Denise Sevestre: Her Voyageur Sons and the Fur Trade

 

Denise Sevestre (also known as Marie-Denise or Marie Denyse Sevestre) was a pioneering woman in New France whose family became intertwined with the fur trade—the economic engine of the colony. Born in Paris and arriving in Québec as a child in 1636, she outlived two husbands and raised a large blended family. While Denise herself was not directly documented in the trade, several of her sons worked as voyageurs (canoe-based traders and transporters) or merchants, participating in expeditions to the interior (pays d'en haut) to acquire beaver pelts and other furs for European markets. 

Her descendants' involvement highlights how ordinary settler families contributed to and benefited from the fur trade, from risky canoe journeys to Michilimackinac or the Illinois country to financing larger operations and acquiring land/seigneuries with trade profits.

Profile Notes for Denise Sevestre

• Full name: Marie Denise Sevestre (often recorded as Denise).
• Birth/Baptism: 29 October 1632, Paris, France (Saint-Étienne-du-Mont parish).
• Immigration: Arrived in New France in 1636 as a child with her parents.
• Death/Burial: 14 December 1700, Québec, Nouvelle-France (buried the same day at Notre-Dame parish, age ~68; some records list ~72).
• Parents:
• Father: Charles Sevestre (b. 17 January 1609, Paris; d. 8 December 1657, Québec), a printer/imprimeur.
• Mother: Marie Pichon (b. ~1600, France; d. 3 May 1661, Québec), widow of Philippe Gauthier de Comporte (m. 1618, Paris) before marrying Charles in 1628/29. Marie brought a daughter, Catherine Gauthier de la Chesnaye (b. 1626), from her first marriage; Catherine married Denis Duquet dit Desrochers (early Tadoussac trade associate).
• Siblings (from Charles and Marie): Jean (b. ~1630), Claude (b. 1633), Marguerite (b. 1636; d. 1720), Ignace dit Desrochers (b. 1636; d. 1661), Jeanne (b. 1641; d. 1648), Charles (b. 1646; d. 1661). 

Marriages:

1. Antoine Martin dit Montpellier (b. ~1620, Montpellier, France; d. 11 May 1659, Québec), married 18 June 1646, Notre-Dame de Québec (Denise was ~13–14; common in era for early settlers).
2. Philippe Neveu (Nepveu) (b. 13 April 1634, Voves, Chartres, France; d. 31 December 1720, Québec), tailor; married 4 August 1659, Notre-Dame de Québec (contract 20 July 1659, notary Guillaume Audouart).

Children (with verified list from PRDH/Drouin/ Fichier Origine/Nos Origines):

• With Antoine Martin (4 children; Antoine died young, limiting family size):
• Charles Martin dit Montpellier (b. 7 October 1651, Québec; d. 1715).
• Antoine Martin dit Montpellier dit Beaulieu (b. 24/28 August 1654, Québec; d. 6 April 1715; m. (1) Jeanne Cadieux 1690, (2) Marie-Thérèse Bonnet 1699).
• Marie-Thérèse Martin dite Montpellier dite Beaulieu (b. 28 November 1656, Québec; d. 3 October 1725; m. Mathurin Langevin dit Lacroix 9 October 1674, Québec).
• Jean-François Martin dit Montpellier Beaulieu (b. 2 December 1658, Québec; d. before April 1674).
• With Philippe Neveu (11 children total; family verified complete via PRDH; many died young):
• Madeleine Neveu (b. 25 November 1660; d. 27 October 1697; m. Jean-Charles Cadieux).
• Louis Neveu (b. 15 March 1662).
• Jacques Neveu (b. 6 March 1663; d. 22 June 1722; m. Michelle Chauvin).
• Philippe Neveu (b. 22 June 1665; d. 22 May 1676).
• Marie-Anne-Jeanne Neveu (b./d. 13 January 1667).
• Anne Neveu (b. 28 January 1668; d. 1 December 1702).
• Marguerite Neveu (b. 29 May 1669; d. 17 June 1734).
• Marie-Catherine Neveu (b. 2 July 1670; d. 5 July 1715; m. Guillaume Gaillard).
• Charles Neveu (b. 11 September 1671; d. 1705).
• Jean Neveu (b. 30 August 1673; d. 8 September 1673).
• Jean-Baptiste Neveu (Sieur de La Bretonnière) (b. 19 December 1676, Québec; baptized 20 December 1676; d. 24 June 1754, Montréal; m. (1) Marie-Jeanne Passard 1702, one daughter; (2) Françoise-Élisabeth Legras 1704, 14 children).

