“I’ve never been to Gerberoy, but I know the village like the back of my hand!» Goulven Quéré never even set foot in the Oise. But this young 25-year-old from Brest has developed a passion for one of the most beautiful villages in France, located a few kilometers north of Beauvais, via the video game Minecraft.
Minecraft is a video game launched at the very beginning of the 2010s. In this game, it is possible to create worlds by assembling blocks. “The player is immersed in a three-dimensional world, “sandbox” type, that is to say that he will be able to interact with the world, by breaking or placing blocks, we can read on a video game community website. In the game, you can also play in a “Creative” mode specifically dedicated to building just about anything you want. Therefore, you can create your own objectives or share your creations.
The village reconstructed brick by brick on Minecraft
In this creative mode, Goulven Quéré and some 7,000 other passionate players launched the project “Build the Earth France”. “The “Build the Earth” project was born four years ago, explains the young man. The goal is to reproduce the entire world on Minecraft on the scale of a block equal to one meter. The project has been divided into different servers, by country. In France, there are more than 7,000 of us on it. Some players play it daily, others drop by from time to time or create three or four houses. It’s a project that’s being done brick by brick..”
With a handful of players, Goulven looks at the list of Most beautiful villages in France. And Gerberoy catches their eye. “The village is well referenced on Google Street View and there are quite a few photos of tourists on the Internet», Indicates Goulven, who used these different tools to try to reproduce the town identically on the video game.
The adventure begins in July 2021. There are around fifteen of them wandering the streets of Gerberoy, via the Internet. If a good part of the reconstruction was done by all these players, Goulven wanted to complete the work started. “I continued alone at my own pace, he continues. In the end, I’ve been spending one or two hours on it here and there for three years.»
“I want to spend a vacation in Gerberoy now”
After hundreds of hours in front of his computer screen, the young Breton finally finished what he started three and a half years ago. Not without difficulty. “There is a lot of vegetationhe notes. It took me a long time. I had a bit of difficulty doing Henri Le Sidaner’s gardens, I had to look for a lot of photos on tourist or visitor sites directly to get an idea. There are many gardens in Gerberoy, it has its charm!»
To achieve his challenge, Goulven also learned a lot about the village, its history, its personalities, and even its rose festival. “I want to go on vacation to Italy, Croatia, but also to Gerberoy nowsmiled the young man. It’s a goal, I would do it!»
The reconstitution of the village is visible on a dynamic online map. A host of French monuments have already been built there: Notre-Dame de Paris, the Brest castle, the Metz cathedral, the La Défense district, the Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica in Lyon, but also the Beauvais cathedral which celebrates its 800th anniversary this year. “France is very big, we will certainly not finish this project, but everyone can join us and rebuild their villageconcludes Goulven. Visitors will be happy to discover it.» Objective, recreate at least the Oise on Minecraft.
