Châtillon en fete

This is just really a picture essay of the first Renaissance fête we’ve had here, in this Lorraine village, since 2019. Normally it is yearly, but Covid confinement put paid to that.

It was terrific, uplifting, a testament to human history and how we value it … and our communities that never die. Here we go …

Early Saturday morning in the village as it prepares for the Sunday fête …

This lovely view is what I see when I look out of my bedroom window every morning … the ancien hôpital and Maison des pelerins …

This view (taken from the Jardin de curé, right next to the church) looks down to my house and the house beyond. You can see the bamboo screen on my supper terrace and my ‘sun room’, although you can’t see the garden at all here, because it’s on the steep slope below.

I have (arguably) the best two views in Châtillon!

Hôtel du faune, early on Sunday morning … things are getting going.

Hôtel du gouverneur – you’ll see this lady later. I wonder if you’ll recognise her?

The Grenier à sel (now a tea room) used to be the old provisions centre for the village of Châtillon back when it was important fortified military base for the Barroise. The Barroise was an area independent of France and Burgundy in the Middle Ages, owing fealty to the Holy Roman Empire. There’s a nice film here about the village, without the need for French).

That smoke is coming from about four pigs (I estimated), roasting on a spit at 9.30am on Sunday morning. A worrying situation for a vegetarian who is due to serve salads at midi …

People are starting to come in now, at about 11.30am, outside the restored hôtel de Sandrecourt.

Holbein would have been in his element, for this fête. Most of what follows reflects that feeling … there’s a wonderful portrait in every camera click.

I love the dancing. Although I dance very badly. But muscians are special. I play the flute – we may dislike racism, but let’s not deny it when we can observe important, positive, national characteristics!

It is an internationally accepted fact that the French play the flute better than any other nation on earth (or at least if you listen regularly to France Musique, it is … I joke … I believe this, there have been essays written about it …)

The peculiar French phyiognomy – the way the language works in the mouth, what the tongue does in the mouth, what that does to the shape of the mouth over centuries – means that there is no other nation on earth more fitted to playing the flute. Can I therefore die and come back French?

Still – these wonderful professional muscians were just doing their Renaissance stuff. I was even persuaded by the lovely lady in purple velvet to join in (fortunately they didn’t ask me to play the flute – I would have been mocked, had that been the case) …

But in the picture that follows, you can see the real ‘dancing queens’. Danielle and Marc Abriet whose dance troupe have performed as dancers here for years, photographed with young French-Canadian, Aude, whose French grand-parents have been the prime motivators behind the 20th century renaissance of Châtillon.

And here the musicians are again, near the Grenier à sel …

Everything’s hotted up a lot now … even the hair styles outside the Grenier à sel. Most photographers would hate this picture. For some stupid reason I love it!

Our wonderful museum – open almost every day in July and August.

And, of course, somewhere to have a drink …

We’re building up to the last scenes of the afternoon, outside the Hôtel du gouverneur. You can spot the people who are doing a job – they don’t look up from their bits of paper, even for a camera …

And here we go – last pictures (not too great, taken with a phone rather than a camera) of the professional theatre group in the main square. They seem to specialise in Renaissance quarrels and sword fights … can you recognise the warrior ‘puppet’, whose strings are being pulled by her puppeteer?

Again – think Holbein and be fascinated.

There we go – that’s it. If only we could all live happily ever after!

If you lived here, you would never worry about a crack in a wall ever again. I promise!