Posted on 07/26/2010 8:33:59 AM PDT by Daffynition
I like these comments by someone who claims to have worked on the construction:
I worked on this project last summer. It was a lot of fun. Good food, lots of exercise...I lost 20 lbs, and I wasn’t trying. Made some great friends, too.
Things I noticed:
1. They think anything over 85 is unbearably hot. Not ‘complain wow it’s hot and keep working’ hot, but ‘shut down everything before someone has a heat stroke’ hot. Coming from the South, this amused me greatly, especially since they have almost no humidity there (by comparison). They would be wilting like flowers in the sun, and I and some of the other workers from truly hot places would barely be breaking a sweat. Before I sound too boastful though, there was a dude there from Algeria who made the rest of us look like poseurs.
2. You gain a much better appreciation for just how much shiat weighs when you have to move it by hand. I was working as a basic laborer, hauling stones, lifting logs, etc. They have levers, hoists, and horses, but when you need to shift a 500lb block 3 inches left without power tools, you respect the weight a lot more.
3. The Spanish and Italians on site were really really lazy. Maybe it was just because they were young, but wow. Everyone else was amazing though, so maybe they just looked lazy by comparison. Or maybe lazy isn’t the right word...’there to play’ might be better. They could be fun during time off, but someone who wants to play when everyone else is working is annoying. At least to me.
4. Working a long hot day on French food was...gut wrenching. Their food is a lot richer than I was used to, and I had several days early on where it was like ‘...must...not....puke’. Then I got used to it, and I was fine.
5. The level of academic research that has gone into this is simply flabbergasting, and I have a degree in medieval history. The archival research, the knowledge of languages, the engineering knowledge...it’s even more impressive when you’re participating that it is in general.
6. It’s not geeky. Strong interest in knights/armor/castles etc in the US = you were the sort of kid who grew up reading Dragonlance novels. Strong interest in that in Europe = you were the sort of kid whose kick-ass WWII Resistance veteran grandfather told you lots of stories about the cool old buildings down the road. IMHO the American concept of ‘geek’ just doesn’t really apply.
It would be fun to work on that project.
This would be SO COOL to do, though! I've always wanted to go back to experience the middle ages...just for a visit though!
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for one thing, the music was way better than the ghetto crap that spews everywhere today.
The one on the left looks like Mick Fleetwood. A little.
Great minds think alike, about a great book ; P
Tatt
Who would have stayed :)
I’d have stayed as well...
and the clothes were cooler too...can’t stand the Dickies and the saggin’....just sayin’
And Birkenstocks, are they kidding? People of the Middle Ages would burn Birkenstock wearers at the stake. ;’)
Sounds like a cool project! I’d love to work on it, but I need to get paid time off, work on my French, and get into better physical shape. :)
“4. Working a long hot day on French food was...gut wrenching. Their food is a lot richer than I was used to, and I had several days early on where it was like ‘...must...not....puke’. Then I got used to it, and I was fine.”
And yet the guy quoted said he lost 20 lbs. without even trying!
“5. The level of academic research that has gone into this is simply flabbergasting, and I have a degree in medieval history. The archival research, the knowledge of languages, the engineering knowledge...it’s even more impressive when you’re participating that it is in general.”
Beats any dry archaeological dig.
“6. It’s not geeky. Strong interest in knights/armor/castles etc in the US = you were the sort of kid who grew up reading Dragonlance novels. Strong interest in that in Europe = you were the sort of kid whose kick-ass WWII Resistance veteran grandfather told you lots of stories about the cool old buildings down the road. IMHO the American concept of ‘geek’ just doesn’t really apply.”
Makes sense—in Europe there’s MORE history. Good that people still pass it on orally.
Michel Guyot, the owner and restorer of one of the largest castles in France, Saint-Fargeau Castle, brought his castle-expertise to Arkansas thanks to Solange and Jean-Marc Mirat, a french couple who moved to the United States twenty years ago.
In september 2008, fascinated by the concept, they contacted him and offered a portion of their land for sale, a suitable place to build a castle in the middle of a forest, on a natural site that provides all the necessary building materials: water, stone, earth, sand, and wood.
This is fantastic! As far as I know, you don't need a passport or be conversant in French to go to Arkansas. This is our Big Chance!
Ozark Medieval Fortress. Lead Hill, Arkansas. A rural town halfway between Springfield, Missouri and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Here's to ropes with 13-knots!!! This has to be the best news since the invention of the Trebuchet and the Ballista!
Very neat stuff! I’ve never heard of a 13 knot rope. It makes a lot of sense though.
**In the depiction of the liberal arts in Hortus deliciarum, the allegory of arithmetics is a female figure with a knotted rope.**
WOOHOO!
Thanks for the great news. This is awesome.
Keep in touch. I’m in Louisiana, so this is bout an 8 hour drive. Much better than going to France.
M
I want one!
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