QUEBEC-RESEARCH-L Archives

Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2008-12 > 1228880096


From: Mona Andrée Rainville <>
Subject: Re: [Q-R] From Montreal to New Orleans, Louisiana ???
Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:34:56 -0500
References: <c09842322def844699058fea9453a3e5@local><48EC195A.6010408@videotron.ca><78645C8E8167497DB88F78E85AD112C1@defaulthomeen>
In-Reply-To: <78645C8E8167497DB88F78E85AD112C1@defaulthomeen>


Té! La tite cousine du Pot-au-Beurre!

Sur dos d'un cheval, nous irons à Montréal;
Sur le dos d'une souris, nous irons au Missouri;
Sur le dos d'une bécanne, nous irons en Louisiane!

Well, that's how the song goes, anyhow...

From Montréal, you launch your canoe off the pier at
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, (of course, you might be a wee tad hung-over
from the wild bash thrown in your honour the night before, but hey,
you're at peace with the world having just attended mass and having
entrusted the local notary with your last will and testament). So
anyway, you go up the Outaouais River (that's the brown water) until you
get to Sault-Sainte-Marie (where the water turns a greenish gray). Then
you stop at Tim's for coffee, a donut, and of course, the restroom.
(What?..roughing it has it's limits, pleeeezzzz)

You could, I suppose, have taken the shorter south route and followed
the Saint-Lawrence up stream. But, me, I prefer the north passage.
There's less traffic, it is definitely more scenic, and there is much
less chances of getting into a heated argument with local yokels... Ahem...

Anywhooo. At this point, you stick your canoe on your head and you go
for a long walk in the woods along a path which takes you to a small
river. You paddle down that one until it becomes impossible to
continue. On land you go, and the canoe is back on your head until the
next little river. (There are seven of them all told). After you've
carried your canoe on your back for a while, you launch off again, this
time from the shore of Lake Michigan, which you cross from East to
West. Then, same deal, you go from one one river to the next until you
reach the Mississippi (that's the one with the muddy water).

You want to hang a left at that point and keep going until you can smell
fried oysters and gumbo stew. When you can hear Dixieland Jazz and see
crowds of tourists in the streets, you're there.

See. If you were to leave right now, right now. You'd be getting there
just about when the Mardi Gras party starts. Figure on traveling about
three months, give or take, baring any delays caused by unfriendly folks
you might encounter along the way, or the ditsy clerics you might have
to rescue... Hey, stuff happens...

As to why go there in the first place. Well, New Orleans being the last
French toe hold in North America at the time, you'd be surprised what
some people did for real pastries!

Cheers,

Mona

Louise Hamelin wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Could someone tell me what was the transportation mode from Montreal to New
> Orleans, Louisiana back in 1794 and why travel that far?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
> Louise
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~For the list web page, goto:
> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~unclefred/main.htm
> -------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
>
>

This thread: