Tuesday, rain, cold, fog calm, Main Brook Public Wharf, Main Brook, NL
Woke up to the rain tapping on our roof. Got up and dressed and had breakfast and got back on the road south.
Some of Rt. 432 was in pretty good shape. We turned onto 433 and then onto Rt. 434 east on a gravel road until we got close to Conche where it turned to asphalt again. We saw only one moose along the way.
Conche was a pretty town of more brightly colored houses with a lighthouse and fog drifting over the hills across the harbor, Silver Cove, on Martinique Bay.
We drove to the French Shore Interpretation Centre but the sign said it was closed. Drove into town and to the little convenience store and asked if that was where the tapestry was. The owner offered to call the center to see if it was open. Meanwhile Joan Simmons from the center had noticed that we had come and gone and gotten in her car to chase us down to say they were open but she had forgotten to flip the sign. So we drove back.
A beautiful exhibit in the old Grenfell nursing station relating to the history of the French Shore using fairly standard interpretive panels, but also a 222 foot long tapestry that was modeled on the Bayeux tapestry in France. The French Shore tapestry deals with the history of the French Shores of Newfoundland beginning with Genesis then the First Nations on to the European fishing and up to present time and even the people who made the tapestry! It was beautifully hand made over 4 years starting in 2006 by twelve local embroideries (including Joan). Two French artists, Jean Claude and Christina Roy, were hired to create the design.
The two stitches used in the Bayeux tapestry are also used in this one; the stem stitch to outline, and the Bayeux stitch, or laid and couched stitches to fill in the outlined form.
Unfortunately they had no post cards or books about the tapestry for us to buy, nor would they let us take any photos of the tapestry. See French Shore Tapestry for a few of the early panels and stories.
They did, however, have other embroidery they had done including a series of panels about the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, that give an idea of the color and design of the French Shore Tapestry. The one below depicts King Louis XIV of France and Queen Ann of Great Britain with a map of the territorial resolution of North America behind them.
It was lunchtime when we left so we drove around Conche looking for someplace to pull over and have lunch but couldn’t find anywhere so we went back to the Center and had lunch of vegetarian vegetable soup and peanut butter on toast.
Before we could leave Joan came out in the rain and offered to have us stay the night in their parking lot and she gave us the passcode to their WiFi. We decided to stay and sous vide the small piece of sirloin tip we had bought the day before. The rain let up eventually so Hanson went for a walk around town before dinner.
