The Jousting Life: France

Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

A Look Back at the 2015 Jousting Season of Association Chevalerie Initiatique

Written by Alexandre Leon of Association Chevalerie Initiatique

In 2015, Association Chevalerie Initiatique participated in more than ten events in France and Belgium. The troupe also participated in tournaments from Crèvecoeur, Fontainbleau and Agincourt to the castles of the Loire.

Jousters of Association Chevalerie Initiatique, left to right: Alexander Leon, Arnaud Leon, Quentin Ricolleau, Marie Meunier, Benjamin Neel and Meryl Bunout (photo by Eric Meunier)

The 2015 season was hectic, not just because of changes in equipment and horses, but also changes in jousters. Chevaleri Initiatique does not stop striving to improve materially, technically and historically. During this season, we participated in a few atypical events, such as the parade at the Grand Palace of Bruxelle. We also had eight riders who participated in the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt.

Florent Meriel jousts Alexandre Leon (photo by Eric Meunier)

In 2015, we also introduced a new generation of jousters. Marie Meunier, a young lady of 17 and Benjamin Benjamin Neel, a 24-year-old man, both donned armor, joining the more experienced team members of the troupe. Their addition brings the average age of the team to 24 years. The younger jousters earned a couple of victories during tournaments this season. For example, at a tournament at the Château du Rivau, Quentin Ricolleau(21 years) became champion during a jousting competition based on the Tournament of King Rene, which set the count of Brézé against that of Rivau.

Quentin Ricolleau receives first prize for winning the Tournament at the Château du Rivau
(photo by Eric Meunier)

And we should not forget Valentin Colle, who won at the Tournaments of Agincourt. And Florent Meriel, who was the Champion of Brézé.

Florent Meriel(left) jousts Alexandre Leon(right) at the Château de Crèvecoeur, August, 2015
(photo by Eric Meunier)

These young jousters exhibited a general level of accomplishment which continued to increase, following the example of the older riders.

Marie Meunier, a young jouster at Château du Rivau, August, 2015 (photo by Eric Meunier)

However the more experienced riders were not outdone because the current president of Association Chevalerie Initiatique, Meryl Bunout, won a whole lot of the events of Ommegang of Brussels. And Arnaud Leon won the tournaments on his lands of Chambines!

Arnaud Leon at the Tournament of Chambines 2015 (photo by Eric Meunier)

At the end of the 2015 season, the general ranking was:

1. Meryl Bunout
2. Alexandre Leon
3. Arnaud Leon
4. Quentin Ricolleau
5. Valentin Colle
6. Jérôme Sauterel
7. Florent Meriel
8. Marie Meunier
9. Benjamin Neel

Meryl Bunout(left) and Alexander Leon (right) at Château du Rivau 2015 (photo by Eric Meunier)

This past season was outstanding, we competed at magnificent castles and the audiences were great! However, we knew all the same during this season full of changes how to maintain the family context which allows this chivalrous adventure to continue. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Virginia Léon, Virginia Miller and all the others who work behind the scenes to allow this association to evolve; without them nothing would be possible, and we could not continue to compete in front of the crowds!

The 2016 season looks even more full than 2015 was, with more events and thus more shows. We hope that 2016 will be even bigger and better than previous years.

For more information about Association Chevalerie Initiatique, check out their website and Facebook page. You can also email them.

Valentin Colle(left) jousts Alexander Leon(right) at Château du Rivau 2015 (photo by Eric Meunier)

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Competitive Jousting Tournament to be Held at Château du Plessis-Bourré

Many thanks to Marion Derouet for providing the following information:

On the weekend of September 5 - 6, a jousting tournament based on the writings of King Rene of Anjou will take place on the grounds of the beautiful Château du Plessis-Bourré, a fifteenth century moated castle with a drawbridge in the Loire Valley in France. Le Tournoi de l'Ordre de Saint Michel (aka the Tournament of the Order of St Michael) will be comprised of both mounted and ground competitions, including: jousting, mounted melee, mounted skill at arms, foot combat and archery. On Saturday evening, there will also be fifteenth century style feast.

Left: Tournament organizer Michael Sadde (photo provided by the Order of St Michael)

The tournament is hosted by Les Ecuyers de l'Histoire and has been organized by the current leader of Les Ecuyers, Michael Sadde, who will also be competing in the tournament.
Left: Tournament organizer Michael Sadde (photo provided by the Order of St Michael)

Other members of Les Ecuyers who will be competing in the tournament include Quentin Laurent and Lois Forster. Michael Sadde (Swan crest) and Quentin Laurent (Sunburst crest) are featured in the following video which was created to promote the upcoming Tournament of the Order of St Michael.

