Canadian Francoise Bourdon chased an eclipse, came for a party, immigrated for love, and stayed in the shadow of Mt. Monadnock to build a family and business, bringing the world to our doorstep.
Growing up just four-and-a-half hours from Peterborough in the Pointe-Saint-Charles neighborhood of French-speaking Montreal, Bourdon descended from the mix of “core Quebecers” who started arriving in the new world as early as 1635.
Bourdon experienced what she called a multi-dimensional ethnic identity.
Though French descendants comprise 78% of the population in the province of Quebec, 58% of all Canadians list English as their “mother tongue” on the census. Those early waves of European colonizers were followed by immigrants from every corner of the world. Education, language, cultural heritage, politics and religion created a sense of belonging in her community – as well as a sense of disconnect from the rest of Canada.
Bourdon met her future husband, Clyde Kessel, in 1972. Kessel stopped to give her ride as she hitchhiked from Montreal to view an eclipse. He and MIT friends were headed for the same event in a horse trailer.
“We all found ourselves congregated at a camp in Quebec close to where the guys were making big batches of food,” she recalled. “I learned how to make American mac-and-cheese on the campfire that night. I didn’t speak English very well, and Clyde, growing up in the Midwest, didn’t even realize people spoke French in Canada.” Later that summer her friend talked her into another road trip. They went to a birthday party for one of Kessel’s traveling companions at an apple orchard in Temple, and the pair re-connected. “We were a group of friends who were having the adventures of young people, traveling in the country,” she says.
Bourdon and Clyde kept a long-distance romance for five years, marrying in 1977 in Montreal and finding their place back in the village of Temple, beside that very same apple orchard.
In the early 1980s, Bourdon met David and Linda Blair, founders of the Peterborough Mariposa Museum. “They were initially interested in buying a goat from my farm,” she said, “Linda told me, ‘By the way, I am starting a fabric store in Peterborough with a friend if you are interested.’ I had done a little sewing, and I was hopeful this would be a great fit.” It was.
“To sit among a group of women who valued sewing as an art form and appreciated the skills involved in sewing energized [and] nourished me greatly,” Bourdon said. “But even more than that, our sewing, which included making custom wedding dresses, earned its place as a valued community activity in the Monadnock Region.” That fabric store would become Joseph’s Coat.
Over the next 20 years, the iconic Peterborough store evolved. Bourdon bought the business in 2006. Today it supports artisans from over 35 countries around the world, introducing local residents to what she calls both “eye art and kitchen art” – what families make around their kitchen tables or fires by applying time-honored skills of handwork, created from objects that surround them.
“Increasingly, there are too few people left who know how to do these things,” Bourdon said, “and I saw how people were responding to these disappearing crafts.”
“It’s important to carry those arts into our communities, for people to know how to repurpose or to find new products from traditional techniques in which we can continue to find meaning. It can seem at times that human culture is in peril; we are losing the wisdom of old ways.” In 1991, after 14 years in Temple, the couple relocated closer to Kessel’s business in Massachusetts. Their family grew as they adopted a brother and sister from Russia, Kirill and Lena.
Bourdon’s appreciation of folk art and artisans expanded into semi-annual pop- up World Craft Markets hosted at the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough. Most recently she established an artisan consignment shop and art gallery next door: Cultural Cocoon opened Sept. 7, 2018. The 2020 summer World Art Market scheduled at Cultural Cocoon and museum is suspended and the 20-some artisans from around the globe are unable to travel, due to COVID-19. As businesses reopen in June, Cultural Cocoon will offer only online sales with shipping or curbside pick-up. Joseph’s Coat will alternate four days open with ten days closed, starting June 18 to 21 with limited hours from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. To minimize contamination, customers are required to wear masks, observe six-foot socially-distanced checkouts, and use the hand sanitizer provided. The store is also accessible by phone at 924-6683.
Looking back on her life’s work and building a family, Bourdon said their experience may be more typical than many Americans realize. She retained her Canadian citizenship, lived as a resident alien for some years, and became an American citizen July 4, 2018. Today her adult children hold Russian, Canadian and American passports.
Like many immigrants, they integrate cultures separated by geopolitical boundaries and oceans.
“I am a person of many countries,” she said, “my eye is turned toward the world, even when making decisions for my community.”
Julie Zimmer adapted this article from an interview conducted by Betsy Small of Milford.