Friday night, exactly at midnight, we left here with a fullpacked car and three people in it; 8 hours later we stood on the field in Agincourt. After the other participants from our camp had arrived a little bit later, we built our camp consisting of 5 tents and three awnings in between. The awnings had a length of approximately 15 meters alltogether. So we had a kitchen, a dining-room and a ball-and-working-room.
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| Part of our kitchen |
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| Our "knife"-block |
On Saturday, we were woken by two shoots of a musket. After an ample breakfast, Froedhi and I went to scout the market, sadly, it wasn't as big as I expected. Among others, Bernie the Bolt was there, so I just couldn't resist and had to buy some cloth, a really stiff linen cloth for an inlay between outer cloth and lining and some soft linen for a lining of my next doublet. Besides, I bought a new wooden bowl for me. On sunday, we had boiled plums, since I didn't have the time to oil my bowl, it now has a red blotch in its middle - reminds me of the Japanese National Flag... I also could finally buy a pilgrim badge for my hat and a handfull of aglets, not to mention fudge of diverse varieties.
Towards afternoon, there was the rehearsal for the battle on Sunday. The archers' regiment was really impressive to me, it is a great view, many many many arrows crossing the skies. As in 1415, the battle field was not equally distributed, but this time, there were much more English than French on the field. There were also some French, fighting for the English side...
The day went out with some whistle, fiddle and lute music and a bit of gambling.
Sunday was the visitors day in the camp. It was my first time reenacting, so it also was a strange feeling being watched and filmed chopping wood and cooking pottage, as if these were activities one has forgotten about nowadays. But some people were really interested, so I could explain a few things to them. It pays off being able to speak different languages. I also used some spare time to decorate my belt with some buckles.
After the bulk of visitors had passed, we went to Agincourt's museum. Agincourt is really astonishing, it has about five streets, a café and - a museum. This museum is finely arranged, through the whole exhibition the Hundred Years' War and its beginnings are explained, also the role that Agincourt played in it. There was also an area where one could experience things for oneself: How much do you see, looking through a visor? How much force is needed to pull up 40kg (so, how much force do you need to pull a 80-pounds-bow)? How heavy are the weapons of this time? I really liked the front half of an armour with its helmet, one could step behind it, a camera made a picture of it and showed it on a little display, so one could see oneself in this armour.
Of course, this day also went out with some gambling.On Monday, we broke down our camp and went back home. After a short stop at the next Carrefour to buy enough cheese for the next two months, we were on the road to Germany.
All in all, it was a very pleasant an interesting weekend. I didn't know what to expect, how it would feel like to be part of a living history camp. Now I know it's fun and I'm looking forward to the next battle of Agincourt and the next camp. Last weekend, Froedhi and I went to a medieval market at Sulz am Neckar (Germany), at the moated castle of Glatt. See the post concerning it, if you like to.
Now, I only need time to realize all the ideas I got in Agincourt (a belt pouch, finishing the clothing, two stools, a chest, and so on, and so on, and so on...).
