City Route 57 crosses the Provencher Bridge and becomes Boulevard Provencher, and suddenly everything is in French. The east side of the Red River (fine, call it Rivière Rouge) is the former city of St-Boniface, centre of the Francophone population in Manitoba, which amalgamated into Winnipeg in 1971. If this strikes you as an odd place for French speakers, look up the Métis and Louis Riel. In the early days of Canada, both France and England had designs on the prairies. What's interesting is that as a result of its early settlement, the atmosphere here is much more similar to a French countryside town than to anything in Québec - except for the poutine. It's here, and it's good.


If you visited the Downtown page, you noticed that I saw this church from The Forks. Now that I'm on the east side of the river, let's pay it a visit.


What sort of a joke is this? It looks like a church, but it's just an empty shell! The Basilique-Cathédrale de St-Boniface was built in 1906 but burned to the ground in 1968, leaving only the stone and brick elements that couldn't be burned. Rather than knock it all down, the church rebuilt in back of the old façade and left it for prominence.


Architectural features that have been preserved, including St. Boniface himself.


The right and left walls as seen from the former church interior, then the new building in back seen from Avenue de la Cathédrale on the north side.


We have the town of St-Boniface and the Cathedral of St-Boniface, so how about the University of St-Boniface next? ("Collège" means a secondary school in French, so a "universitary college" is the tertiary kind.)


Architectural details from top to bottom, including another rendering of our good saint.


The hôtel de ville, or city hall, of St-Boniface, built in 1905 with the tower replaced in 1911 (the original one was much shorter and less ornate).


Historical marker in front of City Hall. Notice that the French referred to the Red River as the Seine.


The Belgian War Memorial was built in 1938 in the median of Blvd Provencher across from the Belgian Club. Poor timing.


Leaving St-Boniface for Anglophonier climes, this old factory is on Archibald St. (City Route 30) heading north.


#312 and #310 Nairn Avenue both look interesting, but it's the building across from them at #325 that's on the historical register, built in 1906 as the Louise Branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce. (It's near the Louise Bridge, but this area is now known as Elmwood.)


The Elmwood is on Henderson Highway at Mcintosh Avenue.


Back across the river, Canadian Pacific used to have a station along Higgins Avenue, serving passengers from 1905-1978.


As I am wont to do, some details.


If this is still a hotel, I wouldn't want to stay here on Thursday or Saturday. Maybe Friday.


Looking south on Main Street from Higgins Avenue.


Heading north from there past another questionable hotel to the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church, just north of Redwood Avenue.

Air Force Park
Head into downtown
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