Our Blog - Summer 2024 Trip - Saint Joseph's Village near Calais, France

One of the few "tourist" things that we did in the 2 days relaxing before taking the Channel Tunnel to England was a visit to Saint Joseph's Village. For 30 years, a family of artisans has been reconstructing an authentic village illustrating life in France between 1900 and 1970. There are various little buildings that show stores, living spaces, and workshops fully furnished with period utensils, tools, furniture, and materials. I made a few notes on a couple of the buildings.

Our first stop was at workshop for a former marble worker. The "Privat Marbrier" workshop/store was created in 1895 by Mr. Privat. When he died in 1940, his son, Auguste, took over until, at age 80, he finally passed away as well. He hadn't wanted his business to disappear but wasn't able to find anyone to take it over. His wife decided to donate his tools and collections so that the business would "live on" at Saint Joseph's Village.

They are very puppy-friendly here, even with little areas of sand where puppies can take care of business.

Here is another workshop, that of a cobbler.

A little French schoolhouse, with an interesting poster on the wall. The French language has lots of rules, including that (in general) you don't pronounce the final consonant of a word. Here we see how (I assume) French kids learned how to pronounce words.

Here is a little chapel with a wooden ceiling and painted walls.

And lastly, a "rémouler", which translates to "grinder". This was a traveling knife and scissor sharpener. He would use his feet on the pedals to turn the grinding stone.