Quebec, the French Language, and Quebecois Identity

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

JFK to Heathrow is 5,539 km direct, flying over tiny bits of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. If these have to be avoided, the flight would be 5,580 km (flying solely over international water and no Canadian land), i.e. a grand total of... 0.7% longer, otherwise known in plain English as "peanuts".

Even Chicago wouldn't be particularly affected. Chicago O'Hare to Heathrow is 6,343 km direct, and if Canada has to be avoided it would be 6 ,702 km, i.e. only 5.7% longer, which is not much (flights between Europe and Asia are far FAR more affected by the closure of Russian airspace, and guess what, we survive! it hasn't even been a news item in our media).

For comparison, Paris to Tokyo is 9,715 km direct over Russia. I was checking the route of flights from Paris to Tokyo this week, they flew over northern Greenland and Alaska, which means... 12,250 km to reach Tokyo, i.e. 2,500 km more (or 26% longer).

Flights from Paris to the French overseas territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific always had a stopover in Tokyo. Now they have a stopover in Bangkok due to the closure of Russian airspace. This makes flights from Paris to Nouméa even longer than they already were (but in order to compensate for that, the local New Caledonian airline has decided to run direct flights from Nouméa to Paris, with just a technical stop in Bangkok to refuel, instead of changing planes in Tokyo as they used to... it's the longest direct flight ever operated from Paris, nearly 25 hours).

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by mousquet

You don't know they do things like that over here?


https://www.chronodrive.com/ellevire--beurre-doux-tendre-leger-P372353

I was forced to try it once and never will again. It's a shame, a sin and betrayal to the French culinary art.
Good on you if you don't even know it. Of course, I'm all on your side when you defend real quality butter.

They don't even know what it is in North America. Their butter is kind of awful. That's why bakers import their butter from France in Québec.

It's like their sour cream vs our crème fraîche. Ours is fatter with a long tradition, then it's much better, eh.

I have seen some specialty butters imported from France but it's definitely not something you see people buying here.

As for crème fraîche, the grocery store I shop at has this which is made in Québec:




And they make a good sour cream as well in small containers which is better than the typical sour cream that comes in much larger plastic containers:

[1overcosc]

Canada has a lot of weird rules about cultured (ie. live/microbial) products that make things like raw milk cheeses, cultured butters, and proper crème fraîche difficult to buy here. In fairness, the Americans do as well although not as badly.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Canada has a lot of weird rules about cultured (ie. live/microbial) products that make things like raw milk cheeses, cultured butters, and proper crème fraîche difficult to buy here. In fairness, the Americans do as well although not as badly.

Yeah weird rules like avoiding regular outbreaks that France has from raw milk cheese (including deaths) and frankly Canada's system probably needs pasteurization more than they do .

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

For comparison, Paris to Tokyo is 9,715 km direct over Russia. I was checking the route of flights from Paris to Tokyo this week, they flew over northern Greenland and Alaska, which means... 12,250 km to reach Tokyo, i.e. 2,500 km more (or 26% longer).

Flights from Paris to the French overseas territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific always had a stopover in Tokyo. Now they have a stopover in Bangkok due to the closure of Russian airspace. This makes flights from Paris to Nouméa even longer than they already were (but in order to compensate for that, the local New Caledonian airline has decided to run direct flights from Nouméa to Paris, with just a technical stop in Bangkok to refuel, instead of changing planes in Tokyo as they used to... it's the longest direct flight ever operated from Paris, nearly 25 hours).

Here's a link which shows the various ATC and FIR areas throughout the world.
https://www.avdelphi.com/atczones.html

it would be fairly easy for US east coast flights to/from Europe to avoid Gander and Moncton ATC. Canada would be cut off from Asia as the vast majority of the Pacific and Arctic Ocean airspace is controlled by either Anchorage or Oakland ATC. Flights to Mexico, Caribbean and South America would involve a long detour over the Atlantic to avoid New York ATC. The Caribbean would bring its own challenges as a good part of its airspace is controlled by Houston, Miami and San Juan ATC.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Yeah weird rules like avoiding regular outbreaks that France has from raw milk cheese (including deaths) and frankly Canada's system probably needs pasteurization more than they do .

Why?

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It's extremely unlikely that Canadian planes would EVER be banned from US airspace.

Keeping the Quebecois away from the Florida, Cancun and Cuban beaches? There would be torches and pitchforks.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Nashe

Keeping the Quebecois away from the Florida, Cancun and Cuban beaches? There would be torches and pitchforks.

The Québécois would have less of a detour to make to reach the Caribbean.

Toronto-Cancun would become 80% longer (i.e. 2,080 km longer), but Montréal-Cancun would become only 41.5% longer (i.e. 1,230 km longer).

At the moment, flying from Toronto to Cancun is 12% shorter than flying from Montréal to Cancun, but if US airspace must be avoided, then flying from Toronto to Cancun becomes 11.5% longer than flying from Montréal to Cancun.

Obviously Québec City would be even less impacted, and the Maritimes would be little impacted.

