Tea at Trianon: Can Medieval Artisans From Guédelon Help Rebuild Notre-Dame?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Can Medieval Artisans From Guédelon Help Rebuild Notre-Dame?

From Ancient Origins:

At Guédelon, there is a dedicated team of craft persons and volunteers who are building ‘a 13th-century château using the tools and techniques of the epoch and, as far as possible, locally sourced basic materials’ according to the Guardian. The building is based on a ‘typical French medieval chateau-fort, modeled on designs from the 13th century’ reports The Atlantic . There are a couple of dozen people working at the castle site.

Those who work on the castle are dressed as the 13 th century, artisans. They are even using horses to hauls materials and employ medieval technologies such as a winch drum. Guédelon looks like a construction site from the Middle Ages in almost every way and it has become a tourist attraction .

Many of the workers have abandoned often lucrative professional jobs in order to take part in the project. For example, Baptiste Fabre abandoned a career as a scientist and became a traditional stonemason. The project was started in 1997 by Michel Guyot and Maryline Martin. The aim of the scheme is to help not only to better understand medieval building skills but to preserve the ancient skills and trades. The duo who started the project wanted not only to preserve the ancient skills but to show that manual work had dignity and worth and could enhance the lives of individuals. (Read more.)