Museum of French Emigration to Canada

Men and women, alone or with their families, lumberjacks, labourers, Filles du roi (young women sent to New France under royal auspices), monks, nuns, soldiers, mariners… all arrived in the 17th century and were the first to populate Canada. They left France, mainly from the region of Perche, confronted the ocean, defied a difficult winter, cleared the land and built the first houses on the banks of the Saint-Lawrence River.

With great courage, they faced the challenges of the New World, and they succeeded. They settled in Quebec, the Coast of Beaupré, the isle of Orleans (from 1634), Montreal (from 1642).

Under the influence of the apothecary Robert Giffard and the Juchereau brothers, rich merchants from Perche, Tourouvre was one of the most active emigration centers. It was not the only one - Mortagne-au-Perche, Saint-Cosme-en-Vairais (now in the département of the Sarthe) and around thirty other parishes of the region (today situated in the département of the Orne for the most part) - were also very active.