Empowering Communities Through Living Heritage
At Les Amis de Bois Richeux, our programs are designed to break down barriers between academic historical research and everyday civic life. We believe that heritage preservation should not be a spectators' pastime reserved for elite institutions, but an active, shared community practice that brings diverse generations together around meaningful, tangible work.
All workshops, field sessions, guided educational tours, and lectures organized at Bois Richeux are operated on a strict non-profit basis. We do not sell commercial tickets or charge commercial fees. Public school groups attend free of charge through departmental cultural subsidies.
"All membership fees and dues are fully reinvested in the association's public interest missions."
Traditional Masonry & Vernacular Timber Conservation
The authentic limestone rubble walls, timber-framed facades, and flagstone court of Bois Richeux require continuous preventive maintenance to prevent moisture infiltration and stone spalling caused by winter freeze-thaw cycles. Our conservation workshop brings together volunteer citizens, architecture students, and master craftsmen for hands-on restoration campaigns.
Workshop Curricula & Field Activities
- Traditional Mortar Preparation: Learning the chemistry and application of aerial lime (CL 90) and natural hydraulic lime (NHL 2 and NHL 3.5), mixed with washed river sand and pozzolanic additives without Portland cements.
- Stone Consolidation & Raking: Removing decaying modern cement patches that trap humidity, cleaning joint beds with brass brushes and water misting, and dry-fitting replacement limestone from local quarries.
- Historic Timber Joinery: Assisting carpenter volunteers in documenting mortise-and-tenon joints, dressing green oak timbers with adzes and drawknives, and securing joints with hand-carved wooden pegs (chevilles).
- Safety Standards & Protocols: Comprehensive scaffolding safety briefings, mandatory hard hats, reinforced leather gloves, protective eye goggles, and ergonomic lifting instruction provided before every session.
Schedule: Bi-weekly sessions on alternating Saturday mornings (9:00 AM – 1:00 PM), April through October. Free participation with association membership insurance.
Botanical Stewardship & The Medieval Kitchen Garden
Reconstructed using plans documented in medieval monastic cartularies and Charlemagne's famous Capitulare de villis, our medieval garden is divided into raised wooden wattle beds (plessis) woven from hazel and chestnut branches. The garden illustrates how medieval rural communities integrated food crops, natural medicine, and artisan textiles in an organic, closed-loop ecosystem.
Garden Zones & Educational Cultivation
- The Herbarium (Medicinal Simples): Sage (Salvia officinalis), hyssop, rue, feverfew, elecampane, and angelica cultivated for historical pharmacological study and educational botanical identification.
- The Hortus (Vegetables & Legumes): Heritage varieties of skirret, parsnip, broad beans, lentils, leeks, and cardoons cultivated through ancient companion planting that naturally deters insect pests.
- The Tinctorial Plot (Dye Plants): Woad (Isatis tinctoria) producing royal blue, madder (Rubia tinctorum) for rich crimson, and weld (Reseda luteola) for brilliant yellow, used in public textile demonstrations.
- Heirloom Seed Preservation: Community seed-saving workshops where participants learn to clean, dry, and store open-pollinated seeds to foster regional plant biodiversity and resilience against changing climates.
Schedule: Every Wednesday morning (9:30 AM – 12:30 PM) and the first Sunday of each month. Open to all ages and experience levels.
School Educational Field Days & Civic History Pedagogy
Primary and middle schools across Eure-et-Loir participate in our accredited educational discovery modules. Developed in alignment with national educational curricula in history, earth sciences, and visual arts, our pedagogical workshops immerse children in the daily reality of medieval society.
Core Educational Modules for Public Schools
- Module A: Medieval Script & Illumination: Students prepare goose feather quills, mix natural mineral pigments (ochre, lapis lazuli, malachite) with egg tempera, and practice Gothic cursive calligraphy on parchment.
- Module B: The Science of Medieval Bread: Grinding historical wheat on rotary stone querns, studying natural sourdough fermentation, and observing traditional wood-fired baking in the reconstructed communal oven.
- Module C: Master Builders & Geometry: Utilizing the knotted rope (corde à treize nœuds) to calculate Pythagorean right angles, assembling scaled timber roof models, and carving soft limestone blocks with wooden mallets.
- Module D: Rural Ecology in the Middle Ages: Exploring how medieval estates managed timber woodlots, crop rotation, and water conservation without fossil fuels or synthetic chemicals.
Teacher Booking Guidelines: School visits are organized on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the academic terms. Bookings must be requested at least four weeks in advance via our official non-profit contact office.
Public Archaeology Field Days & Cartographic Research
Under the guidance of professional archaeologists and university researchers, our association hosts non-invasive archaeological surveying and historical documentation sessions. Rather than conducting destructive excavations, our focus is on advanced digital documentation, field walking, and archival deed correlation.
Research Initiatives
- LiDAR and Photogrammetry: Assisting university teams in capturing 3D point-cloud scans of the medieval timber frame to detect sub-millimeter structural shifts over time.
- Stratigraphic Drawing & Recording: Teaching volunteers how to measure architectural elevations, identify masonry phases, and maintain standardized archaeological recording sheets.
- Ceramic Typology & Conservation: Cataloging post-medieval and medieval pottery shards found in agricultural topsoils, establishing chronological timelines for rural tableware in the Pierres region.
Participation in all programs is open to any resident or visitor regardless of financial situation. No commercial fees or entrance tickets are ever charged. We invite you to join our active circle of volunteer stewards today.