Notes on Voyageur Sons and Fur Trade Connections

Original notes are drawn from notarial contracts (e.g., Chambalon/Roy series) and secondary sources like Innis's The Fur Trade in Canada. Enhancements/corrections:

• Antoine Martin dit Montpellier (son from first marriage): Engaged 21 May 1694 (Québec notarial act); part of group (with Charles Neveu, Charles Cadieux, François Dumesny) contracted by Louis Rouer de Villeray for the Oudiette/Benac company to transport furs from Michilimackinac (via Nicolas Perrot and sieur Amiot/Daniel-Joseph Amiot to Jesuit warehouse). 
• Jacques Neveu (b. 1663): 27 September 1684 (Québec); contracted with Henri de Tonty (governor of Fort St. Louis, Louisiana, under La Salle) alongside Anthoine Duquet Madri. Terms: Tonty outfitted canoes/provisions; they traded for beaver pelts, split profits 50/50 after costs (Tonty half, voyageurs shared half); bonus 150 livres in pelts, personal trade allowance (rifle, capotes, shirts, blanket), +10 beavers. Original draft included crossed-out Boissel brothers. 
• Charles Neveu (b. 1671): Same 1694 Michilimackinac contract as Antoine Martin.
• Jean-Baptiste Neveu (b. 1676): Evolved from potential voyageur roots to major merchant/trader. Settled Montréal ~1701; Rue Saint-Paul business funded expeditions. Acquired Pawnee slave Marie (age 11) from brother Jacques for 200 livres (1709). Diversified into seigneuries (Dautré 1710, Lanoraie fully by 1721; expanded 1739). Built mills, kiln, chapel/presbytery; donated land for church (1744/1752). Militia colonel; churchwarden. Profits tied to financing fur trips to pays d’en haut. 

Denise Sevestre and the Fur Trade

Denise Sevestre's life bridges the earliest days of Québec settlement and the mature fur trade era. Arriving as a girl in 1636 amid Champlain's colony, she married young, endured widowhood, and rebuilt with Philippe Neveu. Her family grew amid the trade's expansion—beaver hats in Europe drove demand, and New France relied on Indigenous alliances and voyageur labor for pelts from the Great Lakes and beyond.

Her sons embodied this: Antoine and Charles in 1694 joined contracts to retrieve furs from Michilimackinac, a key Jesuit-linked hub. Jacques in 1684 ventured to Fort St. Louis with Tonty, trading goods for beaver in La Salle's Louisiana extension. Jean-Baptiste scaled up—using merchant profits to outfit expeditions, acquire enslaved labor (reflecting trade's darker networks), and invest in land/mills, becoming seigneur of Lanoraie.

Denise, a "mother of voyageurs," represents how settler women anchored families whose men (and later generations) fueled Canada's fur economy. Her legacy echoes in the contracts, seigneuries, and communities built on pelts—risky, profitable, and foundational to Canadian history.

Thank you to Grok xAI for the enhanced 2026 updates.

The River's Blood: The La Prairie Voyageur Legacy (2026 edition)

 

The River's Blood: The La Prairie Voyageur Legacy 2026

Google drive link… https://drive.google.com/file/d/12IQsu4snDr7lpmQNEJBYA_sJgu3Pvcal/view?usp=drive_link

In the 17th and 18th century, the destiny of North America was written in the wake of birchbark canoes. This is the epic true story of the La Prairie families—pioneers who traded the stability of the forge and farm for the relentless current of the St. Lawrence.

From the master blacksmiths and axe-makers (Poupart) and canoe-makers (Duquet) to the indomitable runners of the woods (Bourassa, Barette, Rivet), The River's Blood tracks the foundational French-Canadian lineage that fueled the fur trade, charted the wilderness, and etched the family names into the deep history of the continent's expansion. Discover the sacrifice, the ambition, and the unbreakable bond that tied these adventurers to the heart of the Great Lakes frontier.

