04-18-2006, 12:01 PM
Mr. Paul Desbiens sent us this e-mail. His web page (in French) has no direct connection to St. Columban. However, as he noted there is a similarity in that Paul is trying to keep the history of a past Quebec community alive. His web site may be of general interest to our members and visitors to this forum.
Bonjour monsieur Keyes, Hi Mr. Keyes,
Today while searching the internet, I finally was able to re-trace your website. I had read about it in the Ottawa Citizen a couple of months ago but I forgot to keep the article. Finding your site was therefore not an easy task. We have a few things in common so let me start here:
I am originally from a small Northern Qu?bec village, 50 miles North of La Tuque along the St.Maurice River. It was a 250 people company village by the name of Rapide-Blanc. It was owned by the Shawinigan Water and Power Company who got nationalized by Hydro Qu?bec in 1962. The village was founded in 1928 and more or less closed in 1972. I am 57 years old (believe same as you) and decided last December to create a website to provide a virtual re-birth to the village. Early January I had an article on the site published in L'Echo de La Tuque and from there on, the site took off. I have now passed the 4,000 visitors mark and over 900,000 hits. I engineered the architecture of the site and contracted a cousin from Chicoutimi to put it together:-
http://www.lerapideblanc.com/
As you will see, we had a very similar idea, bringing back history to the baby boomer generation which has a thirst for this kind of return to the roots information.
I looked at your site and your approach is also very interesting but somewhat different. Congratulations!
I will continue to monitor your site as I do not know anyone else who has covered another Qu?bec Province village aside from you and I. We are in the lead!
Regards
Paul Desbiens
Orl?ans, ON
Bonjour monsieur Keyes, Hi Mr. Keyes,
Today while searching the internet, I finally was able to re-trace your website. I had read about it in the Ottawa Citizen a couple of months ago but I forgot to keep the article. Finding your site was therefore not an easy task. We have a few things in common so let me start here:
I am originally from a small Northern Qu?bec village, 50 miles North of La Tuque along the St.Maurice River. It was a 250 people company village by the name of Rapide-Blanc. It was owned by the Shawinigan Water and Power Company who got nationalized by Hydro Qu?bec in 1962. The village was founded in 1928 and more or less closed in 1972. I am 57 years old (believe same as you) and decided last December to create a website to provide a virtual re-birth to the village. Early January I had an article on the site published in L'Echo de La Tuque and from there on, the site took off. I have now passed the 4,000 visitors mark and over 900,000 hits. I engineered the architecture of the site and contracted a cousin from Chicoutimi to put it together:-
http://www.lerapideblanc.com/
As you will see, we had a very similar idea, bringing back history to the baby boomer generation which has a thirst for this kind of return to the roots information.
I looked at your site and your approach is also very interesting but somewhat different. Congratulations!
I will continue to monitor your site as I do not know anyone else who has covered another Qu?bec Province village aside from you and I. We are in the lead!
Regards
Paul Desbiens
Orl?ans, ON