Wednesday 12th September, it is 7:30 and we just can't get up. Our night was short because of some loud actors in the streets of Compiègne at 2:30. Getting ready took at least 5 hours (for each eye). We were the last at breakfast (again), but the others didn't sleep with an open window...
Today, we've decided to leave early to buy food for lunch, so that we don't need an hour and a half to get our lunch. On the Hotel Lady's advice, we found a supermarket. I'm sure you have all stared at a shelf wondering what you're gonna get, well, that always happens to me, but this time, it was 6 people staring at the sandwitch shelf with no idea of what to get. Because right after breakfast, it is psychologically hard to think of what you will want to eat at 1pm when you are starving and frozen... Everybody finds food and we are on our way to the castle.
As it is (almost) sunny, and as we're happy and need to wake up (and because there's nothing on the radio), I turn Walking on Sunshine on, the Pierrefonds Family anthem. Camera is out to film, praying for not having the finger on the microphone (well I did, at the beginning...) , a big moment of music, improvised choregraphy, with nothing to envy to Colin and Bradley's You're The Voice.
We arrived a bit before 10, just in time to get in the line for the tickets. It's wednesday, there are kids everywhere, people everywhere, this day will be full of people!
We join Zakia and Yasmine, who were there way earlier than us (again), and who tell us that all the cast was here early in the morning, and that they all left... Great! The castle opens and as the crowd goes in, who is here? Mister Vlavla!!! Vlavla freaked out a little when he saw all those people, but Vlavla is so damn cute that he focused again very quickly. After few minutes of settings, we are asked to be quiet and Vlavla starts his scene. It is very simple: Mordred leaves the castle, going behind a guard as if the guard couldn't see him... Okay, we're used to it, Camelot has the worst guards ever, it's been like this for 5 seasons now... Let's come back to Vlavla for 2 minutes please, because Vlavla is so adorable with his cutie pie face, smiling to everyone, his tea in his hands, with his name written on his cup, and as we're already all under his charm, he takes his iPhone out, takes photos and waves at us. Awwww.... It's a real problem for me that Vlavla is so cute, because he's Mordred, and Vlavla being Mordred will make me unable to hate Mordred!! Yes Mordred the traitor who will cause the end of Albion, the bad guy!!! Whatever...
We will later learn that Colin was filming in front of the castle, we won't even see him.
So we're waiting.... Vlavla shoots his scene again and again and again, so we go sit and watch the crew placing a gallows in the middle of the courtyard. We start to be cold and we notice some movements in the crowd, the kind of movement that means that someone is coming. And what??? Coming in the middle of the fans Bradley and Tom with their casual clothes, with a blonde lady. What is going on? Bradley is smiling, is not looking down, is waving at people, wait what?? They say hi to Vlavla still shooting and they go inside the castle. After few minutes, they appear on the balcony, and Bradley keeps waving at fans, WHAT IS GOING ON? There are 2 kinds of reactions in the crowd: the newbies of Pierrefonds who are very happy and take photos and videos, and the people who are used to Pierrefonds and who just don't recognize Bradley, so we're looking at each other and we don't understand what's happening, have they changed our Bradley? Why is he smiling? We quickly learn that the blonde lady with them is Bradley's mum, and it's not hard to guess as they basically have the same face.
It's lunch time and we're asked to leave the castle. We find a nice spot in front of the castle to eat the food we bought in the morning while we were not awake yet. Sarah takes Baby Flag out to make fans sign on it and waaaaah Baby Flag is famous! The sun joins the party and we can warm up a little (only a little, it's still -15°C, at least).
We start to get bored when an army of knights arrives, walking down the road between the base camp and the castle. And in the middle of the knight, the Merlin car!! Everybody takes position at the entrance to see Eoin getting out of the car, with a peach in the mouth, and taking his stuff out of the trunk. There was Richard too, but we will only see it watching our videos back in the hotel that night...
We are allowed to go back in, happy to be able to see the main cast shooting. Well not this time kids, only our beloved French extras are in the courtyard, on the main staircase. Eoin and Richard are filming inside. The crew takes place around the gallows, someone's gonna get hanged!!
[SPOILER] Erin (the blonde girl who was laughing loudly in the street at 2am) is sentenced to death, once, twice, three, 45 000 times... Extras are falling asleep one after another on the stairs (photos as proof!), and I am feeling sleepy too, against my wall, playing on my Game Boy Color breaking 10 year-old Tetris records.
As I look up to see if Erin is finally dead... What it's a brunette now? There are 2 hangings in Camelot? What's going on? What's Merlin doing? And we can hear laughing from the balcony, and clapping as the brunette girl dies. Mister Eoin is in break and watches the ladies die. Eoin smiles, Eoin laughs, the crew members strike pauses for the fans, we can see that they're working very hard, and most of all, we can feel that's the laughters of the end. You know this feeling of fun and happiness you have the last week of class, the last days of camp, this good mood right before the sadness of leaving...
As we're a bit tired of watching girls not dying, we decide to take everyone (I mean the Pierrefonds Team of course) to the throne room and say hello to our Round Table (yes, I say "our" because as we discovered the Table back in June when nobody knew yet it was there, I feel like it's ours...) and the royal thrones. As we quickly move from room to room, with a stop in the "Who Wants Can" room (some classics are worth a stop), here we are and.... No Round Table!!! Seriously guys?? it's wednesday and you already took the Table away? The good thing is that they don't need the "Salle des Preuses" (that's the throne room's real name) anymore, and if they don't need the Salle des Preuses, that means outside shooting *Prayer so that outside shooting doesn't mean up there in the woods where you're not allowed to go* . We still enjoy the beauty of the room, and not having the Table means there is plenty of space to slide!! As we go to the window to enjoy the view, we notice that Eoin is STILL on break, that the crew is STILL laughing and that Jacob joined them, and that he's not wearing a jacket anymore \ o /
As we're alone in the room, we crown Yasmine, Queen of Camelot, 100% realistic remake of Gwen's crowning (and maybe even better, because it stars us!). We leave the room quietly because Eoin is shooting somewhere around. As we exit, we visit a room we've never seen before. That's also the Magic of Pierrefonds, you discover new rooms everytime :-)
As it's almost 5 and nothing else than the 350 871st take of the hanging, we decide te leave before the crowd so that we can find a good spot close to the gate but on the trucks' way.
All the cast leaves pretty early so we leave too. We decide to go to the Chinese restaurant we didn't go on our first night because of the knights eating steak across the street. That is our last night at 8, Sarah and Jenny are going back to England the next day and Zakia has to go back to work. Even though we were not given an extra chair for Bradley (cf Day 2), we had a lovely evening full of laughter.
Goodbye Zakia and Yasmine who are going back to Paris, as we go back to our hotel and watch tv all evening. We kept our window open, but nobody woke us up by coming back late...