More on the Games

It has been a whirlwind week, but the games have officially ended. They provided great entertainment and we ended up having a wonderful time with them. The organization that goes into one of these re-enactments is actually really impressive. The organizers have been writing the script for this game for FOUR years, and this re-enactment in particular has gone on for TWO. That’s some dedication, if I’ve ever seen it.

I will explain the little that I understand about the rules of the games. I guess there are a few teams (maybe 3?) and they all have prescribed roles to play according to the script. This means that the battles and “major deaths” are pre-determined. The teams choose various locales on the grounds of St. Michel to set up camp. Some just had tents, but others went all out and made cardboard stonewalls to surround their fort. Prime real estate was in the barn of St. Michel. This was highly coveted because this was where the food was brought each day, so whoever was in control of the barn was also in possession of the food. Naturally, this was a great source of conflict and most of the battles were fought for control of it. Below are some pictures of the gamers and their camps--

Philippe and one of the gamers taking the feast to the barn

They had various battles throughout the week. I don’t know why or what came of them, I just know they happened. It is impossible to miss one because they are characterized by incredibly loud shrieking from people fake dying and incessantly obnoxious Middle Age/rock fusion music used to accompany the battle. These battles occur at any time of the day or night. It seemed that most happened around the wee hours of 1:00-3:30 in the morning. I think they thought that the darkness added for dramatic effect, but I just thought it was annoying. Actually, I would say that is the only annoying thing about living with 70 LARPers, that and washing all their dishes. They were all really nice and quasi-normal (normal may be taking it too far). They invited Jake to help fight in their final battle, but it was at 3:00 AM and I don’t think he muster up the determination to spar with the Medieval nerds.

Below is a picture of one of the tournament fights and then a pictures of one of their dorky banners. 

One of the best things about the Games is that Brigitte kicked us out of St. Michel for a majority of each day. We were “kicked out,” but we didn’t need much persuasion. We visited caves, various chateaus, and the medieval village of Sarlat. We will blog soon about our trip to Sarlat!

We are leaving St. Michel tomorrow to go to our second workaway in Normandy. We are both sad to leave, but also anxious to move on to a different part of France. Jon (our host in Normandy) said that we would have to work for a week straight, but then he would give us the whole next week off to travel around the area. We are quite close to Omaha Beach, so that is our number one destination.

À bientôt