Dear cousins,

As it is now an 11 year-old tradition, your Board of Directors has made an effort to ensure that our next annual gathering is at least as lively and as sociable an event as the previous ones. Many of you expressed satisfaction following the event from last year. This year, it will take place in St-Denis-sur-Richelieu, site of the first battle between Wolfred Nelson's 200 Patriots and the 300 English soldiers of General Gore in 1837. The Patriots routed the English militia while loosing 12, whereas the British would have lost 60. Unfortunately 2 days later, in St-Charles, next parish south of St-Denis, another battle took place and the patriots were severely overpowered, loosing 56 men out of approximately 80 defenders while the English lost only 3. As you can appreciate, a lot of history is attached to the village of St-Denis-sur-Richelieu that is yours to discover during our annual gathering with the knowledgeable explanations supplied by the guides from La Maison des Patriotes. For those of you fond of history, there is quite a good description in Wikipedia: Lower Canada Rebellion

As to our annual gathering, we have now established a detailed schedule of the day.

First of all, we will experiment an optional morning program for the early birds. In Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu on the west bank (opposite St-Denis), Joanne Bordua and Michel Lozeau raise guinea fowl (pintade) and keep shop, offering a variety of tasty local produce. A visit to their farm would allow you to learn more about this kind of turkey from Africa, which is one of the dishes of our dinner, as well as about all the other products offered. After this visit, a ferry across the Richelieu River takes you to St-Denis where we have organized a visit of the beautiful restored church of St-Denis with comments by a guide from La Maison des Patriotes.

Those interested in this program can obtain additional information by visiting the website of the farm at: Les produits d'Antoine or contacting our editor Solange. After these visits, you can have lunch at a few places namely at "À la petite Bouffe", located on the main road, north of the village just before the canning plant of Bonduelle (formerly Aliments Carrière).

Joanne and Michel, the owners

Les Chanterelles du Richelieu

Patrick Vesnoc, owner-chef

Soup of the season or
Mixed green salad with old-fashioned dressing.

Followed by a choice of one of these three:

• Guinea fowl haunch from Antoine's farm candied with Mrs. Bissonnette's cassis sauce.
• Catch of the day fish with a turmeric sauce.
• Fresh pasta with shrimps and small vegetables.

Chocolate cake
Tea, coffee or herbal tea

Drinks and wine are available at the restaurant but are at your own cost.