FRENCH CONNECTION
Festival du Voyageur is the largest winter festival
in Western Canada. Held over 10 days every February,
the festival celebrates the city's Francophone, Métis and
fur trading history with live music, cuisine, snow sculptures
and historic re-enactments.
Winnipeg-born author Gabrielle Roy was arguably the
best-known French writer in Canada. She was famous for
writing
The Tin Flute, a Literary Guild of America selection that
won the Prix Femina in 1947. Her childhood home at 375 Rue
Deschambault was converted into La Maison Gabrielle-Roy
and is open to visitors.
Saint-Boniface, "the heart of Manitoba's French-speaking
community and the Francophone capital of Western Canada,"
was established in 1818. It became part of the city in 1972 when
Winnipeg and its surrounding suburbs merged into one city.
