Fort Charlotte

As a change from Vikings (however contemporary the Up Helly Aa festival actually is) yesterday we detoured by Fort Charlotte in Lerwick, which is a naval fort overlooking the bay and the use of Bressay. This is actually its third incarnation, as it was built and rebuilt during both of the Anglo-Dutch Wars before being rebuilt AGAIN in the 1700s - the latter incarnation is the one that mostly stands today, although it never saw action despite being manned throughout the Napoleonic Wars.

Small, but atmospheric, and an interesting little site.

Back from a much-needed vacation....

...and time to stop listening to the Sealion book and sort out the to-do list for hobby stuff :D

Looks like I actually get a Wednesday evening free tomorrow (since I'm resigned to being unable to get enough cats herded to reschedule a committee meeting in time), so I aim to make a large dent in the Compendium. Have already had useful feedback from Derek Hodge on the rules clarifications section, so applied the minimal updates he suggested tonight. Also added another printable record sheet to the available ones at the back of the Compendium, since it was in my mind and I had the file open. (Cue much grumbling about Pages' table tool, which is... let's just say not the best.)

still alive...

In Brussels, enjoying good food, good beer, good chocolate. :)

Slowly working through the Sealion audiobook, which is my hobby activity for the long weekend. 

Best laid plans....

Seems like I'm not the only one laid low with assorted lurghis - spent a good half hour tidying and prepping for the club committee meeting to have over half the team cancel for various health and unforeseen reasons. But the studio is at least tidy!

Ah well. We had a good discussion of various things, and postponed the main meeting till next week :D Such is life.

So. Off to Brussels on Friday for a long weekend. Any suggestions for hobby-related things to visit while there?

US National WW1 Memorial and Museum, Kansas City

Paid the above a visit yesterday with Lardie Dave C and his lovely fiancée K.

Excellent place with very friendly and knowledgeable volunteers and some very evocative displays. Covers the whole of WW1, not just the USA’s involvement, with uniforms, loads of artillery pieces, a DH2 hanging from the ceiling....

Recommended if you’re anywhere within several hours drive, and Dave is a gracious host (and RJ’s BBQ was awesome).

French tank with Dave for scale

"Well, I'm back..."

..,and napped, and fed, and catching up with stuff before a proper night's sleep - my brain is very confused as to what TZ I'm in! It's also warmer here - about 75ºF warmer if you allow for the wind chill!

A huge thank you to Jeffrey Knudsen (of The War Artisan), Elliot James, and the rest of the guys from the Centurions Wargaming Group and ATF for hosting a couple of excellent games: photos and AARs to follow later in the week. I seem to have come away with some interesting sets of Grand Tactical Napoleonic rules for review, too.

More later when I'm properly awake.

Battle

No, not the book by Kenneth Macksey. Or the one by Charles Grant.

The town.

The Abbey from the front.

After our trip around France (of which more later) we spent a couple of days in Rye, during which time we took a trip to Battle Abbey.

The stone commemorating the location of the
high altar, and thus the place where Harold is
believed to have fallen.

Again, I guess, if you're at all interested in military history, you've probably visited it. This was our first time, mind - despite being English Heritage members for the last two decades. I went wearing my "Guillaume Le Conquerant" t-shirt from Bayeux, which greatly amused the two younger chaps behind the counter, I have to say. I did resist quoting any Stanley Holloway at them - "Tha'd best get tha throne reup'olstered. I'll be wantin' t'use it next week."

There's a nice display including a short film, which does include some sample armour and weapons - dear Lord, but that shield was heavy. The major part of the visit, though, has to be a walk around the battlefield. From which you carry away, or at least I did, one overriding impression, namely, "by gum, I wouldn't fancy that slope in full armour!"

Admittedly, the slope has been landscaped since, and
this isn't the best shot, but you can see, I think, how far
above the camera the abbey now stands.

The Bayeux Tapestry

Just as an aside, these brief holiday postcards, for want of a better phrase, aren't in order of visit - we did Bayeux on the way across from Brittany to the Somme area - but in some vague thematic/related order of history.

So - Bayeux, then. Home of one of the most famous bits of embroidery in the world. Anne and I have been before, but it was mumble decades ago, and I don't remember much - I certainly am pretty sure the building it's stored in has been improved considerably since we saw it.

What can be said about it that hasn't been before? It's a stunning, quite stunning piece of work. The audio tour is new (to us), coming in both adult and kids versions (which James appreciated). Surprisingly, though, it translates very little of the Latin: fortunately my grade A O-level meant I was (still) more than equal to the task of most of it!

Beyond the tapestry there's a museum/display area with some fantastic models, including a cathedral being built which I'm sure was a bit of a reference to Pillars of the Earth. The other thing in there I did grab a picture of, was a text description of the dyes used and a few samples. Again, if you're a Dark Ages/Early Mediaeval gamer, this is useful!

I also left the shop with a 'Guillaume Le Conquerant' t-shirt with a portion of the tapestry art on it... of which more later.

La Musée Des Temps Barbare

The museum

One of the reasons for the silence on here of late is that we've been on vacation - specifically a week in France and then a week pootling along the South Coast of England. Quite a lot of that vacation threw up some wargaming-related stuff, starting with la Musée des Temps Barbare in Marle, to the north-west of Paris (in WW1 trench country).

Assorted recovered and
reconstructed weaponry of the
period

The museum is built in a three-storey disused watermill plus extensive grounds. In the mill there are displays of archaeological remains from the Dark Ages (Frankish/Merovingian era) as well as copious historical wall displays covering the history of the period in France and some marvellous models of Frankish buildings etc.

Detail of a model of a Frankish village

On the downside it's all in French, and certainly for our visit, the curator was (I suspect) not confident enough of his English to be much help. As it was, we got by with a combination of my (passable) French and a dictionary. I even managed a conversation about me not being a archaeologist but a big fan of the period and a wargamer, and he mentioned that they had had the Ermine Street Guard visit for a reenactment day. 

One of the larger Merovingen huts.

The awesome bit, in terms of the sheer amount of work that must have gone into it, is outside. Out the back, you cross a bridge over the mill leat, and find yourself in a small (half a dozen buildings) Merovingen village. It's all beautifully constructed out of period materials, based on their best guesses as to what the buildings might have looked like from archaeological evidence.  

A smaller hut.

We spent about twenty minutes checking out the buildings, with James (my son) taking copious photos (since he'd just discovered how much fun my DSLR is) - most of the shots in this article are his.  We were, it has to be said, pretty blown away by the workmanship.

And then we double-checked the French handout we'd been given, and realised that this wasn't, as we'd thought, the larger of the two historical reconstruction areas, but the smaller. By quite a long way.

One of the main farm buildings.
This was unusual in having a non-
period interior, being set with
wooden chairs and tables,
evidently for talks.

Across a small stretch of field and behind a hedge and wall, we came to the other reconstructed area. 

A Frankish farm. 

Twenty freaking buildings worth of Frankish farm!

A smaller house, showing the wattle
and daub construction.

Again, based on archaeological findings, and painstakingly reconstructed down to the smallest detail (I was particularly taken with the various almost casual arrangements of animal bones in places where they might realistically have been dumped). 

The bit that made me smile (and instruct James to take several photos of) was a display of naturally dyed wool, hanging both inside and out of one of the buildings. If like me, you struggle to be sure that your Dark Ages armies are painted in convincing colours, then you might find the following images rather useful.

So. There you have it. I strongly recommend a visit, but do take a dictionary, a good camera, and someone who speaks decent French.