French consular official touring Maine

BANGOR – On a mission to strengthen the visibility of Maine’s Franco-American culture, the consul general of France in Boston is traveling today to various sites in coastal and northern Maine to promote the community and the bond between France and the Dirigo state.

Consul General Francois Gauthier plans to arrive tonight in Bar Harbor and over the weekend will visit sites significant to Franco-American culture, including stops in Old Town, Bangor, Orono and Greenville.

“It’s very moving for a Frenchman to witness the vitality of this community,” Gauthier said in a telephone interview from Boston. “It reminds us of the historical links [the French] have with North America.”

Gauthier said his visit is semipersonal, and his wife, Francoise, will join him in the journey to Maine. The consul general said he was invited to Maine by his friend, Yvon Labbe, the director of the Franco-American Centre at the University of Maine in Orono, with whom he is staying over the weekend.

Labbe and others from the center are working to create a Franco-American-focused tourism corridor that runs from Bar Harbor to Greenville, which will connect with the Kennebec-Chaudiere International Corridor that extends to Quebec.

In 2008, Quebec will celebrate its 400th anniversary, and Labbe said Wednesday he hopes to have the Samuel de Champlain Heritage Tourism Corridor in place before the milestone. Champlain was the founder of Quebec, who also explored many parts of Maine, including Bar Harbor and the Penobscot and St. Croix rivers.

“We hope to have the corridor ready for tourists to travel it [in 2008],” Labbe said. “Thousands come to Quebec to celebrate some of these events, and we hope to divert some of that traffic.”

The corridor extension is a great opportunity for Maine’s economy, but it also provides the French with a glimpse of their culture in other nations, Gauthier said.

“We have a half a million French tourists [who] go there [to Quebec] because of this tradition, and if we can tell them, ‘Go to Maine, or go to Vermont, because you will find a certain sense for your history [there],'” he said, “I think it will be a good opportunity for Maine.”

Gauthier noted he is consul of five states, and two of those have French names – Maine and Vermont.

The personal highlight of the trip probably will be his visit to Mount Desert, Gauthier said. On the island he will visit a museum, Petite Plaisance in Northeast Harbor, in honor of Marguerite Yourcenar, a French writer who moved to MDI in the 1950s and died in 1987. She was a special link between Maine and France, the French official noted.

On Friday, Gauthier will meet in Orono with Chief James Sappier of the Penobscot Indian Nation and with technology representatives from Hermon to discuss the town’s low-cost Internet access for all residents.

Once in Greenville, the consul general will meet with approximately a dozen Franco-Americans in a very informal gathering, Labbe said. The center director said he wanted to treat Gauthier to common Maine folks with Franco-American roots, while enjoying the state’s beauty.

“I am really impressed by the importance of [the Franco-American] community in your state and the role it has played and has continued to play in its traditions and values,” Gauthier said.