Announcing the Tournament of the Order of St Michael 2015 (video by Le Marquis)

The competitive jousting tournament will include a total of six jousters of five different nationalities:

Michael Sadde, French

Quentin Laurent, Belgian

Lois Forster, French

Dominic Sewell, English

Joram Van Essen, New Zealand

Arne Koets, Dutch

The Tournament is based on the idea of the historic Chevaliers de l'Ordre de St Michael(Knights of the Order of St Michael) which was created in the fifteenth century by King Louis II.

An illumination of the original Chevaliers de l'Ordre de St Michael
(image provided by Les Ecuyers de l'Histoire)

The re-enactment Knights of the Order of St Michael, Lois Forster, Michael Sadde and Quentin Laurent (photo provided by Les Ecuyers de l'Histoire)

The re-enactment Knights of the Order of St Michael, Xavier, Michael Sadde and Quentin Laurent (photo provided by Les Ecuyers de l'Histoire)

The 15th century French fortress Château du Plessis-Bourré
(photo provided by Les Ecuyers de l'Histoire)

You can find out more about the jousting tournament on the Tournoi de l'Ordre de Saint Michel website and the tournament's Facebook page. Check out the Les Ecuyers de l'Histoire website to learn more about that organization.

To learn more about King Rene of Anjou's Book of the Tournament, click on the Amazon link below:

Monday, January 26, 2015

Promo Video for a New Jousting Tournament to be Held in France

On September 5th & 6th, 2015, Les Ecuyers de l'Histoire will host the Tournament of the Order of St Michael at the Château du Plessis-Bourré in France. They have already released this promotional video for the tournament.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Jeffrey Hedgecock Wins Médiévales Neauphle Le Chateau 2014

The following text and images were provided in their entirety by Gwen Nowrick of WorldJoust:

The first WorldJoust affiliated tournament of the season has been won by Jeffrey Hedgecock of the USA.

Jeff(right) is congratulated on his win by tournament organizer Luc Petillot(left)
(photo by Pauline Massin)

The annual Médiévales Neauphle Le Chateau event is hosted by the Lion’s Club. The event has living history camps and diplays, food, vendors and entertainment, as well as a skill at arms/jousting tournament. The tournament is organized separately by Luc Petillot of ‘Excalibur’. Previously run as an independent tournament, Luc wanted to improve the quality of the tournament, so in 2013 he decided to affiliate with WorldJoust Tournaments, becoming one of four tournaments on the WorldJoust ‘circuit.’

Following the WorldJoust model of invitational tournaments, 6 knights were invited to compete:

Marie Baron, France
Mark Griffin, England
Jeffrey Hedgecock, USA
Luc Petillot, France
Xavier Fauvel, France
Jean-Luc Narbonne, France

Friday’s riding activities were a display/warmup and did not count toward the final scores. The tournament was run on Saturday and Sunday, and consisted of 2 events per day. The morning’s event was skill at arms course which included striking 4 ground shields of decreasing size, quintain, striking a target off a post, ring, javelin throw, cut/thrust, and a halt on a mark to finish. The afternoon’s event was jousting.

On Saturday Jeffrey won the skill at arms but did poorly in the joust. On Sunday he came first in the skill at arms and did well in the joust. The final results of the tournament had Jeffrey winning the Skill at Arms, Marie winning the jousting, and Jeff taking the overall tournament prize for the second year in a row.

Jeffrey shared the victory with second place finisher Marie Baron. Jeffrey explained his decision this way- 'I finished with 60 points, Marie had 59, and the rest of the riders were below 50. Marie rode so well and broke so many lances on Saturday that had she not missed the quintain Sunday morning she would have handily won it. I felt I had to share the win with her.'

In addition to jetlag, one of the challenges facing competitors who travel is riding an unfamiliar horse. Jeff rode 'Diego' a 4 year old Spanish stallion who came from a yard that supplies horses to Napoleonic reenactors. Little was known about the horse, and it was unclear whether he had ever jousted before. Jeff explained ‘I think at first Luc [organizer Luc Petillot] didn't want to tell me that Diego had never jousted. He was rather vague, saying only that he had ridden Diego in armour and that he would be fine with jousting because of all the Napoleonic reenactment Diego had done......canon and all that. Given what he said I wasn't sure if he had jousted or not so I was prepared for anything.’

