Tout le monde au feu de camp! Front left around the circle: Ceclie, Julie, Helen, Isabelle, Ophelie, Louis, Georgette, Riviere, Eric, Marine, Ballerine, Luciole, Melodie, and Angele. Back row, left to right: Baptiste, L'Interprete, et Laurent.

Well, we’re halfway through our second full day chez les voyageurs and we’ve been pretty busy! We spent yesterday getting more fully acquainted with the site and each other, and settling in to the systems (il y a toujours un systeme!)

Hungry for lunch, the voyageurs ask: "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a a manger?"

Learning a chanson.

Fresh deer tracks!

A snapping turtle we came across! She was rather grumpy to be moved off the road.

Les Voyageurs worked together to organise and stack our wood pile Tuesday morning.

A human chain.

We’ve done some eating, some singing, some swimming, some camp-skills, a few games, and plenty of canoeing! We’ve had luck with the weather so far, fingers crossed it keeps up. Yesterday saw the Voyageurs finishing their sac a feu, a small satchel used by the original voyageurs for storing tobacco. We use it as a name tag and a storage place for other things, like les perles, which are beads rewarded to the voyageurs for accomplishing certain tasks.

Angele finishing her sac a feu.

Cecile makes some tiny stitches!

At last night’s feu de camp we distributed some perles for couteau, feu, natation and Voyage Scandinave.

L'Interprete whittles after passing the test couteau. Baptiste watches.

Cecile, Riviere et Melodie building their own feu.

Lecon feu.

Smoke in la foret from the fire-building lesson with Les Libelules.

After the test de natation the brigades enjoyed a rather brisk swim.

Laurent vole!

While some worked on sac a feu and couteau, others did some floral-organisation: tidying up the forest!

Ophelie and Louis help Francois and Ludovic tidy up our forest a bit. The subsequent fire burnt through the night!

Eric and Louis chopping a log to toss on the fire.

Ophelie shows off her muscles!

The afore-mentioned fire!

While brigade Montreal prepared the evening meal (melange tourtiere, an adaptation of a traditional Quebecois recipe for meat pie), brigade Grand Portage went on a paddle to l’etang du castor, the beaver pond right beside our site! The scenery was beautiful as the sun went down.

Some thistles with the sunset.

Montreal canoes just barely visible!

A sunset panorama of the beaver pond.

And a final shot from the canoes.

We’re looking forward to many more activities today and preparing for the Grand Voyage in the latter portion of this week! Check back in a few days for another update, and until then, attachez vos tuques!