next year (which would shave a few hours off of our trip). If you ever want to come to one of these things, we do have spare kit to make you fit the bill a little closer, like pointing your split hosen to one of our doublets, or a number of hats to try so you can fit into a mid 15th century event. You would be more than welcome as our guest.

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95% chance of precipitation (ie. rain if we're lucky...); 35mm rain accumulation for Saturday...

I don't think a lot is going to happen...

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If you're still around, we may be late arriving at the chalet. We are already a 1/2 hour behind. So, conservatively we may be arriving between 11pm - 1am. Hopefully we'll be there sooner.

Cheers,

Jenn

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In any event I will be on an extended "business trip" in October of next year, so next year is right out, regretfully. I thank you much for your invitation and consider is an honor to have been invited.

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Martin

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Well, it is all over, and I have to say that it was one of the best, most exciting Medieval events I have ever been to, possibly the best. It certainly was the largest to date. From an oganizational standpoint of a fair, at the begining it was one of the worst, but the organisers got better and learned a lot of things, I think, from the experience. They had a staggering number of obsticles to overcome, and I think they made the best out of a bad situation I am sure their next venture will be better. Especially since it should be in a venue more friendly to their project, and earlier in the Auntumn.

It was a great pleasure to meet and make friends with our friends up North - this has to have been the best part of the event, from Martin and Ingin Jungnickle, to les Compagnions des Armes, who must be some of the most enthusiastic fellows I have ever had the pleasure to meet (Hugo Trembley, Hugo Polaquin Marie Cardieux and her son, Alex, Pascal, Matthieu, the list seems endless) , to getting to play alongside old friends, like Bernard Rieutord, Carmen Picard and Kennith Meade of Les Archiers du Frontenac (and meet Francois of that group), and meet le Bannier Noir. You all are a Awesome bunch of people, and I look forward to participating with you in the future - I know those of us who went up to the event were revitalized by the experience.

I think that the fun we managed to have, despite the weather, and despite the orginizational difficulties shows great promise for the future of 15th century reenactment in North America, I highly recommend going to one of these Canadian events, and I look forward to seeing our Canadian friends come to some of ours.

Please, those of you who attended, (other than big-mouthed moi) give us some of your experiences of this event. We should have a bunch more photos up of the highlights tonight.

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I'm really sorry for the cancellation which lead you to drive northward just to pack up your camp.
It's not a surprise, I enjoyed very much to meet you guys on the camp and Bob on the battlefield .
The organization was, in fact, an horribly joke, and we(Compagnos d'armes, bannière noir and Frontenac) have tried to do the best we could with what we had. For exemple the five groups of our camp NEVER worked together before. Thank you Bob for your good words about me, and others, concerning the upgrowing of the quality of the reenactment .
I don't know what will be happening on next year. I refuse to show an exessiv optimism, a large lot of things have to be corrected, including the organizations of the "historic" site(ours). But it's to early to speak about next year. Let's come the aftermath of the organizators and how they see the future. If the event looked
so much inorganized, that's due first to the lack of money and the lack of real and important sponsor. I hope the good performance showed by the participants will induce sponsors to the idea that such events must be very succesfull if well and long
prepared. Inch'Allah!!

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It's the other "Hugo"

It was a real pleasure to meet you... Bad weather create links between people hope that we'll have some opportunities to meet all of you soon.

We are trying hard to convince groups to go for reenactment of the Xvth century. It's hard, and that event could be the main reason to push on groups that pretends to do reenactment, to do so... It was a big step forward for us to see other groups (except Bernard's) willing to get on the historical ways... It's new in Quebec...

maybe, because there was not much events...

So, we,ll come down south soon as you got something!!!

The Duc de Bourgogne arriving with his entourage.

"Chateau de Beaupre" (under construction still - the thing comes apart, and will be at the next festival even if it is closer to Montreal, to my understanding. it gives you some idea of the scale of the castle

The defiant French garrison

Another shot of a melee. mon amie Pascal, a Franche Comte Burgundian is showing his love for Louis XI men, while I am putting down a glaiveman near to him. My assasin (the French Captain) can be seen running up to dispatch me from the right background of the photo - I believe he 'killed' Pascal in that action as well. The captain is none other than Bernard Rieutord.

