The medieval adventure of the 21st century!
Guédelon, absolutely unmissable, a remarkable, moving and generous work!
I have been going to Guédelon exactly twice a year for almost 10 years now. I always take friends there, and also children. I love to see their amazed faces. The magic happens as soon as you pass the ticket office and enter the huge barn, which is half dark, just enough to enjoy the wonderful cartoon that summarises the beginning of the construction site, which was the dream of the initiators.
We pass in front of the windows of an appetizing quality shop where you will have like me many desires. When you arrive on the site, you discover the whole thing little by little, you have to follow the arrows if you want and let yourself walk according to your wonder. Because that's what it's all about, and no one can remain unaffected by what is on offer during a minimum two-hour visit. If you sign your children up for some of the activities, you can stay for half a day without looking like you are doing so.
In this timeless space we learn how to build a castle as in the Middle Ages. We see the builders do it before our eyes. They participate with all their strength and will in the work - for Guédelon is a work of art, not to point this out would be hypocrisy - carving, forging, drawing, sawing, calculating, staining, lifting, moving, repairing, baking, weaving, undoing, redoing...telling, explaining with patience. They speak to all of us, the visitors who are amazed by a unique and moving feat. It is history that is slowly and inexorably being built before our eyes. Each stage assimilated during the visit to the construction site, with our minds awakened, opens our consciousness, so that we cannot return home completely unscathed. It evokes in each of us such deep resonances that we end up deducing that our roots, our traditions, what we receive as an inheritance, what we pass on to our children, is this.
We are all stones, we are all links in an edifice, or a chain, and nothing can be built sensibly and sustainably without being in solidarity with each other. Time is a unit and a value that Guédelon allows us to appreciate each one intrinsically. No one remains indifferent to an experience such as this. As for the children, they love it, the lesson is masterful.
Go for it!
