Thursday, February 7, 2008

Obligatory Stupid First Post

Did you know?

Yes.

Alright, glad we've gotten that out of the way.

First lesson: Jacques Cartier

Facts: He was the guy that "discovered" the St. Lawrence in 1534.

He named the Gulf of St. Lawrence because it was St. Lawrence day when he first sailed into it.

He also named the land Canada, after thinking the word kanata, which means village, was what they called the whole of the land.

Impressive feat of silliness: Erected a 30 ft tall cross, claiming the land for Francis I, then kidnapped an Iroquois chief's two sons on his way back to France.

Went back... visited what is now Quebec City and Montreal, wintered, lost some men to scurvy.

Overall, did some good exploring.

Coolest Coincidence: the site of the Jacques Cartier Bridge over the St. Lawrence is the same site where he first landed in 1535 on his second voyage.

Le savez-vous?

2 comments:

bob said...

very interesting... I learned something today then.

J. said...

haha!I know what you mean! I've recently moved to Quebec, Canada, and now have a french course at school about quebecese ( is that how it's spelled in english??) literature and I know what you're talking about!hehe, Jacques Cartier and Samuel de champlain and Maurice Duplessis, you might get to those!
Anyway, how come you're learning french? Is it because you just took it up as a hobby or it's a course at university ? Anyway, I am neither french nor quebecese but I love the french language and I'm very fluent in it! so keep it up!
Funny profile picture by the way!