Our first stop of the day is Château de Beynac (in Beynac-et-Casenac), whose most famous resident was Richard I, a.k.a. Richard the Lion-Hearted, King of England, who lived here from 1189 till his death in 1199. Though open to the public for viewing, it is still a private castle -- first inhabited by the Baron Maynard in 1115 and owned by Lucius-Grosso et Dionysia-Uxor Sua since 1961. A plaque at the castle proclaims that Lucius-Grosso et Dionysia-Uxor Sua -- name notwithstanding -- is one person who still resides in part of the castle; however, one can imagine he'd need the money from tourists to pay for the upkeep, since he can no longer raid, pillage, plunder and tax the local serfs for this purpose. He'll also take your money if you want to use it for your major motion picture; in 1998, it was used as a location for Luc Besson's Joan of Arc. And with good reason. The castle towers over the town and, from every angle and every distance, looks, in Anthony's words, "like the most castle-like castle ever."
Anthony is also dead set on seeing the Château de Castelnaud (at Castelnaud-la-Chapelle) which contains the Musée de la Guerre au Moyen Age (Museum of Warfare in the Middle Ages). (I was about to translate that as "Middle Age Warfare" but it sounds too much like Anthony and me having a series of big arguments....). I think it is a lovely coincidence that the family that owned the castle was named Castelnaud. On the grounds, they set off a trébuchet with a small bouncy ball, and Anthony has to correct me when I translate trébuchet as catapult. Apparently a trébuchet is a trebuchet, and a catapult is something else. Who knew? Well, Anthony did, obviously. You can say what you want about gender differences being artificially manufactured, but I suspect that's the kind of thing most girls wouldn't know (or care about) and most boys would. At least the girls and boys in my household...
Anthony has had a smile on his face and a bounce in his step all day. I feel like I'm seeing what he must have been like at age 12. And no wonder: As he says, this day is every young boy's dream, involving castles, trebuchets, crenellated fortress walls, drawbridges, crossbows, knights, chainmail, armor, and Richard the Lionhearted. And the girls and I enjoy it too. So, yeah, I guess you'd call it a success.
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There is – or was – a trebuchet in New Hampshire famous for hurling pumpkins in season. I wonder if Anthony ever saw it as a boy. I looked into it years ago, but we never got around to going up there. I checked into it again in case Anthony would be interested in a day trip, and apparently it’s no longer in operation. However, there’s some interesting information about its history. Quite a few web sites. Just google yankee siege trebuchet.
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