Medeival Festival

One day when the Tour wasn't nearby we decided to check out a Medieval Festival in a neighboring village. Apparently in Europe, they have Medieval Festivals instead of Renaissance Festivals. Clothing for Medieval Festivals is much more rugged and basic. Another difference are the many free activities. Here, you can see I remembered how to walk on stilts and Luke picked it up pretty quickly. (Jon, I think we've got our Godspell entrance!)


My favorite part of the day was the spread of real knight equipment. Knowledgeable, friendly (French-speaking) folks were at the ready to tell people about the different tools and articles of clothing and even help visitors try things on. Here I am ready for battle:


And although the chain mail was too heavy for the children (at 11kg, the leaders were afraid the children wouldn't be able to breathe wearing it), the children were allowed to try on the helmets and pick up the swords:



Another free activity was shooting arrows at a nearby plywood village (similar to the Kenyon scene we have in the church basement). The arrows had corks on the ends instead of points, which is a good thing because one of our shots glanced off the plywood and hit a woman squarely in her sunglasses. If it weren't for the glasses, there might have been a quick trip to the emergency room for that poor spectator.