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00:00Bienvenue, aujourd'hui je suis sur un bateau sur le fleuve Saint Laurent et je parle le
00:17très mal français. Je vais au la vie de Québec.
00:30Come with me as I travel across an immense and mighty land.
00:34I'm on my way across Canada.
00:38A journey of discovery.
00:40Let's go, man, my puppy.
00:42From east to west.
00:45There we are, from the mountains to the sea.
00:48Extreme landscapes.
00:50You've never told me about the traverse?
00:52Oh, yeah.
00:53Of breathtaking natural wonder.
00:56One of the most astounding encounters of my life.
01:00I'll be exploring the past.
01:02Oh!
01:03And celebrating the future.
01:05So startlingly green.
01:07As I uncover what it means to be Canadian.
01:10Gotta remember the bomb.
01:12And embrace the character.
01:14That's my size, is it?
01:16Heart.
01:17And soul.
01:18It's amazing.
01:19Of this immense and exciting place.
01:22This truly is Canada.
01:24After the vast, open landscapes of newfound land and Labrador, I'm heading west to Quebec.
01:45Like the first intrepid explorers to come to La Belle province, I'm travelling on a ship up the wonderful St. Lawrence River.
01:55Your family have been pilots on this river for a long time, have they?
01:58Yeah.
01:59There's a member of my family piloting on this river since 1936, when my grandfather started.
02:05Is it a treacherous river?
02:07It is, because it's the natural channel.
02:09The channel was there when the French first came in 1540.
02:15Their first plan was to find the spice route to India.
02:18The Maritimes, they didn't really realise the bay would turn into a river.
02:21The river would go on and on and on into the middle of this enormous continent.
02:25Exactly.
02:26They were a bit disappointed when they saw the rapids above Montreal.
02:29And they figured, oh, we're not going to get to India.
02:31So then they settled on plan B.
02:33I tried to develop another colony.
02:35It's a colony that grew from a handful of fur traders to a thriving eight million people in Quebec today.
02:42As I cross Canada's largest province, I'll be taking an urban odyssey through two different cultural hubs.
02:51Quebec City and then on to cosmopolitan Montreal.
02:55But first, I need to bid adieu to my captain.
02:59Thank you, my captain.
03:01And when you are in Quebec, try to become an inhabitant.
03:04Try to become an inhabitant.
03:06Try to become an inhabitant.
03:07Try to become an inhabitant.
03:08Well, I'll try my best.
03:09All right.
03:12I personally find it rather exciting, but my challenge is to try to be a local.
03:18My French is terrible.
03:19This might be quite difficult.
03:21But I wonder how French Quebec really is.
03:29It doesn't take long to find out.
03:33Architecture, reminiscent of the Grand Chateau of the Loire Valley, built during Renaissance for French royalty,
03:39dominates the historic centre perched high up on the cliff.
03:44This is also the site where the city's founder, Samuel de Champlain, built a walled fortress in 1608.
03:52When the French came here, they built on hills so that they could defend themselves.
03:57And this place remains the only walled city in North America.
04:03Building the fortress was not without its own intrigue.
04:08One of Champlain's men plotted to murder him and give the city to the Spanish.
04:12The traitor's head ended up on a spike.
04:16The early pioneers lived below the ramparts.
04:19They started building the lower city in stone just over 400 years ago.
04:24And that's because the French were settling here and they intended to stay.
04:33And this is all so beautifully done.
04:36It's like being in a very well-maintained Saint-Malo or La Rochelle.
04:41The detail is extraordinary.
04:43Some of the roofs have hand-cut stone tiles.
04:49Just the occasional item gives away where I really am.
04:54I'm shocked.
04:55It's totally French.
04:57Around here, it's more French than France.
05:06It's exquisite.
05:07It's beautifully preserved.
05:09I genuinely wasn't expecting Quebec City, the old city, to be quite as wonderful as this place is.
05:16It hasn't always been like this.
05:19The early city may have survived harsh winters, but disease killed many of the first settlers.
05:25They came looking for riches, but were soon disappointed.
05:28The French thought, there's nothing here, there's nothing for us.
05:32The kings of Europe wanted treasure.
05:35So French explorers went voyaging out and they began to meet First Nation people and they began to trade.
05:44And something happened in Europe which was perhaps not as simple as gold, but became gold for them.
05:52And that was the fact that there became a fashion for beaver hats.
05:58The beaver has a waterproof underneath and this web-footed rodent became something that people wanted in Europe to make their hats from so that they wouldn't leak.
06:10It opened up the entire wilderness of Canada and the French took it all.
06:19That is the history of Canada in one cup of coffee at a table in the middle of the city of Quebec.
06:26History can be made up of defining moments.
06:30A power play between nations can change a country's fortunes.
06:34And that is exactly what happened here in Quebec.
06:37The French were caught off guard to disastrous effect and it all took place here on the Plains of Abraham.
06:45What I'm going to do is I'm going to get into a uniform and it's of the 78 Fraser Highlanders
06:52because the Fraser Highlanders came here to this very site in 1759
06:58to take part in what was, well, pretty much the most significant battle in North America ever.
07:07So, what shall I do for us?
07:09You have to lie down.
07:10Yes.
07:11You put the kilt.
07:12Like this?
07:13Comme ça?
07:14Yes.
07:15Yeah.
07:16Okay.
07:17Okay.
07:18Astonishing what indignities people had to go through before they even got to the battlefield.
07:23You...
07:24Okay.
07:25Ooh.
07:26Voila.
07:27This is, by the way, the original old-fashioned kilt because later on, you know, people,
07:32the accountants on Robbie Burns' night and things like that wear these strap-on ones with leather ones.
07:36Originally a kilt was simply a blanket.
07:39Now, Francois is wearing the uniform of the French defenders of Quebec.
07:44This is not historically accurate that the French helped the British to dress up.
07:49With a strategic position on top of the escarpment, General Montcalm believed the French were safe from attack.
07:56He said that the English would have to fly in order to get up there, but they didn't fly, they just climbed up the cliff.
08:02And he woke one morning to see the British army lined up, ready to do battle.
08:06Now, many historians have said he should have just stayed inside.
08:10He shouldn't have come out.
08:11But, you know, it was the 18th century.
08:13You had to fight.
08:14So, he led his men out onto the field, which was called, biblically, the Plains of Abraham.
08:20But, of course, it was actually just a farmer who was called Abraham.
08:23And he was a Scot, as it happens.
08:25Probably went around wearing things like this.
08:28As I prepare to meet my fate, the opposing side are readying themselves on the battlefield.
08:36The French and English, I mean, basically, had been fighting each other for, ooh, well, I mean, 600 years at least.
08:44And we were simply fighting here because they were fighting in Europe.
08:50In some respect, the English didn't even want this place.
08:56But they thought, what the hell?
08:59Let's have a big ding-dong.
09:02And so they did.
09:06As if getting dressed wasn't difficult enough.
09:09With your teeth.
09:10Okay.
09:11Loading the musket is even more laborious.
09:13And the cartridge goes here?
09:15Yes.
09:16You use the baguette.
09:17And you have compressed.
09:18Quite hard?
09:19Yeah, it's okay.
09:20And when you shoot, the balls can go everywhere.
09:23How accurate was this gun?
09:25Not very accurate.
09:27It shot around 90 yards.
09:30But it's precise at 40, 45.
09:34Anjou!
09:36Feu!
09:38Tirez la baguette!
09:41Feu!
09:43The bullets are coming over me.
09:45Feu!
09:46You have to be faster because we want to stop them.
09:51Anjou!
09:52Feu!
09:53I have to get my cartridge out.
09:55Pull my spring back.
09:57Tirebourg!
09:58Fire!
09:59I put that in there.
10:01I pull out my baguette.
10:02And as a consequence, I need to report that I have, in fact, been shot.
10:19And that's me out of this reenactment.
10:29Well, I died, but the British actually won, and the battle confirmed Canada's dual identity.
10:36It's why people like Francois place special significance on reenacting it.
10:41And I'm feeling gradually, with my sense of history and my understanding of it, more like an habitant.
