The first Roman festival in Vicques for the inauguration of the information pavilion concerning the Roman villa that stood there 2,000 years ago.
The pavillion is a mini museum with big windows showing and models and copies of the object found on this site. No need to observe visiting hours, the collection can be seen day and night all year through. The event was planned to be festive, but most of all informative and educational. The local group of Volonteers (Groupement pour la revalorisation de la villa romaine de Vicques) did a spledid job indeed.
The museum and educational character was reinforced by the information booths specially organised for the event. Several groups of University members and top level artisans in search of mastering their specialised fragment of antique knowledge and know-how are united in the group ANIMARC. Their aspiration is the practical transmission of archaeological information in a practical way.
More then 650 school kids and 1000 visitors of the region could listen, see and touch and participate in a voyage to the past. They had the rare occasion to live a small fragment of the past from 2,000 years ago through an exceptional didactical and educational material no school could afford. Each booth opened a small window into the huge wall that is barring the view on the past.
A phrase about exploring the past I repeated often during those two days: “An occasional look behind to the past is useful when you are on a ride to the future, this is why the windshield is larger than the rearview mirror… and driving without it can be dangerous.”
Some more impressions and pictures posted by Francis de Andrade on picasaweb the local news and the AnimArc gallery.
I would’ve loved to see your table there.
I did something similar just a week prior at our end of season festival.
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Of course my collection is nowhere near as big, or well made, as yours.