After a relaxing Sunday working on a boot fair, to earn the princely sum of 97p (don't ask) we decided to head down to The medieval fair in Hurstmonceux this bank holiday.
This was the 18th fair and the event is said to be the biggest three day event of its kind - as it is The only one I know I can not say if it is or not, but it was quite big - the event consists of a medieval market which had a wide variety of goods, mostly jewelry and new age products along with a quite fascinating array of weapons, I stopped short of picking up a mace. Along side the medieval market was the food court, we had a hog roast and a glass of mead as we like to be authentic where we can, if you prefer however there was always ye olde donnor meat and chips. There was also a living history village, where you could chat to a blacksmith or learn to shoot a bow and arrow.
The main "show" aspect were two battles fought between the houses of York and Lancaster, this featured a siege of the castle including a cabbage firing trebuchette which was very good. I can't say if it was worth the £17 admission fee but it was a good day, after all how often do you get to ask if they take "ye olde credite carde"
this consists of two spiral staircases that were intertwined so that as you walked down through the staircase you can see people on the other staircase and yet you never meet them. 
As well as the various rooms which have been preserved to give you an idea of the “relative” luxury that the French Kings lived in (And also how short they all were.) there was a very interesting exhibit on the Art in the Second World War, basically when invasion looked imminent the Department of Arts in Paris set up plans to move the most important works of Art into hiding, including the Mona Lisa, Chambord was one of the sites chosen. Personally I would have buried them under a small shack rather than place them into a 90 roomed palace as I would have thought that a giant palace would be the first place you would look for valuable art, but that’s just me.
Anyway it was interesting the role that this French Civil Service took in protecting these works of art, even having double agents working for the Germans keeping track of where they were taken, credit also has to be given to Chambord for not trying to hide the fact that after surrendering to the Germans the French Government handed over the works of arts created or owned by Jewish, or deemed unsuitable, in return for being left with the rest in their control. I have been to several exhibitions in France about the Second World War and think this is the first that in anyway acknowledged that there was a collaboration with Nazi Germany, I should point out that I do not necessarily blame the Vichy Government for collaboration with the Germans as they had very little alternative with France falling and continuing the war from North Africa likely to incur massive retribution on their citizens, however it is important that the decisions made in history are not hidden from scrutiny where they may then be made again. Anyway after looking around we entered the massive gift shop where we bought a sample of the Chambord Liquor before heading off to our Hotel in Normandy. 
Saumer castle was very impressive on the approach and we were delighted after the disappointment of Chinon to see people peering over the battlements (Thankfully unarmed) which implied that the castle was open, we stopped in the café in the courtyard for a quick drink and to feed the baby, on leaving the café via the open air seating area we discovered we had accidentally bypassed the entrance and were now inside the castle grounds. Being of good character however we made our way back outside and purchased tickets anyway. Whilst buying our tickets which were very reasonable at 3€ we were unfortunately informed that the castle was undergoing refurbishments and as a result only the grounds and the inner courtyard were open, along with a very interesting museum of the horse, it was a shame but there was still enough to see including magnificent views of the river and obviously the castle itself. 
So 6€ 50 lighter we found ourselves stumbling around in some very dark caves learning all about how they manufacture mushroom manure, this really is as interesting as it sounds, After stumbling from cave to cave we eventually got to some information on how they grow the mushrooms as well as mushroom production through the ages, this was interesting but not enough to justify the entrance fee, the other exhibits which included “A collection of Stones found in the Loire River.” & “An Impression of what a strange looking mushroom might look like.” We got to the last three caves “Random Photographs taken by the Mushroom Society Members” and decided it was time to set a course towards the exit. 
