CHAPTER 26

  MOUNT FILLON

  “Jack, this is not an ordinary estate. It is set out in the deepest countryside of northern France. This land is special. It could be a gold mine of paleontological finds. It is nearly 300 acres of undeveloped country. The man I bought it from said his father lived on the farm his entire life, and his father before him, and his family for a century before that. There is nothing on this land but a run-down estate house, a cabin, and a moldy barn.

  I got it for a steal. Jack, what impressed me most was in the northernmost part of the property, hidden by thick brush, is a very distinguished hill. This hill is perfectly flat like a tabletop. The man who sold it probably had no idea what this hill was. Jack, it is obvious that this mound is a man-made hill or foundation for some ancient castle.

  When I laid my eyes on it for the first time, I knew immediately I had to have this land. Here was this remote farm in the middle of nowhere, where the foundation for a likely castle once stood. By my observations, I would say a medieval-period castle. The hill is surrounded by what is now lush vegetation, with a valley that runs on all four sides of the hill. This valley is no wider than a typical stream. It is now lush with bushes, trees, and wild meadow grasses that hide this parcel of the hill.

  On the approach to this brush-filled valley is an inclined slope nearly thirty feet high with periodic trenches for staging an army. This site is not a pure geological phenomenon. The landscape is man-made. It is what I believe to be the site of the kingdom of giants you theorized to be between Belgium, Germany, and France. This site is nearly in the center of where you believed the kingdom of giants would have been placed. Jack, I do believe I now own the land of the giants where the great King Gayant once reigned. King Gayant, the last and greatest king of the giants. The king whose legend would tell kept the dragon, Roi Roux.”

  Vincent was as convincing as ever. He could present even my own material better than I could. He and Bayne were alike in this regard. Probably the reason I allowed Bayne in on my research in the first place. He reminded me in many ways of Vincent. Vincent was no Bayne. He was a true friend – the truest. He was my oldest friend whom I had known for nearly fifteen years then. I was more than excited to partner with him on this leg of my quest.

  While we waited for Mimi to arrive by train from Paris, I went over the details of what I knew about Mount Fillon, the castle mount of King Gayant. Fillon was Gayant’s only daughter, who died at a young age of what some thought to be the first incident of Black Death in Europe. Mount Fillon is believed to have been built as a monument to his young and beautiful daughter. It was Fillon’s death that led the queen to poison herself and take her own life. She could not live with the fact that her only child had died such an ugly death.

  Gayant was devastated that both his daughter and his wife were taken from him so tragically. Gayant had the two laid to rest among the vast riches that Gayant had amassed through his reign within the heart of the castle mount. He would never marry again nor have any additional children. His own death would leave a hole in the kingdom that would never be replaced and would eventually lead to the demise of the entire kingdom.

  Mount Fillon is said to be as massive a castle as Europe had ever seen. Castles of the Middle Ages were the center of the kingdom. They were the king’s home and treasury, a soldier’s fort and refuge, and a courthouse and sanctuary. The outside of the castle was modest in its design. The outer fortress of the castle was surrounded by a ditch, then a rampart, followed by a wall of timber covered over with plaster. This first fortress protected the township within the castle, which included the soldiers’ quarters. Then, within this fortress was the moat that protected the limestone walls that encircled the private residence of the king. The walls that protected the castle were wider at the bottom than at the top. The limestone-blocked walls rose some thirty feet.

  The interior of Mount Fillon, like other castles of its time, likely had plastered and painted walls. Because of Gayant’s giant size, the castle was made to the size of the said seventeen-foot giant king. The castle mount was built around the mausoleum that would house Princess Fillon and her queen mother. Inside the castle was a great hall where Gayant would meet with his men and entertain his many visitors. This great hall had gold-gilded walls, and in the center was an enormous round table with sixteen chairs. The chairs were carved out of marble and so heavy that only a giant could move them. The round table sat upon a pure white marble square base. The tabletop was bronze and gilded with silver and gold, depicting scenes from Gayant’s military victories. In the center of the table, the gold was encrusted with a crest inlaid with precious stones, including emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and amber. It was centered with what was rumored to be the world’s largest diamond at 3000 karats. The table was the centerpiece for the enormous room and was meant to impress and intimidate even the most powerful human kings.

  Directly below this great hall was the throne room for Fillon and the Queen. Both were laid to rest side by side. This throne room was directly below the great hall and underground. Light holes were built in the ceiling of the room so that light could travel into the throne room below. Gayant wanted his wife and daughter to always be a part of his life and kingdom. In the floor of the great hall was laid a colored glass window nearly eight feet thick. It was made thick enough for a giant to walk on, but no one ever did. Light from a circular opening in the ceiling of the great hall allowed the sun to shine in. At noon, it shone directly through the opening in the glass in the floor of the great hall, directly below onto the two marbled cases holding the two dead royals in the throne room.

  At noon, Gayant would stop whatever he was doing to sit and worship, as the sun would shine directly on his wife and daughter. When the noon sunlight ended, he would continue with his day. This was so much a part of his daily routine that noon became a traditional break time for those who worked within the castle. This tradition carried on through to the rest of the kingdom. It is the legendary beginning of the noontime lunch hour we still observe today.

