Aug 26 - Heading to Deer Lake

The aim for today was to get to Deer Lake intact. We fly out of there on Tuesday afternoon. It was another spectacular day – warm and sunny – so it was a nice day for driving.

First stop was in Conche, a little place located almost two hours’ drive south of St. Anthony. Had the weather been nasty, we would have headed straight to Deer Lake.

In the 18th century, Conche was an important fishing base for both French and English fleets. In 1707, English warships trapped the French fleet, sinking two French ships in Martinique Bay. These underwater shipwrecks are now a designated Provincial Site of Historic Significance.

During the Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815), few French came to Conche, leaving the harbour open to settlers from further south in Newfoundland. These Irish and English Newfoundlanders formed the basis of today’s community.

Our destination in Conche was the French Shore Interpretation Centre which is housed in a former Grenfell nursing station. The French Shore Interpretation Centre highlights authentic French sites scattered throughout the French Shore communities of Conche, Croque and Grandois/St. Julien's.

The French Shore Tapestry is a 66 meter (216 ft) long embroidered tour de force of storytelling inspired by the famous 11th century Bayeux Tapestry. In 2015 during a trip to France, Doug and I saw the Bayeux Tapestry – an absolutely sensational piece of work. I walked the length of it twice to try to fully appreciate the incredibly detailed stitching. It shows the Norman conquest of England in 1066, led by William the Conqueror. England is still mad at the French for overrunning their country over 1000 years ago. I was intrigued to see what a Newfoundland version would look like.

Created in France and northern Newfoundland, the memorable linen and wool mural tells the history of that region’s French Shore, from the pre-historic animals that roamed the forests and shoreline to the moment in 2006 when a few talented women in the tiny outport of Conche began their embroidering odyssey. As the viewer moves along the tapestry, a parade of historic and colourful characters bring alive the events and legends that make French Shore history unique

The year 2004 marked the 500th anniversary of the French presence on the Canadian island of Newfoundland. In the early 1500s, French fishermen ventured across the North Atlantic in pursuit of the large stocks of cod that inhabited the seas around the island and, in particular, the coastal waters of northern Newfoundland that came to be known as the French Shore.
As part of the anniversary, in the small Newfoundland outport of Conche, the French Shore Interpretation Centre opened its doors with an exhibit that told the story of the French migratory cod fishermen and the English-speaking settlers that came after them.

The anniversary celebration included an invitation to Jean Claude Roy, a well-known artist, to be the first artist-in-residence at the newly renovated Casey House in Conche. Originally from France, Jean Claude lives part of the year in France and part in Newfoundland. Accompanying Jean Claude was his Newfoundland-born wife Christina, who has a long-standing interest in the art and craft of embroidery. She and Jean Claude had been working on the idea of a project to produce an embroidered mural that would depict the history of Newfoundland in the style and dimensions of the famous 11th century Bayeux Tapestry in France. That unique work of art is not technically a tapestry but an embroidered story on linen.

Embroidery is one of the traditional crafts found in rural Newfoundland. Women often decorated bed linens, parkas and tablecloths with embroidered designs. When Christina and Jean Claude proposed the idea to Joan Simmonds and Colleen McLean, two experienced embroiderers living in Conche, they responded with enthusiasm and suggested focusing on the history of Newfoundland’s historic French Shore. From that meeting a partnership was born.

After 24 months of work, over 20,000 hours of the artist and artisans’ time, the French Shore Tapestry, so named in honour of its illustrious predecessor, was finished.

The tapestry is incredible in its details, its vibrant colours, its symbolism, and its stitchery. The women had to practise so that all their stitches looked the same. And they do – so even and uniform and precisely done. Only the stitchers know who did each section. We spoke to one of the stitchers – Kelly – who worked on it for three years. She said the ladies laughed a lot while they worked!!! I don’t doubt it. The scissors and favourite needle of each stitcher is part of the display.

Conche is a bit off the beaten track, but in good weather, it is well worth visiting to see this fabulous work of art.

No photography is allowed in the exhibit area, so look up their website to see some of the panels: http://www.frenchshoretapestry.com/en/intro.asp

On the way into Conche, we noticed a set of stairs leading up to a lookout, so we stopped there on the way back. What a glorious view of the harbour and beyond from up there! It was worth the climb.

Then we headed towards Deer Lake. We stopped to take pictures of a couple of iconic sights we’ve seen in Newfoundland. The first is little fenced vegetable gardens on the side of the road. People plant where they can find a patch of arable soil in this rugged, treed province. The other thing you see is great piles of stacked firewood. Most people heat with wood, so each household builds its stack for the season, and nobody touches anybody else’s stack even if it's out in the middle of nowhere with no indication as to who owns the wood. The other thing we saw is a stack of old-style lobster traps sitting beside a stack of new-style lobster traps. The new ones are stackable and made of plastic so they are easier to store and don’t deteriorate quickly like the old wooden ones. They certainly aren't as folksy as the old ones.

We were making good time and needed to stop for lunch, so I chose Port au Choix, a National Historic Site. It’s about 20 minutes off the highway, but well worth the time investment.

This site is significant because it is the crossroads of 6000 years of human history. The sea’s bounty, especially of seals, drew Maritime Archaic people, the Dorset people, the Groswater people and the recent indigenous people here long before Europeans arrived.

There is a display area with information about the area and its significance, but we just wanted to sit and eat – no more walking or hiking or learning about history or geology or fossils for us on this trip - so the nice lady at the Visitors’ Centre waived the daily fee and pointed us towards the Point Riche lighthouse (built in 1892) for a scenic setting. And, oh, what a setting! We ate by the lighthouse and then we found another set of red chairs (our 9th I think) down by the water. We could have drunk in the glorious view on this sunny day for hours from those chairs, but it was time to saddle up again.

In another three hours were safely in the Holiday Inn Express in Deer Lake. (My former hairdresser used to say, “You can never go wrong with a Holiday Inn!”) Our drive took us back through Gros Morne National Park. Incredible views!

We’ve got a nice big room with a king-sized bed and a sitting room. The pillows are the bed are labelled "Soft" and "Firm" via embroidery on the pillow cases. Great touch! We dined Chez Foodland again tonight (salads and fruit).

I’ll do a recap of the trip in tomorrow’s footprint. Czytaj więcej