Gedelon Castle France

It was another grey and wet day but we still managed to visit the Guedelon Medieval castle site before the rain got too annoying. 

Before we left St Julien du Sault, we dumped the grey and black water and filled up with drinking water. Along the way we stopped in La Ferte Loupiere, a quaint village in the Burgundy area. It is renown for its 16th century frescoes found in the church. It is a rare Danses Macabres (Dance of Death) existing in France.it shows 3 young gentlemen challenged in a cemetery by 3 dead men who remind them of the brevity of life and the importance of saving their souls. We appreciated the simplicity of the church that seemed in its original state.  Before we leave we have a walk around the village.

Then continue another 45km to Guedelon Castle. We had visited this unusual site 10 years ago in 2014 and had always said we would come back to see its progress. In 1997 the construction began to build a 13th century fortress castle based on the architecture of Philip Augustus. It is being built using 13th century methods and is supported by the village consisting of stonemasons, quarrymen, blacksmiths, lime pits, basketmakers, rope makers, tilers-potters, woodworkers, carpenters, millers….all essential in the building of the castle. As much as health and safety allow they are building it as it would have been done in that era. We look at our blog from 2014 and realise how much they have done since then. 

Lime pits they cook the lime once a year to supply the castle for the year. It takes 3 days and 23 cubic meters to ‘cook’ the lime and then they mix it with water before putting it into barrels to cure for 10months before they use it and  mix it with the mud.

Luckily we had seen what we wanted to as the weather turned wet and we made our way back to Bluey. Not far from here, about 20km, there was an ex campground turned free aire in Entrains sur Nohain. There were 4 others here taking advantage of the free power. We settled in for the night. 

84km today