Jeff and Diego get ready to compete in skill at arms(photo by Pauline Massin)

‘After a pass or two it was clear Diego hadn't jousted. He wasn’t afraid at all, he just didn’t understand the job. Thankfully, with a day of getting to know each other under our belt he trusted me, and being a stallion he was pretty fearless and didn't mind armour, lances or the impact and all. He just needed some "coaching" and a little encouragement to understand what he needed to do in the tilt. My experience with Morro [Jeff’s own stallion at home] gave me the tools I needed to work with, and together we sorted it out. Diego is a great horse with a lot of heart, and really responded to kind, clear and decisive direction. He was amazing for the rest of the tournament, and we made a great team. I look forward to riding him again at [the Napoleonic event at] Waterloo next year.’

Jeff travels to Poland at the end of June to compete in the Tournament of King John at Gniew Castle, the second tournament on the 2014 WorldJoust circuit.

-Gwen Nowrick for WorldJoust Tournaments™

Sunday, May 25, 2014

TV News Coverage of the Tournois de Chevalerie au Chateau de Chambines

The Tournois de Chevalerie au Chateau de Chambines took place May 18 in Hecourt, Eure, France. A French tv show called Culture & Nature created a nice video of the jousting troupe Association Chevalerie Initiatique and their involvement with the tournament.

(video by Maxime Humbert/cultureetnature.fr)

If anyone would like to create an English transcript of the video, it would be much appreciated.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Video of Tournois de Chambines 2014

[UPDATE: I was notified that there were no English jousters involved in this tournament. All the members of the 'English' team were actually French jousters who pretended to be English for the tournament.]

A couple of members of the French jousting troupe Association Chevalerie Initiatique have been trying to share information about their tournaments with me. Unfortunately, their English is a bit limited, and I don't speak French at all. Fortunately, the video and pictures below speak for themselves.

Tournois de Chambines 2014(video by Alexandre Leon)

The Tournois de Chevalerie au Chateau de Chambines took place May 18 in Hecourt, Eure, France. From a google translation of one of the group's Facebook posts, there were two competitions during the tournament. Gérôme Russell of the English team won the first competition,

Gérôme Russell(photo by Billy Baheux)

and Meryl Touque of the French team won the second competition.

Meryl Touque(photo by Billy Baheux)

The photos below were taken by Emilie Peron and Billy Baheux, though a few do not have watermarks, so I cannot credit them properly.

The French team and the English Team(photo by unknown)

Alexandre de Chambines tilts at rings(photo by Emilie Peron)

Arnaud de St Esprit tilts at rings(photo by Emilie Peron)

Valentin de Tourvilles jousting Arnaud de St Esprit(photo by Emilie Peron)

Quentin de Grand Lieu jousting Alexandre de Chambines(photo by Emilie Peron)

Gerome de Russel jousting Arnaud de St Esprit(photo by Emilie Peron)

There was also a Tournois des écuyers(Tournament of the Squires) where children could participate in Mounted Skill at Arms. I'm not sure if scores were kept. No winner was announced as far as I can tell.

Three squires(photo by Billy Baheux)

Squires compete at MSA(photos by Billy Baheux)

You can learn more about the Association Chevalerie Initiatique on their Facebook page.

Related articles:
Jeffrey Hedgecock Wins the "Tournois de la Lance D'Argent 2013"

Competitors From Around the World to Compete at the 2012 European Championship Jousting Tournament

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Jeffrey Hedgecock Wins the "Tournois de la Lance D'Argent 2013"

Article provided by Gwen Nowrick of WorldJoust:

Jeffrey Hedgecock was the winner of the "Tournois de la Lance D'Argent" in Neauphle-le-Chateau near Paris, France this weekend. Riding the Arab mare 'Sybelle', Jeff triumphed over the 13 other competitors in the tournament. In addition to running his own passes, Jeff rode for Canadian competitor Marc Hamel, was forced to retire from the competition due to injuries sustained at the Tournament of King John III in Poland the previous weekend.

As the winner of the tournament Jeff was awarded a new, rotating trophy created this year for the tournament.

Prize for the "Tournois de la Lance D'Argent" (photo provided by Gwen Nowrick)

The sword and carved stone base were made on site by craftsmen over the weekend. It is a rotating trophy which will stay on display in France, to be won by someone new each year. Jeffrey is the first winner.

The jousting trophy depicting a silver lance was forged by the blacksmith at Castle Gniew in Poland. This trophy will return with Jeff to his home in California as a memento and reminder of a memorable European tour with great friends.

Jousting trophy for the "Tournois de la Lance D'Argent" (photo provided by Gwen Nowrick)

Jeffrey Hedgecock is a member of the Order of the Crescent. He is the master armourer at Historic Arms and Armour, and the principal instructor at WorldJoust Tournaments' Knight School.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Random Pic

American jouster Steve Hemphill must ride in the back with the saddles and the tack on the way to the Verneuil-sur-Avre medieval faire and jousting tournament in Normandy, France.