Rendezvous - Fort de Chartres

For a number of years we have talked about attending the Rendezvous at Fort de Chartres in Illinois.

Unfortunately we'd usually think about the Rendezvous at the wrong time of the year and the planets were never aligned properly for us to attend during the correct time of year - until today :)

"Fort de Chartres State Historic Site hosts the largest rendezvous in the Midwest with over a thousand participants, hundreds of encampments, and thousands of visitors joining in on the festivities. Based on the traditional French fur trapper’s rendezvous where trappers and traders would meet at a predetermined location to trade furs for necessities, the rendezvous was the highlight of the fur trapper’s year...."

The boy didn't seem all that excited about the whole deal - which is somewhat surprising knowing his bent towards all things military-ish. I thought it was interesting but a one-time visit is enough for me...I did enjoy listening to the bagpipes.

The girl bought a bag of mixed beads and the boy bought a large wooden sword :)

"Ice-cold lemonade" called the man pulling the wagon with the crock of lemonade. The girl and I were "dying of thirst" so I bought some. It was NOT ice-cold and it was rather watery. But it was liquid :)

The prices on the food and goods being sold seemed reasonable.

I think some of the "savages" (unlike the two at the top of the page) were a bit too uncivilized in their attire (or the lack thereof)...I guess they were trying to be historically accurate...or maybe just trying to stay cool.