Saturday 11 August 2012

Loches Epopée Médiéval

We're getting into the swing of these themed weekends... First it was Richelieu's Cape et Epée, then it was Chinon's Marche Medieval and now this weekend it's L'Epopée Médiéval at Loches.

But what a disappointment it was after the previous two weekends!

In contrast to the other two, the event in Loches was blatantly a  money making exercise and this appeared to be reflected in the low turnout of people there.

The event centred on the area of the Donjon, and whilst the grounds around this are normally open and free to the public, today there was an entrance fee of 9 euros per adult and 5 euros per child. As you can see (below) the queue was not really what you would call a queue..


Wherever we went it was the same. We had no problem taking photos because there were few people to get in the way..

We saw a small procession in costume; presumably to entice the 'crowds' into parting with their 9 euros, but we were not impressed..

Perhaps we've been spoilt by the 'free' events we have enjoyed so much recently, or maybe it's because this is a weekend-long event, but the whole thing seemed too commercial and lacked the atmosphere of Chinon or Richelieu.

Anyway, we decided to call it a day and as we fought our way back through the crowds (!) we reflected on life in Braye..... it's good!

3 comments:

Tim said...

That doesn't sound very good for Loches... I don't think we'll bother... too much to do in the garden anyway!

GaynorB said...

Even happier that you suggested we try the Marche Medieval in Chinon. We had a great time there and it really was packed with people enjoying themselves .... and FREE!

Anonymous said...

It's a shame when beautiful venues don't put their hearts into their endeavours. It was the same at the beautiful La Rochefoucauld chateau - the same price as one at Dignac, but not very fun at all. We left after an hour because there was nothing to do.