ST. VINCENT – A new attraction in the St. Vincent area aims to bring back people to the past.
On June 12, Roger Dallaire and his wife Virginie Dallaire officially opened Le Petit Bonheur or The Barn, in the St. Vincent area.
Roger Dallaire says The Barn is akin to a living museum and includes showing people what a home or a homestead may have looked like in the early 1900s, through storytelling and music.
Roger has been a full-time entertainer, musician and performer for over 25 years, and he aims to use those skills at the Barn.
“We talk about the history of storytelling and the French-Canadian perspective,” which includes traditional stories related to life in the past, he says.
“It’s by appointment only. It has to be booked either as a school or a group,” to ensure every visitor receives the full experience, says Roger.
A central attraction of the Barn is a restored century-old barn that was moved from St. Paul to St. Vincent. Most of the core experiences at the Barn happen there.
“In the barn, we talk about the history of the fur trade [from] the Francophone perspective,” he explains. The includes stories of the voyageurs who paddled the rivers and came to the area during the fur trade, as well as the pioneers who built homesteads.
These are just some of the attractions and activities visitors can experience at the Barn, says Roger, adding other experiences include the opportunity to interact with animals, and participate in storytelling workshops.
The Barn also includes a restored house built in 1913 that Roger's family actually lives in. Aside from some quality-of-life changes, such as solar panels, the house is practically the same as when it was built.
If there are opportunities, visitors may even be able to explore the house itself.
Dallaire says it took a lot of work to complete the Barn. “I had lots of help,” he says.
“All this work wasn't just for me and my wife and my kids. All this work of time, passion and inspiration - we did all this work to be able to share it,” he says, adding, he looks forward to sharing all that work from people in St. Paul, the Lakeland, and beyond.
“I think it'll be a place mostly for events where a group of people can come to celebrate our region,” he says.
Heritage space
The Barn has been designated as a Storytelling Heritage Space through the ÉCONOMUSÉE Network Society’s (ENS) Artisans at Work Experience project.
This will be the seventh Artisans at Work experience inaugurated in Alberta, according to Chantal Cote, manager at ENS, made possible through collaboration between ENS, Parallèle Alberta, the Francophone Economic Development Fund for the Prairies, and the ACFA régionale de Bonnyville Cold Lake.
The idea behind the Artisans at Work concept is to promote the artisan. In the case of The Barn, ENS and stakeholder groups will help promote Roger as a storyteller.
Meanwhile, the Barn, being a heritage space, will be promoted as a space to preserve and promote cultural heritage.
Suzanne Prevost, director of Rural Development and Entrepreneurship for Conseil de développement économique de l’Alberta, who also worked with the Artisans at Work concept in other parts of Canada for over a decade, says among the goals of the concept is to build a network of experiences in the province that work with each other.
That way, businesses who are part of Artisans at Work can promote or help each other out.
Cote agreed, adding, the hope for the future is that “when people come visit the region, they have a menu of things to see and experience.”
