If you like watching other people work hard
July 1, 2020 3:31 PM   Subscribe

Ruth Goodman (of Victorian-Farm-and-many-other-historical-series fame, previously and previously), Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold have traveled across the Channel to help build a French castle using 13th century tools.
posted by clawsoon (26 comments total) 38 users marked this as a favorite
 
Is this new, or is this the 2014 Secrets of the Castle series? Just asking before I let myself get too excited about "omg omg new Ruth Goodman series!"
posted by Lexica at 3:57 PM on July 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


It's the 2014 series.
posted by jedicus at 4:02 PM on July 1, 2020


Okay, cool. Looks like it's time for a rewatch!
posted by Lexica at 4:17 PM on July 1, 2020


Ah, I apologize. I saw the recent date on it and didn't realize it was from one of the series already posted in those previouslies. Hopefully worth the re-watch for those who have seen it already! (And I'm guessing that this is a shortened summary of the longer series - is that correct?)
posted by clawsoon at 4:22 PM on July 1, 2020


I loved the bit where they had the blind people working that one piece of equipment because they didn’t get disoriented being up in the air.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:39 PM on July 1, 2020


It looks like the channel has other episodes. It's worth having because the videos are usually taken down, which is frustrating for US viewers since they weren't issued on US compatible DVD's, except for Edwardian Farm I think. And sometimes the uploads are poor quality.
posted by Botanizer at 4:42 PM on July 1, 2020


Hey! My daughter visited Guedelon a couple summers ago when she was staying in France with some family friends to practice her French. She wants to go back and do an internship there, we were hoping for next summer, pandemic depending.
posted by padraigin at 5:28 PM on July 1, 2020 [3 favorites]


This is SO cool. I'm 5 minutes in and I can tell I'm going to watch it all.

As a former development professional my immediate question was "who in hell is paying for all this," but Wikipedia has the answer:

In 1979, French entrepreneur Michel Guyot purchased the ruins of the Château de Saint-Fargeau and began restoring it with profits raised on-site. In late 1995, a study by Guyot's staff revealed the medieval foundations beneath the modern, brick structure, complete with a hypothesized plan of the original castle. Guyot built the existing château after some consideration, but began assembling funds and experts and opening negotiations with the French government to build a new castle. Over five months in 1997, Guyot raised €400,000 from the European Union, local and the central French governments, and commercial entities.

I wonder if it's commercially viable now as a tourist attraction, or if it still needs subsidies. All those skilled workers can't be cheap.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:35 PM on July 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


Worth a rewatch for sure. I always enjoy Ruth Goodman and Peter Ginn working hard at things. Any things. They both have a knack for explaining and demonstrating without preening.
posted by janell at 6:56 PM on July 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


The website for this project is here. You can actually go there and work in various capacities if you’re over the age of 16, and speak French. It’s in a really gorgeous part of France.
posted by padraigin at 7:55 PM on July 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


I seldom click through to a video link and do more than save it for later. Not so with this. I clicked and was immediately absorbed. Fascinating and beautifully filmed.
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:39 PM on July 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


We've just finished watching this series! The kids (and I) are building our paper maché castles and making plans for our trebuchet sieges.

So now we have started Wartime Farm and thinking of starting a pig club and how to stretch our fat rations!
posted by Sauter Vaguely at 9:42 PM on July 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


I think there may have been a previously on this years ago?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:19 PM on July 1, 2020


I wonder if it's commercially viable now as a tourist attraction, or if it still needs subsidies. All those skilled workers can't be cheap.
From various sources, it seems that it's 100% supported by visitors and merchandising with no subsidies. The annual budget was 5 M € in 2017. 75% of the money is spent on salaries. There are about 70 employees (some part-time), plus hundreds of interns. Also, everything is sourced or made locally, and power is only from humans and animals, which saves money on materials and fuel. What makes this business model paradoxical is that while doing is that way is very, very slow, it attracts visitors and makes money because it is slow.
posted by elgilito at 4:47 AM on July 2, 2020 [3 favorites]


FYI, none of the links in the first "previous" are good.
posted by cooker girl at 7:40 AM on July 2, 2020


Big fan of the Farm series' and all the other things these guys have done. Would love to know if they have done anything recently I should try to track down? Alex Langlands wrote a book a couple of years ago ("Craft"), but haven't come across anything else in popular media from this crew for a couple of years. Not in the UK, don't pay for any TV services except Netflix and the occasional thing on Amazon so I only can get bootleg BBC stuff on Youtube.
posted by thefool at 8:25 AM on July 2, 2020


Looks like Ruth Goodman's most recent project has been "Inside the Factory". I haven't looked for videos for it yet, but here's an article about it.
posted by clawsoon at 8:47 AM on July 2, 2020


Thanks clawsoon. Of course I could just check IMDB! https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1215053/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 I never saw "Coast", Ruth was on some of those I guess? So there's one to search out.
posted by thefool at 9:10 AM on July 2, 2020


Oh I love this! There are people who have been working there the whole 17 years, that's absolutely incredible.
posted by FirstMateKate at 9:55 AM on July 2, 2020


Has there ever been a butcher in a Ruth Goodman documentary? I keep seeing these chicken that they put in the in-between shots and thinking about Chekov's gun. If you introduce a bunch of chickens in a medieval documentary, surely it's going to get its head chopped off at some point...? Especially with all this concurrent talk of axe-making.
posted by clawsoon at 10:04 AM on July 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


padraigin: The website for this project is here. You can actually go there and work in various capacities if you’re over the age of 16, and speak French. It’s in a really gorgeous part of France.

Oooh, looks like the castle has its own multi-episode video series, Les feux de Guédelon. It's in French, but with English subtitles. Added to the queue!
posted by clawsoon at 10:10 AM on July 2, 2020 [4 favorites]


Errr. On preview ignore my post (below). Got so excited about new to me stuff. Sorry!

The website for this project is here.

Thanks, padraigin!

The project website has lots of videos, and while they are in French, they appear to have English subtitles.
posted by terrapin at 3:31 PM on July 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


Has there ever been a butcher in a Ruth Goodman documentary?

They don't show the moment of slaughter, but in at least one of the Farm series (Victorian, I think) Ruth plucks and cooks one of the turkeys they had been raising. And they butchered a hog in Tales from the Green Valley and Wartime Farm.
posted by Lexica at 4:31 PM on July 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'm most of the way through the castle's own series, and I'm amused by how often they talk about what the imaginary Lord of Guédelon would've wanted. I'm not sure if it means that the 13th century builders could've accomplished the same thing without a lord had they wanted to, or if it means that 21st century builders couldn't accomplish it without at least an imaginary lord.
posted by clawsoon at 7:55 PM on July 2, 2020


Thank you for this post!! To say this is relevant to my interests would be a gross understatement!

I’ve spent the past few days watching through both “Victorian Pharmacy” and “Secrets of the Castle”. Awesome documentaries, and I was sad when each of them were done.

Next up: “Wartime Kitchen and Garden”, if I can find all the episodes.

Would love to get copies of these for the Darkstarchive. Awesome post — thanks again!
posted by darkstar at 5:05 PM on July 4, 2020


(To follow up: the “Wartime Kitchen and Garden” BBC series — referenced in one of the “Previouslies” above — is good, but it is not a Ruth Goodman documentary.)
posted by darkstar at 5:49 PM on July 5, 2020


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