9-SAQ New France Festival
Musée de la civilisation
85 rue Dalhousie
Quebec, Quebec
Information: 418-643-7001 ext. 243
www.nouvellefrance.qc.ca
Activities presented as part of the SAQ New France Festival held August 5 to 9, 2009, in Quebec City in collaboration with the Commission de la capitale nationale du Québec, the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine and the Musée de la civilisation.
Presentation: Quebec City is where the story of New France began four centuries ago. Every summer for the past 13 years, the SAQ New France festival has celebrated the history of the Amerindians and the early European colonists with a lively program of fascinating activities, designed to please both young and old. The SAQ New France Festival invites participants to embark on an unforgettable and enriching voyage back in time, and to immerse themselves in the daily life of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Activity 1: Talk “Some entrenched camps at Quebec from the summer of 1759; an archaeological perspective” with Serge Rouleau, archaeologist, Design, architecture and heritage division, City of Quebec
Date: Friday, August 7, at 1:30 p.m.
Activity length: 45 minutes
Admission fee: Free for those wearing festival effigy, sold at the special price of $8 at outlets of the Société des alcools du Québec from July to the end of the festival, and at $10 elsewhere during the festival
Place: Little amphitheatre at the Musée de la civilisation
Description: In the summer of 1759, defensive works were built in the countryside around Quebec City. This talk will deal with certain aspects of this fortified landscape and look at a few of the sites that marked it. The information will be presented from an archaeological viewpoint.
Target audience: adults
Activity 2: Talk “The hypothetical reconstruction of a cartridge box from the wreck of the Elizabeth and Mary (1690)” with André Bergeron, Centre de Conservation du Québec
Date: Saturday, August 8, at 1:30 p.m.
Activity length: 45 minutes
Admission fee: Free for those wearing the festival effigy, sold at the special price of $8 at outlets of the Société des alcools du Québec from July to the end of the festival, and at $10 elsewhere during the festival
Place: Little amphitheatre of the Musée de la civilisation
Description: When the wreck of the Elizabeth and Mary was excavated, archaeologists discovered several clues as to how militiamen in the Dorchester Regiment carried munitions during the 1690 siege of Quebec. The examination of set of paper cartridges found in the 1996 dig revealed that the cartridges had been originally wrapped in paper. The wrapped cartridges had been placed in a metal box secured with a leather strap to protect them on the voyage to Quebec City. This talk presents a hypothesis for reconstructing the cartridge box on the basis of archaeological data and the observations recorded when the object underwent conservation treatment.
Target audience: adults
Activity 3: Talk “Charlebourg-Royal and France-Roy: a fortified colony” with Gilles Samson, archaeologist
Date: Sunday, August 9, at 1:30 p.m.
Activity length: 45 minutes
Fee: Free for those wearing the festival effigy, sold at the special price of $8 at outlets of the Société des alcools du Québec from July to the end of the festival, and at $10 elsewhere during the festival
Place: Little amphitheatre of the Musée de la civilisation
Description: It is certain that France’s first colonization attempt in North America involved building defensive works. Both Jacques Cartier and Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval describe the settlement as having two forts – one on the Cap Rouge headland and the other below, on the bank of the Cap Rouge River. The colonial enterprise was under the command of Roberval, a renowned military engineer who would have had the necessary expertise to set up fortifications that respected both contemporary precepts and the topography of the Cap Rouge headland.
Target audience: adults