French: Les Voyageurs
Welcome to Les Voyageurs!
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
- Speak French as much as you can
- Live in the forest
- Build a community
- Discover the history of the voyageurs
- These are the four challenges and organizing principles of the voyageurs sessions. Join us! No previous camping experience necessary!
EARN HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT
Four week session (Age 14-18)
You can earn one year of high school credit at a four-week session. We strongly recommend that students have at least the equivalent of one to two years of high school French. The voyageurs credit program is a project based experience in which students complete among others some of the following tasks in French:
- Keep an interactive journal
- How does our experience of the wilderness compare to that of the historical voyageurs? What kind of impact did the fur trade have on aboriginal populations? What are you learning from your experience away from modern technology?
- Teach a camping lesson in French
- How to take care of a victim of hypothermia? How to sail with two canoes? How to use plants to make tea?
- Make a artifact
- With these, one must be able to discuss their relevance to the history of the fur trade. Sew a voyageur shirt, make a lacrosse stick, carve a paddle, make a birch bark basket.
- Lead a conversation on a relevant topic
- Plastic vs. animal based clothing. What modern technology do you need on a wilderness trip?
- Present a Fur trade character
- At Fort Williams, students research a character and then present it en français,
Credit voyageurs' first two weeks parallel the two week program, the second half of the program includes a ten day trip in the BWCA or in other local lakes and rivers and a trip to fort Williams in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
- At Fort Williams, students research a character and then present it en français,
One week session (Age 10-13)
This session is an introduction to la vie des voyageurs. It takes place on our base camp. Junior voyageurs practice all the traditional voyageurs skill.The session includes an overnight on another camping site on our Turtle River site property.
Family Voyageurs
Parents and children join the voyageurs beautiful base site to step back into a slower times where food is prepare over the fire, toys and games are handmade, the canoe takes us places and our clothes smell of camp fire, where we fall asleep to the calling of loons with French songs in our heads. These sessions are in concurrence with other sessions.
LOCATION
Base Camp, Bemidji, Minn.
Every program experiences base camp on Turtle River Lake near our other permanent Language Villages. We live in shared outfitter-quality tents and sleep on the ground in sleeping bags. We have a port-a-potty, the same kind you see at large public events. We wash in the lake or take bucket baths using biodegradable soap. Please make sure the soap you bring with you specifies that it is biodegradable.
Le Grand Voyage: Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters National Canoe Area, Minnesota
WHAT TO PACK
When packing, bring good quality gear for all temperatures and both wet and dry weather--but don't expect it to return home with you in "like-new" condition.
Voyageur packing list (one week program)
Voyageur packing list (two- and four-week programs)
SCHOLARSHIPS
Thanks to generous donations from our supporters, scholarships are available.
LEARN MORE
Visit our Village Page to see pictures of past years' villagers and camp activities. See what a typical day would be like.
Meet our deans:
