You are on the edge of my life. I grew up not far from Quebec. I have been to Quebec a few times. In Middle School and High School I took classes in French. In Primary School my best friend, David Lessard, lived with his extended family where his Grandmother spoke only French. My brother used to imitate a French Canadian Lumberjack speaking broken English, it was really funny and probably racist. Are you aware of the Aroostook War.

Anyway, I left that home in Maine and moved to the south to become a Damn Yankee. I have now lived for almost 20 years in Cajun Country Louisiana. We don't have counties here we have Parishes and the state practices Napoleonic Law not British Common Law. I have seen the struggles of people trying to hold on to their culture and some even trying to recreate their tribe's lost culture.

I have some answers to "what for" as almost every culture has some redeeming attribute but is the baggage really worth it. We need something new, something better and it does not need to be a universal assimilated culture. We could have a lot of new better diverse cultures as long as they are all tolerant of each other and not bigoted.

I am Gaul, not Angle or Saxon so I don't have blonde or red hair nor blue or green eyes but I would be sad if those hair and eye colors were bred into obscurity.

Champagne is a common name down here.

Just like back home we had:

Lagasse, Lessard, Lafontaine, Gudroe Labarge

Down here we have the same but sometimes they spell it different like Goudreau

TEK