Paris of the Prairie

 One of the great moments on our recent Manitoba/Saskatchewan CFL Trip of Excellence, was stopping by Montmartre, Saskatchewan. I'm famous/infamous for, in the days leading up to a trip, doing research on "odd things to do in _______", which led us to the Eifel Tower replica in the small, dusty town of Montmartre.  When we turned of the Trans-Canada Highway and Kevin's GPS told him that we would go straight for ten miles on a dirt road before turning onto another dirt road, he said, somewhat seriously, "are you sure you want to do this?" I replied, "Are you asking me?" As all of my travelling companions know, my answer is always a definitive yes. Years and years ago, when I was travelling with my friend Michelle for Champlain, we'd always joke that I should wear a WWMD (What Would Michelle Do?) bracelet and she should wear a WWGD (What Would Gary Do?) bracelet for guidance on ours trips. The joke being that they were both useless, since Michelle would naturally do nothing and would definitely sign off on anything. Anyway, we travelled on and found the Eifel Tower, which was a wonderful side trip. I wish that more had been open in town, because I would have loved to explore a bit and show Montmartre some love, both emotional and financial. I'll stop by again on my next trip to Saskatchewan.

Here's a view of the Eifel Tower, with Kevin and the sleepy town of Montmartre in the background.

And here's the backstory. The short version of the story is that over a century ago a group of folks from the suburbs of Paris decided to try and their lot in the new world (one wonders what was happening in the suburbs of Paris in the 1890s that made the unknown plains of Saskatchewan seem like a much better option). A century later, the town still had a clear sense of their French roots, and decided to raise the money to put up a replica of the Eifel Tower. They are/were very coureagous and plucky folks.