France: Oudart Renty & Tempus Fugit!

(c) Pattin

Today we speak with Arnaud Pattin.-Known to many of you in the 14th Century Reenactment world as Oudart de Renty. We speak about his reenactment and living history efforts, recreating the Knight who originally had as his Mensie, the village Pattin lives in today.



Q: How long have you been doing medieval reenactment?

A: I have been involved in medieval reenactment since 2005, But I wanted to do such things many years before that.

Q:What made you choose the time period you reenact?

A: I choose the beginning of the 15th Century as it was the period of my first group -"la compagnie de Saint Martin" and also because it is an interesting time period in European history, the middle of the Hundred Years War and the rising of a new land: Burgundy.

Q:Has it been difficult to find or buy equipment?

A: At the beginning it was very difficult to find good equipment. We wanted to be as near of history, of the artifacts, of the period, but very few manufacturers or merchants were doing such things. 

(c) Pattin
Box and Seal of Oudart de Renty

Q:Do you make any of your equipment, or do you purchase your clothes and such from a medieval style merchant?

A:So we decided to make ourselves the most part of our equipment, and to sew all of our clothes, and our shoes, by hand, in the same manner of the middle ages. For that we first used such books as, "The Medieval Tailors Assistant" and then, more and more serious books about excavations and archaeological searches. Only arms and armours were made by professional skilled workers.

Q: When doing your reenactment-do you have rules about what can or cannot be seen?

A:When doing our reenactment we have only one rule: Everything shown to the public must be strictly historical, proved by finds, and from our area-(south Flanders and northern France.)

Q:How many years has it taken for you to achieve the level of reenactment that you have?

A:It has taken many years to reach our actual level. I had to wait more than two years for my actual armour, so I didn't wear it for four or five years of reenactment. Every year we try to do better.

Q:Tell us about  "Tempus Fugit." What is its purpose?

A: "Tempus Fugit" is my own group. I've created it because I've discovered a special character:

messier Oudart de Renty who was a very noble man-at-arms at the beginning of the 15th Century, and was the landlord of the county, and the village where I actually live. With "Tempus Fugit" we're trying to recreate his retinue. It's quite the same goal as the "Bell Company" has in the United States.

Q:How many people are in "Tempus Fugit?"

A: There are six adults and four children currently.

(c) Pattin

(c) Pattin
Mensie of Oudart de Renty

Q:Do you use "Tempus Fugit" as a vehicle to teach others about history?

A:Yes, absolutely. When I do not reenact, I am also proposing "Conferences" (Speeches) on this subject, because I used to be a history teacher at the ULCO (University of Boulogne/Dunkerque Northern France)

(c) Pattin

                                                                      "Assaulting the Wall"

                                                                 Festival D'Histoire Vivant

                                                                           6 July 2009

(c) Grunwald official site

Oudart de Renty, Przemyslaw Rey, Piotr Niemiec-Miskiewicz, and Pavel Ferenc

2010 Battle of Grunwald

Q: Recently you went to Churburg Castle in Southern Tyrol. What was that like?

A: I went to Churburg (Castle Coira) to visit the famous museum and armoury with some friends of mine who live there and are involved in "Gesellschaft des Elefanten" or "Company of the Elephants." Which is a very good group who reenact the same period as us. They also organize each year, in October, a tournament in South Tyrol-(Laurin Tournament) This trip to the  South Tyrol was planned many years ago. I was very happy to discover the armours we are trying to copy.  The country around the castle is also fabulous. It is what we call  "ferrique" or fairies in French.

(c) Pattin

Churburg Castle Gate House

"Tempus Fugit" Also have a video link of their efforts:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc8ts7_tempus-fugit-la-mesnie-d-oudart-de_creation

Oudart de Renty and "Tempus Fugit" can be seen at their website:

http://tempusfugit1.free.fr/cariboost1/index.html

I would like to thank Arnaud Pattin for his time, and for his willingness to share his pursuit of history. Merci Beaucoup!

All my best!

DS Baker