Most years, UMN Morris students have the opportunity through the French club, Entre Nous, to take a bus to Winnipeg, Canada, for a weekend at the Festival du Voyageur. The Festival du Voyageur takes place annually in February and celebrates the history of the Voyageurs, French Canadian fur traders and merchants who frequently traded goods with Native communities. It honors Canada’s French culture through music, dance, costume, food, and historical reenactments, along with ice and wood sculpting contests.
“The whole experience was amazing,” said Lexus Laudert ’25 who attended trips both in 2023 and 2024. “It's a great opportunity to practice your French skills,” she adds.
One of the main attractions is the historic Fort Gibraltar, featuring a recreated trading center of the Northwest Fur Trading Company, with actors who reenact how it would have been during the time of the Voyageurs. Here, visitors can talk to the actors and learn about iron works, purchasing animal pelts and other goods on a barter system, and what life was like in the fort. They all speak French and English so it's a great opportunity to practice French-speaking skills. Other activities include carriage rides, making maple syrup suckers, and sampling la poutine—French fries smothered in melted cheese and gravy.
Often students are able to take a break from the festival to explore the city, shop at The Forks (an international mall), ice skate on the Assiniboine River, and check out the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, which displays a wide variety of local and international exhibits, both historical and modern, from artwork to documentaries and photography.
“The museum was full of interesting history and interactive exhibits and … plenty of room to just hang out for a little while,” said Mikayli Marciulionis '26.
Check the official Festival du Voyageur website for regular updates about February's festival and consider heading north with Entre Nous, UMN Morris’s French club.