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

Toronto-Cancun would become 80% longer (i.e. 2,080 km longer), but Montréal-Cancun would become only 41.5% longer (i.e. 1,230 km longer).

Bummer, that's a few hours less of rum and speedos time!

[New Brisavoine]

^^Above all, that's a few $100s less on your bank account, which means far less trips to the Caribbean, which would become almost as expensive as flying to Europe.

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

^^Above all, that's a few $100s less on your bank account, which means far less trips to the Caribbean, which would become almost as expensive as flying to Europe.

Is there a nice corner of Southern France that we can set aside for Quebecois and heathen ROC'ers to revel at as a backup, then?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Nashe

Is there a nice corner of Southern France that we can set aside for Quebecois and heathen ROC'ers to revel at as a backup, then?

Beautiful places for sure but nowhere that averages over 20c in the winter unfortunately.

[New Brisavoine]

By the way, flights from Air Canada are also banned from Russian airspace. So it makes flights to Asia longer.

For example, this is the shortest route from Toronto to Seoul:



And this the route Air Canada's flights followed last week:



This makes flights between Toronto and Seoul 10% longer (i.e. 1,040 km longer) than they would otherwise be. I bet your media didn't even talk about it.

For flights to India the disruption is worse. Toronto-Delhi is currently 13% longer (i.e. 1,420 km longer) due to lack of access to Russian airspace.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Nashe

Is there a nice corner of Southern France that we can set aside for Quebecois and heathen ROC'ers to revel at as a backup, then?

Southern France is not the warmest part of Europe in winter. The warmest part of Europe is Malaga, and the coast immediately around it. But if you're going to fly that far, you might as well fly to Southern Morocco or to the Canary Islands, which are warmer than Malaga in winter. I would recommend either Dakhla in Morocco or Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where you'll find the best and warmest weather (Dakhla is very windy though, but some people are looking especially for windy conditions; it's a mecca for windsurfing).

Temperatures these past few days in Dakhla was minimum 17-19C at night, maximum 22-23C during the day. In Tenerife it was 13-17C minimum at night, and 20-21C maximum during the day.

In comparison, Malaga these past few days was minimum 5-8C at night, and maximum 16-20C during the day. And Nice was minimum 7-9C at night, and maximum 12-15C during the day (although they had 17.5C last Saturday).

Non-Mediterranean Southern France is cold in winter. Toulouse these past few days has been between 0 and 3C minimum at night, and between 8 and 13C maximum during the day. Last week when it was so cold in Paris they had -5C at night (on Wednesday), which was colder than the lowest temperature in Paris (due to the big urban heat island effect in Paris), and a maximum of only +4.5C (also on Wednesday).

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Beautiful places for sure but nowhere that averages over 20c in the winter unfortunately.

Biarritz in the French Basque Country can have spectacularly high temperatures in January, a bit like LA, although this year it hasn't been the case. In January so far their maximum temperature has been only +19.1C, a bit disappointing.

In January 2024 they had a maximum of +22.5C, and in February +24.2C. On New Year's day 2023 they had +23.2C. On New Year's day 2022 they had +24.1C.

French television always has news stories in winter about people swimming in the ocean in Biarritz during winter Basque heatwaves. It's both a mixture of envy and horror at global warming (although in truth there have always been Winter heatwaves in the Basque Country due to their crazy climate conditions, hemmed at the end of the Bay of Biscay between the ocean, receiving the full force of the Gulf Stream, and the Pyrénées mountains).

This was a news story from February 2019 for instance:

• Video Link

That being said, outside of heatwaves, Biarritz can be cold in winter, like the rest of the South West. The French Riviera is more consistently warm than the Basque coast, but it doesn't have the freak heatwaves that the Basque coast gets in winter.

PS: Biarritz is only 4 hours from Paris by high-speed train. (it's high-speed only from Paris to Bordeaux, then normal speed after Bordeaux, but when the high-speed line south of Bordeaux is completed in 2032 it will be only 3 hours and a half between Paris and Biarritz)

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

In January 2023 they had a maximum of +22.5C, and in February +24.2C. On New Year's day 2023 they had +23.2C. On New Year's day 2022 they had +24.1C.

Maybe not ideal, but I'm sure Canadians could pull off swimming in that without too much trouble if pressed. If you've swam off the South shore of Nova Scotia, it would probably feel pretty nice in comparison.

[New Brisavoine]

Biarritz is more about surfing than about swimming really. It's like Malibu. Same sort of sea temperature and surf conditions. The ocean in Biarritz is also dangerous like in Malibu due to strong currents.

[New Brisavoine]

24C two days before Christmas. These videos suddenly make me want to go to the Basque Country a lot now.

The first guy in the video has typical French Basque accent. And you even have a girl from (Anglo-)Canada towards the end of the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YQLp4m-KuU

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

24C two days before Christmas. These videos suddenly make me want to go to the Basque Country a lot now.

The first guy in the video has typical French Basque accent. And you even have a girl from (Anglo-)Canada towards the end of the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YQLp4m-KuU

She also could be an American wearing a "Canada" shirt so that people don't hate on her while travelling abroad!

[New Brisavoine]

What about Québec?