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  The entire castle was designed by Gayant himself. The underground mausoleum and throne room were round, with four rooms coming off of each. The four rooms pointed north, south, east, and west, and in each of the four rooms was a great collection of treasures amassed by Gayant for helping the other kingdoms of Europe and Asia. The treasures included precious metals, like gold, silver, platinum, and brass, along with precious gems, oils, textiles, and spices. The treasures also included carved marble and wood figures of Gayant that were given as gifts. He gathered all of his treasures in these four rooms that surrounded the throne as a tribute to Fillon and the queen. No one was ever allowed in unless by invitation from the king himself. The visitors were usually visiting dignitaries or kings who were there to add to the collection of treasure. For the most part, only Gayant would go into the throne room. It was a vault to Gayant that contained everything he treasured. Outside, the rest of the castle was modest and more Unitarian than ceremonial.

  Once Mimi arrived in Rouen, I worried about her and Vincent coming together. Needless to say, the long car ride between Rouen’s train station to Vincent’s farm in the northern-most part of France was nothing I was looking forward to. This car ride would likely set the tone for the rest of the trip. I figured that if the two of them got along just fine on the car ride, the rest of the year would likely be the same. If the two of them made the car ride difficult, the rest of the year would be just as difficult.

  Let’s just say that the car ride was a long and difficult one. Vincent was not a big fan of Mimi’s dog, Mum. And Mimi was not about to abandon Mum, whom she had saved from the ravages of death in Greece, brought with her to Rome, and Paris.

  Then there was the fact that Vincent was not 100% sure of the directions to the farm. He had only been there once before. This aggravated Mimi, who was tired, hungry and in need of a restroom during the long journey.

  Things only got worse when we arrived at the estate. It was clear that the term estate was used very loosely when describing it. The estate house was miles off a rough and rugged dirt road. The farm itself had seen better days. The fields were overgrown with meadow grass, weeds, and thicket. There did not seem to be a span of fence longer than fifty feet without an opening in it, making it obvious that keeping livestock of any kind was a thing of the distant past.

  The closer we got to the house, the worse it looked. It looked like a solid structure made of stone. The roof was made of shingled wood and looked to have been mended with thatched straw some decades ago. It was even nonexistent in some places. The brush around the farmhouse was thick and included a tree that appeared to grow right out of the foundation of the house, with one of its branches cutting right into a broken window.

  In fact, all of the windows were small and either cracked, shattered, or completely broken out. As we drove up, curtains were blowing out into the summer breeze. We even saw a bird fly out of the window as we approached.

  “Jack, it definitely looks like we will be earning every single penny to pay for our trip home,” Mimi said.

  “I told you that it was rundown and required a lot of help,” Vincent responded.

  “Rundown? I saw ancient Greek ruins less rundown than this place.” She responded. “Are you sure there is running water?’

  “Well,” he said. “There will be when Jack and I run a new line to the well.”

  I asked, “So there is water in the well?”

  “There will be when we dig the new well,” he said.

  “And electricity?” Mimi asked.

  “We’ll get that running as soon as they deliver the generator. It’s on order,” he said.

  Mimi said nothing more. Her look told me, “What did I tell you. He is no different.”

  After she couldn’t take it any longer, she said, “I swear I saw a place in Paris that would have paid us to live in it with better accommodations.”

  “Mimi, that’s enough,” I said.

  Vincent chimed in, “Look, it looks like nothing right now. But we’ll get it up and running. I have made several scheduled deliveries of supplies at great expense to get the house in order. I never said it was a palace, and at the worst, the farmhouse is quite sizable for an estate in this part of France.”

  He was right. While the estate house was in much need of repairs, the stone structure was quite large. It was a two-story stone structure with three fireplaces. It would be quite obvious that Mimi and I would have much privacy once the house was made more livable.

  “Until the house is in order, we will be staying in the cabin that the last owner lived in. It is a one-room cabin, but with better protection from the elements. There is an outhouse near the cabin. I figure in about four weeks; we should be able to move into the main house.”

  “Grandpa, what’s an outhouse?” Darby wanted to know.

  “It’s an outdoor bathroom. Before there was running water in houses, people used outhouses to go to the bathroom. The outhouse would be a small square room, like a small closet with a place to sit. This would be placed over a deep hole in the yard.”

  Darby then asked, “So when you had to go to the bathroom, you had to go outside?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Grandpa,” I asked, “What about in a castle. Did they have to use outhouses?”

  “In the Middle Ages, the castles would have tall towers that were connected to the living quarters of the king, and much like an outhouse, there would be a seat with a long and deep hole below. Often, the hole would be connected to the outer moat.”

  Grandpa Jack continued with his story. “We drove right by the main house, and near it was the barn, which had fallen. The barn roof was held up by just one side, with the other side resting on the ground. Vincent said the barn would be coming down. He hoped we would be able to save some of the wood from the barn to make the necessary repairs to the roof and the house.

  Beyond the barn, a dirt path curved around a set of trees, and sitting in a grassy meadow was a small wooden cabin with a stone fireplace. The sun was beginning to go down as we arrived at the cabin, and it began to mist lightly. We were definitely going to be roughing it for a while.

  Vincent offered us the only bedroom in the cabin. He would sleep on the floor in front of the fireplace. The cabin was very dusty, but we were all too tired to begin cleaning. Instead, we opted to break out the wine and food Vincent had packed for us. The food included some cheese, bread, and pears. It was simple but delicious. The meal was the only bright spot in a long and difficult ride.”