Due to circumstances beyond our control, we were unable to bring you our scheduled guest yesterday. Very sorry. I did not find this out till 25th.
(But we did have a lovely post from Sue Price about policemen in Victorian Music Hall songs).
So, we don't have our expected September competition.
But Elizabeth Chadwick has stepped in to save the day and is kindly offering one precious copy of her new book, The Winter Crown, to the best answer to this question:
"If Eleanor of Aquitaine time-travelled to your doorstep, name three things you would show her/do with her for the day"
(Well, it's not a question but you know what we mean.)
Please use the Comments below for your suggestion and we'll choose the best. Closing date 7th October.
And very unusually, just for this month, the competition is open internationally.
15 comments:
I would take Eleanor to the library to see all the books written about her.
I'd then take her to lunch with Elizabeth Chadwick
Chat with Eleanor about William Marshal
Well, Eleanor adored music, good wine, and elegance. I think I would:
- get her tickets to London Fashion Week, so she could pick out something stunning
- take her to a West End show, perhaps Les Miserables (enough revolution in her life to add some spice to it too...)
- and finally, take her to a fine wine tasting experience, where between glasses, I could ask her about her view of how Henry could have done better :D
A good divorce, custody and financial settlement lawyer for a start...save a lot if bother when she gets back!
Rubik's cubs for those long hours in prison if (a) above didn't work. You can spend hours on these things.
Good quality photos, videos transferred to disk or album, to recall the good times..Languedoc, Paris (not so good), crusades and outremer (fabulous) etc....
I would take her for a picnic at Old Sarum so she could see how different it is today. Then, I would show her evidence of how evil her son John would prove to be, then I would take her to a Katy Perry concert to see how beautiful, fiesty women rule today.
I am pragmatic by nature, hence no wine, music or open-air picnics :-)
Firstly, since I am currently working on a biographical post about Eleanor's daughter Matilda, I would grasp the opportunity and bombard the queen with questions concerning the early years of her daughter, before her departure for Germany.
Secondly, I would invite the ADHD expert so that she could talk with him about her incorrigible hubby and if necessary have a special medication prescribed for him to "settle down", and thus work on improving the intra-familial relations, saving the Angevin domains this way (I assume that Eleanor at my doorstep is the Eleanor from the opening years of her second marriage, as described in the novel).
Thirdly, I would take the Queen to the chemist's to buy the afore-mentioned medication plus other useful drugs (for toothache, headache, diarrhea, and more dangerous diseases). Just in case.
I would ask Alienor (Elizabeth Chadwick's spelling, I like it better) to please set the record straight: Did she or didn't she with Uncle Raymond?
Speaking as one happy Canadian (who is thrilled to be able to enter):
I'd definitely want to share some of the excellent and also silly things that people have written about her and her family (and I had better hope she really does have a sense of humour, which I've always thought she did).
I'd share some "new world" produce with her, just for fun.
And I'd tour some of the remains of castles she lived in, and ask her if our interpretations are correct!
Breakfast with Malala Yousafzai, lunch with Hilary Clinton, dinner with the late Margaret Thatcher.
I would show her some of the worst aspects of our world, just to be sure she will go back to her world after a short vacation: I don't think I'd like history to change, what would I do without some of the best HF about the Plantagenets?!
I would take her to an amazing restaurant for lunch so she could try fantastic modern food, and I could catch her up on the last 800 years of history; science, medicine, politics and especially the emancipation of women.
Then we would go on a plane ride over the city, so she could see the world in a way she never would have had the chance to. She always did like an adventure.
And finally I would take her to see some live music, before coming back home, drinking wine and eating pizza, listening to a cross section of musical styles. Giving her a quick lesson in all the amazing forms of popular music over the years, that all started back with the troubadours, in the court of her and her family.
I would take her to an amazing restaurant for lunch so she could try fantastic modern food, and I could catch her up on the last 800 years of history; science, medicine, politics and especially the emancipation of women.
Then we would go on a plane ride over the city, so she could see the world in a way she never would have had the chance to. She always did like an adventure.
And finally I would take her to see some live music, before coming back home, drinking wine and eating pizza, listening to a cross section of musical styles. Giving her a quick lesson in all the amazing forms of popular music over the years, that all started back with the troubadours, in the court of her and her family.
I would introduce her to tea and coffee since the poor thing lived too early for either, then "The Lion in Winter" movie and finally ice cream. All the ice cream flavors possible to try.
I would take her to a cafe in the city (I live near SF), and we would sit outside and people-watch while drinking mochas (she needs to try coffee *and* chocolate!) and eating something delicious. While there, I would try to bring her up to date on 800 years of history, as well as get a few of my own questions answered. I'd have my laptop with me, and we'd use Google Earth to visit any place she has a hankering to see again (and try to skype with someone there, so she could experience that), and look up her and any of her family members, friends, or enemies on the internet to see what history has said about them (and give her a chance to set the story straight!).
I'd take her to a supermarket -- we'd get tomatoes and bananas and other tropical fruits and cheetos and ice cream and more chocolate and anything else that looks interesting. Plus some foodstuffs that are familiar to her (whatever she wants!), so she can experience them in their current form. And we'd look at what's in everyone else's carts and comment on it!
And I'd take her to the university (I live near Stanford) so she can see vibrant young men and women (especially women!) engaged in a variety of intellectual, scientific, athletic and artistic pursuits. We'd be sure to stop at the campus church so she could take a break in a place that is peaceful and familiar to her at least in concept.
I'd really love to take her to St John the Evanlegist chapel in the Tower, but think it would be too heartbreaking for her (& we'd have to fly from Can, which would be exciting)
An outing of fine dining, wine, & tango.....hook her up with a hot man to teach her the original Argentinian.
Back at my place, with more wine followed by Cognac & sweets, discuss her life in Acquitaine, her children esp Joanna, our marriages (disclosing all secrets), & let her know that, sadly, some things in that department have not changed in all these 800 years. Oh, I'd have given her a pair of my leggings, trendy tunic, & sport socks to show her what real comfort is!
Post a Comment