A Burgundian assult

Supporting fire

Me after being killed by the garrison commander.

More in the next post.

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Women of the camp (Marie Cardieaux and Jenn)

Another side of the camp, with some of the women present

Another shot of the French garrison, showing the scale of the chateau.

Another skirmish, here a wounded man is being brought to the rear.

Handgunners giving supporting fire.

A shot of them acting as skirmishers.

Me and my arquibusier (Richard Sweeny), talking during the scenario immediately following his injury. He is not wearing his visored sallet and bevor, and is using his arquebus instead of the glaive he was using during the battle of wounded eye (as Jenn calls it). It was threatening rain, and my black sallet and bevor is my 'rain hat'.

This may be the shot immediately before the arrow to face incident. Pascal is in command, and I am in my 'rain hat' and black gown supervising the rear ranks of pikemen. It may not be readily apparent, but in every scenario advancing we were under constant and consistant archery, sometimes heavy and in volleys. They tended to shoot every arrow they had at us, and then sally out to engage us, sometimes weather the scenario called for it or not.

It was quite interesting to undergo the command and control issues first hand with new recruits being under fire, and trying to dress ranks as holes appeared in the lines as we took casualties, and to deal with the language barrier - most of the troops were bilingual, but some were as practised at spoken English as I am at spoken Francais. I'm trying to steer the fellows who occasionally drifted in the rear with a gauche or sinestre, or dexter dex It didn't help that I think port and starboard as a rule (I am not kidding, under stress I remember port or larbord and starbord, instead of right or left , due to an uncle who was in the navy, and who put "P" and "S" on my sneakers one summer when I was four years old. It gave an inkling into the problems facing Charles the Bolds companies of the ordinaces, who were multi-national, and speaking up to 5 different languages as their native tounges (French, Flemish, English, Italian and German.

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A disinier inspecting a recruit, and about to find his equipment wanting, as I recollect - (no pay for him?)

A Burgundian ambush, laying in wait for the careless French garrison.

The ambush sprung, with me trotting along as best I might with spurs. (actually, they didn't hinder me, but I had to be careful passing through brush)

A frontal shot of my kit as I was wearing it the first day. I wore a gown over my cuirasse throughout, because of the weather. It was so cold, that even wearing a cuirasse for 6 hours straight, I never broke a sweat to speak of. I really ought be mounted in that rig, but was wearing as much kit as I could to mark me as a man at arms rather than an ordinary infantryman.

A shot of me chatting it up wioth one of les Compagnions.

The French soldier caught who was to be executed for his contemptuous behaviour (insulting us from the walls?)

Skirmishers charging forward

The Duc de Bourgogne reviewing the troops.

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Mine is absolutely perfect, and completes the kit magnificently. I could even wear my cold-weather-horribly-wrong-green-jacket without feeling to bad about it!

As for the event,
Although I missed a big part of it, being there for that 1st weekend confirmed that this is the type fo game I want to play. I've tried other venues, and tried to graft reenactment in LARP-type games, but it just doesn't work. Despite the flaws of this event, it was still fun to be a part of it.

The people really made the event for me. Discussions about Burgundian politics over a nice bottle of Clairet, the songs, the food, making fun of "this other group" Lasting memories...

While this season will shortly come to a close, we'll most definitely keep in touch, and be ready to repeat as soon possible!

quote:

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Originally posted by Brent E Hanner:
Bob,
do you have a good picture of how your sword attaches to your sword belt. I believe I see two loops in one of the photos but I'm not sure.

Brent

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Hi Brent, I'll have to look and see, or maybe I can take a picture of the belt laid out. it is actually a temporary rig Jeff Hedgecock kindly put together for me for my first event ever out in California seven years ago now. There is one keeper strap sewn to the belt, and an adjustable pair that loop round the belt and end in two loops, so there are three all together. My fancier belt my arming sword is rigged for needs repair to one of the ends, and I wanted to use my old Del Tin bastard sword for this event, as I didn't want my arming sword getting beaten on. The Del Tin holds up like the trooper it is, although the pommel is a rust magnet.

The belt can be a pain until you adjust the rig properly, and then it works fine. it is very adjustable, so anyone can wear it.

[ 10-17-2005: Message edited by: chef de chambre ]

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