Loches Medieval Festival...

Loches, one of our favourite places here in Southern Touraine has for the last few years held an annual 'Medieval Festival' (L'Epopée Médiévale). Their description describes it as 'epic' but that might just be overstating it a little. Like many events staged here they promise so much and yet...

The old citadel is the ideal place for such an event as stepping through the 'Porte Royale' in the footsteps of Joan of Arc you are transported back in time.

The town has successfully maintained most of the authenticity of the place providing an excellent backdrop.

It was free to enter the citadel and the guard at the gate gives a flavour of what was going on.                  
It is an event we had wanted to visit since previous great guests "The Willinghams" (stayed at 'Les Balcons' and 'Le Bourg' 06/08 to 20/08/2011 )  had raved about it.

In 2011 they got...

2013 we got...

 In 2011 they got...

2013 we got...

In 2011 they got...

2013 we got...

Although we enjoyed the pipes,I can understand they might not be to everyone's taste

We felt that we had been short changed somewhat...maybe there has been some cutbacks since 2011. As I said the location of this event is ideal and the idea is great but from what we could see it was aimed at French tourists - and why not, although anyone else visiting would enjoy the peripheral atmosphere,especially if it was their first time visiting the town. The additional cost of €2.00 on top of the normal price of visiting the 'Royal Lodgings' and 'Donjon' was a bargain (C&E) - if you had not visited before - having visited many times before ourselves we saw it as a donation to the upkeep of the festival.

We didn't take in many of the scheduled demonstrations but did sit under the shade of the trees by the 'Donjon' and watched a man on a very small horse do some 'jousting' tricks - but don't think 'Chateau du Rivau' has anything to worry about 

Then we watched a group of kids try on heavy chain-mail and then have a competition to find out who could rise from a lying down position quickest - they seemed to enjoy it.

Highlight was Pauline buying me some medieval fudge at one of the stalls on the way to the 'Donjon'. 

As I said, if you haven't been to Loches then during the festival is a good time to visit to get a taste of things medieval.