{"id":44793,"date":"2023-02-16T14:47:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=44793"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:30:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:30:15","slug":"stories-from-the-streets-of-quebec-city","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/stories-from-the-streets-of-quebec-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories From the Streets of Qu\u00e9bec City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Stories From the Streets of Qu\u00e9bec City\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Summer French course takes students on a literary-inspired journey across the provincial capital city<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Alyssa Tremblay<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos by Ainslie Coghill<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in Qu\u00e9bec City, Carleton historian Anne Tr\u00e9panier<\/a> landed her very first job working as a tour guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dressed as a pipe-smoking carter, a French military gunner or a prim-and-proper mademoiselle<\/em> depending on the day, a teenaged Tr\u00e9panier guided hundreds of visitors across Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s cobblestone streets, revealing different pieces of the city\u2019s rich history through each character she played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prof. Anne Tr\u00e9panier, School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies and the Department of French<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Years later, Tr\u00e9panier is returning to her roots by teaching FREN 4301\/5502: Qu\u00e9bec ville d\u2019histoire(s)<\/a>, a unique course that lets students encounter history first-hand in a city with many stories tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offered over the Summer 2023 semester at Carleton, this asynchronous online course culminates in an eight-day field trip to Qu\u00e9bec City led by Tr\u00e9panier herself \u2014 an Associate Professor cross-listed to the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies and the Department of French, who previously co-taught<\/a> the course with fellow French professor S\u00e9bastien C\u00f4t\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know all the best little spots when it comes to touring the city on foot,” Tr\u00e9panier says, “from the places where you can talk without your voice echoing out too much, to shelters where you can hide out under if it rains.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students prepare for the trip through a series of online modules on Brightspace introducing them to the history of Qu\u00e9bec City through literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By reading Anne H\u00e9bert\u2019s Le Premier Jardin<\/em> \u2014 a 1988 novel about an actor who returns to Qu\u00e9bec City from France and must confront her own history through strange encounters with the memories of women from the city\u2019s past \u2014 students are introduced to the concept of places of memory or lieux de m\u00e9moire<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term was initially used to acknowledge how landmark sites can become vessels for collective historical memory. However, according to Tr\u00e9panier, lieux de memoire<\/em> has since grown to refer to the layers of personal history and memories that build upon each other in spaces where many different people live over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like the protagonist of Le Premier Jardin<\/em>, Tr\u00e9panier encourages her students to dig through these layers and seek out the voices and experiences hidden below the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Walking the city, visiting those lieux de memoire<\/em>, we\u2019ll change our ‘glasses’ each day to see the city through a different point of view, whether it be an Indigenous knowledge keeper, a fille du roi<\/em>, or a young boy of African descent adopted by a Jesuit.”<\/p>Prof. Anne Tr\u00e9panier, School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies and the Department of French<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The course includes visits to the l\u2019Assembl\u00e9e nationale du Qu\u00e9bec, the Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts du Qu\u00e9bec, and the Plaines d\u2019Abraham; a guided tour of the mus\u00e9e du Monast\u00e8re des Augustines and its archives; seminars led by local archivists; and a day trip to Wendake, located just north of the city and home to two urban reserves of the Huron-Wendat Nation, to visit the Mus\u00e9e des premi\u00e8res nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While on the trip, students are asked to write daily diary entries reflecting on what they learned. Drawing on this knowledge and experience, each student selects a place of memory which they will teach their classmates about on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I guide the daily tours, and then students animate these lieux de memoire<\/em> by saying aloud what they\u2019ve learned about the layers of history in a particular space,” says Tr\u00e9panier. “It\u2019s more than a presentation; it\u2019s an experiential lesson.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prof. Anne Tr\u00e9panier, School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies and the Department of French<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


Students also complete a creative writing activity in which they place an artefact back into context at a place of memory, imagining the object as a tool or possession belonging to a historical character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of accommodations, students meet at the International Youth Hostel of Qu\u00e9bec City, right next door to the Maison de la literature \u2014 the former French-Canadian institute for science and culture where students can go read, write and study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost of the hostel, as well as the museum visits, breakfasts, and two restaurant outings (a welcome and a farewell dinner) are all covered, with students paying for their remaining meals and transportation to Qu\u00e9bec City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those remaining costs, several funding opportunities, including five grants and awards covering tuition, are available through the International Association for Quebec Studies, the Centre pour la francophonie des Am\u00e9riques and Carleton\u2019s Department of French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 2022 summer cohort of FRENCH 4301\/5502: Qu\u00e9bec ville d\u2019histoire(s) on location in Qu\u00e9bec City <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


The course is open to students in any department across any university \u2014 so long as they have a taste for literature and history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year\u2019s cohort included students from Sir Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, the University of British Columbia (Okanagan) and even CY Cergy Paris Universit\u00e9 in France. From Carleton, students joined the course from programs ranging from French to Journalism to Public Affairs and Policy Management.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“That diversity is what makes the cohort so special. My hope is that friendships develop through this course.”<\/p> Prof. Anne Tr\u00e9panier, School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies and the Department of French <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Student response to the course has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, one Concordia University student is eligible to attend for free every year, thanks to support from a previous student who loved the course so much that the French department created a scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some highlights according to last summer\u2019s cohort included seeing first-hand a historical document stamped with King of France Louis XIV\u2019s black seal (the unusual choice of wax colour dates the item to the same week that his mother died), as well as a map of Qu\u00e9bec City drawn on a pork skin.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This course was such a pleasure, it’s hard choosing a single highlight. The trip to Qu\u00e9bec was certainly what made it all the more enjoyable, as we got to see what we had previously only seen on paper in real life. The book and the articles we read became something tangible for us to experience for ourselves. On top of that, I not only got to know some lovely new people, but I also got to know Qu\u00e9bec City in such a wonderful way that I’m already planning my next trip back! <\/p>

<\/p>Gabrielle Chee (UBC Okanagan)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n

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For me, a personal highlight was getting to meet all the various students from differing walks of life and using their varying levels of expertise in French to improve my own language learning as well. Having a group of students to communicate with and talk to on the various visits was incredibly helpful, and I definitely could not see my learning being as good without other students there as well.<\/p>Dami Fakolujo (Carleton)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n

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What I remember most of all was the experience of walking in the footsteps of the past, exhuming the past and making it present, bringing the archive to life \u2014 the city of paper, of fiction and of stone became alive. History was not just an online course, but it became a story that I was able to make my own by creating a kind of identity as we went along our little journey! In short, I was able to discover Qu\u00e9bec in the flesh!<\/p>Damien Mougeot (CY Cergy Paris Universit\u00e9)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Summer 2023 edition of FREN 4301\/5502 (0.5 credit): Qu\u00e9bec ville d\u2019histoire(s) begins online on May 4, with the field trip to Qu\u00e9bec City scheduled for May 22-30. Registration for Summer 2023 courses opens on CUCentral as of March 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about grants and awards related to this course, contact Marie-Eve Couture (marieeve.couture@carleton.ca<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summer French course takes students on a literary-inspired journey across the provincial capital city By Alyssa Tremblay Photos by Ainslie Coghill Growing up in Qu\u00e9bec City, Carleton historian Anne Tr\u00e9panier landed her very first job working as a tour guide. Dressed as a pipe-smoking carter, a French military gunner or a prim-and-proper mademoiselle depending on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[816],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-44793","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-general"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/44793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/44793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44912,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/44793\/revisions\/44912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=44793"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=44793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}