Drifting Cowboy’s Journey

Jerry England—known as "Drifting Cowboy"—is a master storyteller and genealogist whose own life is a continuation of the North American frontier saga. Raised in the rugged Sierra Nevada foothills of 1950s California, Jerry learned the code of the wilderness from his family—a blend of self-reliance, quiet competence, and deep respect for the land.

His intensive fifteen-year research journey revealed the roots of this heritage: an unbroken line stretching back to the earliest settlers and legendary voyageurs of New France. Jerry England connects the grit of the cowboy culture directly to the tireless spirit of the La Prairie voyageurs, proving that the frontier legacy runs deep in The River's Blood.

 

The Voyageur's Odyssey: Philippe Foubert's Frontier Life in New France

 

In the bustling streets of Rouen, Normandy, where the Seine River whispered tales of distant lands, Philippe Foubert was born around 1616 in the parish of St. Vivien.  A man of modest origins, he grew into a life shaped by the rhythms of 17th-century France—perhaps as a laborer or artisan, though records remain silent on his early days. Before 1641, he married Jeffine Riviere, a union that brought forth their daughter Marie in 1641, baptizing her in the same parish church that had witnessed his own beginnings. Little did Philippe know that the winds of opportunity—and peril—would soon carry him across the Atlantic to the wilds of New France, a fledgling colony teeming with promise and peril.

The year 1649 marked a pivotal turn. Europe was still reeling from wars and economic strife, and the lure of the New World beckoned adventurers seeking fortune in the fur trade. On September 12, in the notary office of Laurent Bermen in Quebec, Philippe signed an engagement contract with Charles Sevestre, a prominent figure in the Compagnie des Habitants (also known as the Communauté des Habitants).  This French-Canadian trading company, formed in 1645 by local elites like Pierre Le Gardeur de Repentigny and Jean Bourdon, held a monopoly on the fur trade in the colony, excluding Acadia. It promised profits from beaver pelts but demanded colonists shoulder the burdens of settlement, including military defense against Iroquois raids and the annual transport of new settlers. Philippe, hired as a voyageur—a rugged traveler tasked with navigating canoes through treacherous rivers to trade with Indigenous nations—embarked on this venture likely as part of a brigade venturing into the interior for furs.

Imagine the scene: Philippe, sturdy and resolute, boarding a vessel in Rouen or La Rochelle, crossing the stormy Atlantic in a months-long journey fraught with scurvy, tempests, and uncertainty. Arriving in Quebec, he would have stepped into a raw frontier—wooden palisades, Jesuit missions, and the constant hum of bartering at the company's storehouse, where Sevestre served as clerk and eventual general manager.  As a voyageur, Philippe's days blurred into a grind of paddling birch-bark canoes laden with trade goods—axes, kettles, blankets—up the St. Lawrence and beyond, exchanging them for precious beaver skins with Huron and Algonquin allies. The work was grueling: portages over rocky terrain, mosquito swarms in summer, and the ever-present threat of Iroquois ambushes, which escalated in the late 1640s as intertribal wars disrupted trade routes.

By 1652, Philippe had transitioned from the nomadic life of a voyageur to a more settled existence. Referred to now as a miller, he purchased a home in Trois-Rivières—a plot with two arpents of river frontage, ideal for grinding grain to sustain the growing community.  This riverside town, founded in 1634 as a trading post, buzzed with fur traders, farmers, and soldiers. Trois-Rivières offered a semblance of stability amid the colony's hardships, though Iroquois attacks loomed, culminating in the dispersal of the Hurons by 1650 and a collapse in fur supplies that strained the Compagnie des Habitants financially.

Family ties pulled at Philippe's heart across the ocean. In 1655, alongside his brother Robert Foubert, he signed a note of obligation for 100 livres to Sevestre—likely a downpayment to fund the passage of their wives to New France.  The following summer of 1656 brought joy and reunion: Jeffine, now 48, arrived in Quebec with their 15-year-old daughter Marie, accompanied by Robert's wife Marguerite Riviere (age 50) and the young wife of Georges Pelletier (age 32). The women, having braved the perilous crossing, hurried to Trois-Rivières. There, amid the wooden homes and fortified walls, Marie Foubert wed voyageur Jean Cusson on September 16, 1656—a union that would root the family deeper into the colonial fabric.

