Jacques Cartier Museum

(John) October 19, 2010. Jacques Cartier Museum.

A nasty rainy day meant it was perfect weather for taking in the house of Jacques Cartier, which we just happen to be located pretty close to.  

I’d like to say we had planned to be close by so that we could fulfill part of Mhari’s grade 6 curriculum, but truth be told we had no idea that Jacques Cartier was from St Malo. 

Really, I’m the worst person to be writing this blog as the tour we had at JC’s house was entirely in French.  While my family and the two other tourists were enjoying the wealth of knowledge and witty anecdotes flowing easily and very quickly from our tour guides mouth I felt like the dog in the Gary Larson cartoon.

For me it was – Bonjour, blah blah blah blah blah, Jacques Cartier blah blah blah blah blah blah, Canada, blah blah blah blah, Jacques Cartier blah blah blah blah, Jacques Cartier blah blah blah, St Malo, blah blah blah blah -  You get the idea. 

I must have done a pretty good impression of a comprehending person because when at the end of the tour Lesley requested some information in English for her stupid Anglo husband, the guide had the courtesy to feign surprise and told us that if she had known I was stupid Anglo I could have had an English tour of my own with another guide. 

Not a problem however, because as soon as we got to the car I refused to drive back to the gite until everybody told me everything they had just learned.  So the following is an account of everything I learned in the car after my trip to Jacques Cartier’s House.

Jacques Cartier was from a humble background.  He apprenticed from the age of 12 aboard fishing vessels that were commonly away for months at a time.  He became well respected for his skills and married into a wealthy family with connections in high places.  He became known to and was hired by the King of France to find a new route to the Orient.  This was desparately needed, as the Turks had shut down the traditional silk-road and the French nobility were suffering without the goodies that came their way.  J.C. made three trips in all, going further, staying longer and with more accompanying ships on each voyage.  He became better off, although never stinking rich, like his patrons.  His house now has three distinct sections.  The last was added after his death.  The first was really just a kitchen with an attached stable.  There was a bedroom on the second floor.  The kitchen had some neat features.  One was the drain in the floor.  It was just a sloped stone gutter that allowed wastewater to flow along the floor and out under the door.  There was also a device that was lowered from the ceiling for keeping spoons in.  

The family members did not do dishes; spoons were just licked clean and placed back in a holder that was then hoisted back towards the ceiling. One interesting concept was that the original section of the house was not used for living in during the day.  People worked outside during the day.  They only came inside to sleep.  Hence the first section of the house had no windows to speak of.

As J.C. became more successful he was able to expand the house to include a second section, and enjoy a lifestyle of a nobleman.  He built a large dining room below and a bedroom and a washing/bathing room upstairs.  All these rooms had big windows allowing for lots of daylight to flood in and for J.C. to watch the ships arrive at and leave from the port of St Malo. 

One of the upstairs rooms had a display of maps from the 16th century.  It was explained that details on the maps were sometimes there as decoys; put there to deter other explorers.   For example there were pictures depicting cannibals in South America.  There was also a collection of nautical instruments of the time. A simple rope with knots tied in to it was attached to a wooden board.  It was used along with an hourglass to gauge the speed of the ship.  In the middle of the room was a large globe of the world.  North and South America were noticeably absent. 

In the Dining room was a big wooden chair with a high back and sides.  The seat served as a lid that covered a storage compartment.  The high back and sides were to prevent attack from those directions, and the storage box was to enable a person to sit on their valuables.  To make the most of this function, the seat, we were told, was often occupied by a grandfather, the oldest and therefore perhaps, the most immobile member of the household. 

I decided I had learned enough for one day and started the car.