‘It’s back to the future’: the 13th-century castle built by hand in France

I t was the summer of 1999 and, in a disused quarry in a forest in deepest Burgundy, a dozen or so incongruously attired figures were toiling away, hewing limestone blocks, chiselling oaken beams and hammering 6in nails. Outside the clearing it was almost the 21st century. Inside, it was 1230 an...