Philippe's life in New France was brief but impactful, embodying the spirit of the early settlers who bridged old and new worlds. He passed away sometime between 1656 and 1661 in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, near Trois-Rivières, and was buried there in 1661.  His legacy endured through descendants like Marie, who carried the Foubert name into future generations of Canadiens. In an era when the Compagnie des Habitants grappled with debts, Iroquois wars, and royal interventions—ultimately dissolving in 1663—Philippe's story reflects the grit of those who paddled into the unknown, forging a new homeland from the wilderness.

Thank you to Grok xAI for enhancements to this story.

Cousin Joseph Duquet: Hanged for His Part in the Lower Canada Rebellion, 1838

 

Joseph Duquet (September 18, 1815 – December 21, 1838) was a notary in Lower Canada. He was executed for his part in the Lower Canada Rebellion.

He was born in Châteauguay, Lower Canada in 1815. He studied at the Petit Séminaire de Montréal and the Collège de Chambly. Duquet articled as a notary with Joseph-Narcisse Cardinal and then studied law with Chevalier de Lorimier. In 1837, he continued his training as a notary with his uncle Pierre-Paul Démaray at Dorchester (later Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu).

Démaray was arrested for high treason in November 1837 but was freed by a group of Patriotes while he was being escorted to the jail at Montreal. Duquet helped his uncle escape to the United States. After a skirmish at Moore's Corner, he escaped to Swanton, Vermont. In February 1838, he took part in an attempted invasion of Lower Canada by Robert Nelson.

Duquet returned to Lower Canada in July 1838 after an amnesty was proclaimed. He then helped recruit members for the frères chasseurs and organized a lodge at Châteauguay. He was captured with Joseph-Narcisse Cardinal at Kahnawake when they attempted to get weapons from the native people there. At a trial in November 1838, he was sentenced to death for the crime of high treason with a recommendation for executive clemency. He was hanged at Montreal in December 1838 and buried in the old Catholic cemetery there. In 1858, his remains were moved to the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery and buried under “Monument aux Patriotes,” a monument dedicated to the Patriotes of 1837-8.

ASSOCIATION DES FRÈRES-CHASSEURS

The Association des Frères-Chasseurs was a secret society that aimed to free Canada from British rule. It was founded by Patriote exiles following their defeat in 1837. The association took several cues from the Masons, including a variety of rituals, oaths, hand signs and passwords. Commanded by Dr. Robert Nelson, the association quickly spread throughout the American borderland and Lower Canada. The association played a major role in the second phase of the Canadian rebellion, planning and leading the failed invasion of Lower Canada in November 1838. The Frères-Chasseurs and Hunters’ Lodges were part of the same general association with similar aims, practices and rituals. While one was organized by American sympathizers, the other was organized by Lower Canadian Patriotes. 

From: Dictionary of Canadian Biography

JOSEPH DUQUET, (3rd cousin 5x removed) Patriote; b. 18 Sept. 1815 at Châteauguay, Lower Canada, son of Joseph Duquet, an innkeeper, and Louise Dandurand; d. 21 Dec. 1838 in Montreal.

Joseph Duquet began his classical studies at the Petit Séminaire de Montréal in 1829 and finished the program at the Collège de Chambly in 1835. He was attracted to the notarial profession and articled, probably that same year, with Joseph-Narcisse Cardinal at Châteauguay; he then continued his legal education in Montreal with Chevalier de Lorimier, likely the following year. Both of these men were Patriotes and they were destined to die on the gallows in 1838 and 1839. In October 1837 Duquet went to work in the office of his uncle Pierre-Paul Démaray*, a notary and Patriote at Dorchester (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu), with whom he was expecting to complete his training.

On the night of 16–17 Nov. 1837 Duquet was present when Démaray was arrested on a charge of high treason. After Bonaventure Viger* and a handful of men had succeeded in freeing Démaray by ambushing the detachment that was taking him to the Montreal jail, Duquet accompanied his uncle to the United States. On 6 December he and other Patriotes took part in a skirmish at Moore’s Corner (Saint-Armand Station). Subsequently he fled to Swanton, Vt. On 28 Feb. 1838 he participated in Robert Nelson*’s attempted invasion of Lower Canada.

