icon caret-left icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook twitter goodreads question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle

Blog

Francoise Grenier returns to France

Mortagne-au-Perche today
Book Thirteen: Early Françoise: Françoise Grenier was a fifteen-year-old waif of the streets of Paris when a young man of questionable character convinces her to accompany him on an adventure to the New World. After more than a year of abuse in the wilderness of Canada, he disappears, apparently dead. Françoise is taken in by the few French women, returning to a civilized society. Having nowhere to go when the Kirke Brothers return her and her new French-Canadian friends to France, she winds up at the home of her mother’s cousin in Mortagne in the Perche region of France, and from here will, in fits and starts, build a new life. Read More 
Be the first to comment

Francoise Grenier

Francoise Grenier Langlois
Book Thirteen: Françoise Grenier: Of the people who returned to the new world in 1634, Françoise is certainly the most enigmatic. Unlike the other women: Mathurine Guyon, Nicole Boucher, etc. she has no written early past. For authors of straight history this is a dead end, but for historical fiction, she is a bonanza, a chance to spread one’s authorial wings. There are a number of theories about our heroine. Was she a native? is popular. However, I felt her subsequent life and history, particularly her many children born in a very French-immigrant fashion as opposed to the scant births of typical Indians of the time, made my version of her more realistic (at least in my mind). The remainder of her life is as well chronicled as any in this time and situation, and I have adhered to it as much as I usually do. This includes her mysterious death, for which you, dear reader, have a ways to go. Read More 
Be the first to comment

Fall of Canada

Champlain leaving Canada, C.W. Jefferies 1942
Book Thirteen: The Kirke brothers: These five men were French Huguenots who took religious refuge in England. They became privateers, basically pirates sailing under a government’s flag to raid its enemies (think Sir Francis Drake). In 1628 one or two of them did sail into the St. Lawrence River to take Canada, but when they managed to raid French ships on the way in, they returned to England. In 1629 they did return and take Québec from its founder. Samuel Champlain may have never seen it this way, but it allowed him to eventually return to France and build a force capable of taking Canada back, and with the addition of five hardy families from the rural area of Perche, France, make it a viable entity. Read More 
Be the first to comment

Champlain

Samuel Champlain
Book Thirteen: 1628: The Father of Canada is despondent. Samuel Champlain has spent most of his adult life trying to forge New France out of the Canadian wilderness—and he is failing. After many years of struggle, he has little infrastructure, few people, and scant support from the Kingdom of France. Little does he know that things are about to get worse. Read More 
Be the first to comment