After the amnesty proclaimed by Lord Durham [Lambton], Duquet was able to return to Lower Canada in mid July 1838. He immediately undertook an intensive campaign to recruit members for the Frères-Chasseurs. He organized a lodge at Châteauguay and persuaded Cardinal to become the head of it. On the evening of 3 November, the day set for the second uprising, he left with Cardinal and a group of followers to “borrow” weapons from the Indians at Caughnawaga (Kahnawake). On reaching their destination on the morning of 4 November, Cardinal, Duquet, and François-Maurice Lepailleur, Cardinal’s brother-in-law, began parleying with the Indian chiefs. The Indians invited the entire group of Patriotes to join in the negotiations, but when they entered the reserve the warriors surrounded them, taking 64 prisoners whom they immediately conducted to the Montreal jail.

On 28 Nov. 1838 Duquet and 11 of his companions were summoned before a court martial set up by Sir John Colborne*. Lewis Thomas Drummond*, a young Irishman, Pierre Moreau, a Canadian lawyer whom the court judged “acceptable,” and later Aaron Philip Hart, a brilliant man of Jewish extraction, undertook to defend them. They were not allowed, however, to intervene directly through cross-examination.

From the outset Cardinal lodged a protest disputing the court’s jurisdiction, since the offences had been committed before the special ordinances of 8 Nov. 1838 had been adopted. He demanded a trial before a civil court, but in vain. When the witnesses had been heard, the attorneys received permission to present their remarks. Drummond, with Hart’s assistance, put forward a vigorous defence that made a strong impression on the court, which wondered whether in the case before it the death penalty would not be an excessive punishment. The president of the court martial, Major-General John Clitherow*, enquired if it was not possible to pronounce another sentence. Attorney General Charles Richard Ogden* replied that there was no choice, and Solicitor General Andrew Stuart expressed a similar opinion. Consequently, on 14 December the court martial sentenced to death all those who had been found guilty.

The court’s hesitations had perplexed Colborne somewhat. On 15 Dec. 1838 he asked the Executive Council to study the cases of the condemned men, in particular Duquet’s. The council held that Duquet should be considered a recidivist and that justice should take its course, just as for Cardinal. The sentences of the other condemned men were commuted to transportation.

Neither the intervention of the auxiliary bishop of Montreal, Ignace Bourget*, nor a pathetic appeal by Duquet’s mother had any effect. On 20 Dec. 1838 Drummond made a final attempt, calling attention to serious doubts about the legality of the trial. He asked that action be deferred until a competent court had given its opinion, declaring that if the sentence were carried out, the condemned men would be elevated from persons presumed guilty to martyrs to arbitrariness. Nothing availed.

In accordance with the sentence of the court, Cardinal and Duquet had to mount the scaffold on the morning of 21 Dec. 1838. Cardinal was executed first. When it was his turn to climb the steps, Duquet began to shiver and his teeth chattered. He had to be supported. When the trapdoor was sprung, the noose, which had been badly adjusted by the hangman, Humphrey, slipped and caught under the nose of the condemned man, who was thrown violently to one side and hit the ironclad framework of the gallows. His face battered and bleeding profusely, the hapless Duquet had not lost consciousness and was moaning loudly. The onlookers began yelling: “Pardon! pardon!” This agony was prolonged, it was said, for some 20 minutes, the time it took for the hangman to install a new rope and cut down the original one.

Joseph Duquet’s body was buried in the same grave as Cardinal’s in the old cemetery of Montreal, which is now the site of Dominion Square. The two martyred Patriotes’ remains were removed in 1858 to the cemetery of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, where they rest under a monument to the Patriotes.

Monument des Patriotes-du-Cimetière-de-Notre-Dame-des-Neiges

Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec

Source: “DUQUET, JOSEPH,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed January 24, 2026, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/duquet_joseph_7E.html

Charles Diel's 1684 Expedition: A Voyage to the Heart of the Pays d'en Haut

 

In the crisp, early autumn of 1684, Charles Diel dit Le Petit Breton felt the sharp bite of northern wind on his cheeks as he and his partners—Pierre Lefebvre and Antoine Caillé—loaded their birchbark canoe at the muddy banks near the Montreal River, just south of the growing settlement of La Prairie. The air carried the damp, earthy scent of fallen leaves mixed with the faint smoke from distant habitant fires. The canoe, a graceful 25-foot vessel of cedar ribs and birchbark sealed with pine pitch, groaned under the weight of crates: bolts of coarse wool cloth, iron axes glinting dully in the low sun, knives with bone handles, kettles that clanged softly, and small pouches of turquoise-blue glass seed beads that shimmered like fragments of summer sky. The sharp tang of brandy from a sealed barrel lingered in the air, promising warmth on cold nights.

They pushed off in late October, the water cold enough to numb fingers through gloves as paddles dipped rhythmically—splash, pull, drip—into the Ottawa River's dark current. The Ottawa route unfolded as a symphony of effort and beauty: the steady thunder of rapids ahead grew louder, drowning out conversation, until the men beached the canoe on gravel shores slick with frost. Portages were brutal—packs of 90 pounds or more strapped to forehead tumplines, the leather cutting into skin as they trudged over rocky trails. Sweat soaked wool shirts despite the chill, mingling with the pine resin scent of the forest and the metallic smell of wet stone. Mosquitoes had mostly vanished with the cold, but blackflies left itchy welts on exposed necks. At night, they camped on pine-needle beds, the crackle of a small fire warding off the encroaching dark, its smoke thick with spruce and birch bark. Meals were simple—dried peas boiled into pemmican-like mush, cornmeal cakes, perhaps fresh fish caught with a hook, tasting of river water and smoke.

As days turned to weeks, the river narrowed into twisting channels framed by dense conifer walls. The water's rush echoed off granite cliffs, punctuated by the distant calls of loons or the sharp crack of a beaver tail on the surface. Indigenous villages appeared—Ottawa or Algonquin—where smoke rose from longhouses, carrying the rich, savory aroma of roasting venison or fish over open flames. Here, Charles and his companions offered gifts: a handful of blue beads that caught the firelight, evoking admiration and cautious smiles, in exchange for guidance, food, or furs. Voices blended in broken Algonquian and French, the air warm with pipe tobacco and shared stories around flickering embers.

By early November, they reached the Straits of Mackinac—where Lake Huron and Lake Michigan met in a vast, wind-whipped expanse. The water here was colder, slate-gray under low clouds, with whitecaps slapping the canoe sides and spray stinging faces like icy needles. No permanent fort stood yet; the site was a seasonal gathering of temporary shelters: birchbark lodges, canvas tents, and scattered French traders' camps hugging the south shore near the Jesuit mission on the north. Smoke from dozens of fires hung low, thick with the scents of burning cedar, roasting meat, and curing hides. The air buzzed with multilingual chatter—French patois, Ottawa rhythms, Huron inflections—mingled with the rhythmic thump of pestles pounding corn and the distant howl of wolves at dusk.

Charles bartered amid this chaos: spreading his goods on a blanket near a fire whose warmth fought the creeping cold. The crunch of dried beaver pelts underfoot, the soft rustle of fur as pelts changed hands, the metallic clink of traded tools. Indigenous women, wrapped in blankets against the wind, examined beads with keen eyes, their fingers tracing the smooth glass. Brandy flowed in small measures, its sharp burn cutting through the chill, loosening tongues for better deals. Nights brought communal warmth: stories told in low voices, the pop of resin in the fire, the distant lap of waves on rocky shores, and the faint, comforting smell of tobacco mixed with pine smoke.

Charles did not linger long into winter's full grip. Family called him back—perhaps news of his daughter Marie-Anne's illness reached him through passing canoes. The return journey reversed the hardships: upstream paddling against currents that tugged relentlessly, portages now slick with early snow, the canoe lighter but the men wearier. Frost rimed beards and lashes; breath hung in white clouds. They reached La Prairie by early December, the familiar scent of woodsmoke from home fires welcoming them, just in time for the quiet burial of the infant child.

This 1684 expedition was raw immersion: the ache of paddle-blistered hands, the exhilaration of open water under vast skies, the sharp negotiation of scents and sounds in distant camps, and the quiet triumph of returning with pelts that would pay debts and feed dreams. For Charles, it was the sensory pulse of the frontier—cold, smoke-filled, alive—that shaped his legacy as a coureur des bois bridging La Prairie’s fields to the wild heart of the pays d'en haut.

Thanks to Grok xAI for this delightful tale.