10:49My journey to discover what an habitant really is is still, of course, a work in progress.
10:56Do you always go home in your kit?
10:58Yeah, because it's easier.
11:01And who better to enlighten me than one of my opponents?
11:04Captain Bernard was an actual soldier himself in France.
11:08He's perfectly placed to tell me how French Canada really is.
11:13You came from France to French Canada.
11:17What did you notice immediately was different?
11:19The French Canadians are not French people living in America, but Americans who speak French.
11:25Ah, okay.
11:27When the French come here, the tourists say, where are they going to with the coffee mug?
11:33Everybody has a coffee mug to go to work.
11:35And in France, you go to take your coffee in a cafe.
11:39Yeah.
11:40With a croissant and so that's...
11:42Did you prefer the old country for the cooking?
11:45I was reading my guide to Canada.
11:50It said, don't worry, the French Canadian is not as rude and as arrogant as a real Frenchman.
12:03I disagree.
12:04Okay.
12:05If I was trying to be a local citizen here, what is the thing that would make me most an habitant?
12:16It's difficult to say, too.
12:18In the common language, an habitant is more lower and medium class of the society.
12:25Sometimes it's like an insult.
12:29Oh, an insult.
12:31So, now I've got to find out that habitant is somebody who's a little bit of a peasant, is it?
12:36I see.
12:39Thank you very much, Bernard.
12:42You're welcome.
12:43Au revoir.
12:44Au revoir.
12:45Au revoir.
12:47Well, I wasn't expecting that.
12:53The French and the British have undoubtedly shaped parts of what it is to be a modern Canadian,
12:59but the First Nations people, with their deep connection to the land and community, also underlie much of the cultural psyche of this country.
13:10In Quebec province, there were 11 separate nations.
13:14Some of these were nomadic, and some, like the Wendat, who occupied the land that Quebec City was built upon, were sedentary.
13:24And this palisade, or palisades like this, were built in order to protect their dwelling places.
13:38Like other First Nation people, the Huron-Wendat lived in longhouses, 90 metres in length.
13:45Fantastic.
13:47This was a matrilineal clan, so women made the decisions here on behalf of their extended families.
13:53This is a truly astonishing piece of archaeological work.
13:59Here are the fires, and there is no hole in the roof, because that would have let the rain in, so you just let the smoke go up.
14:07It was built from locally sourced materials, and it was built in places where it would survive.
14:14And yet, given its practicality, it's also stunningly beautiful.
14:23As my guide, Samuel, is only too aware.
14:27So, are you Wendat yourself?
14:29I'm not Wendat, but I'm from a First Nation.
14:31I'm from the Inuit nation.
14:33How many people lived in this longhouse?
14:37We have two families per fire here, so we have six families, like around 30 people.
14:41And we have different levels.
14:42Exactly.
14:43The first level that we have is mostly for the wood, for the fire.
14:46Here, we just have the bed level, and to keep them warm during the winter, fur, like the bear, the wolf, any kind of animal that was really big.
14:54Also, the last one, people misunderstand and think that it's another sleeping level.
14:58But what is really important to know is that, because the fire is burning, always burning, it made a lot of smoke, so it was impossible to sleep there.
15:05For this reason, they decided to store food, and the smoke always protected, so you can keep it more longer, but also protect it against, like, squirrel rats.
15:14Like a preserving system.
15:17Ingenious, isn't it?
15:19This domestic knowledge became invaluable to the French, too.
15:22It enabled them to survive the hardships of an unforgiving environment, and become part of the ongoing multicultural history of this place.
15:35After immersing myself in the Frenchness of Quebec City, I'm travelling three hours south, along one of the busiest sections of my old friend, the Trans-Canada Highway, to Montreal.
15:46Montreal is the second biggest French-speaking city in the world.
15:51After Paris.
15:53The question is, is it as French as Quebec?
16:00So, what have I got still to do?
16:02I've got to find out more about this Abiton thing.
16:05If you call somebody an Abiton, it means you're a bit of a peasant.
16:09You're a hick.
16:10So, I'm going to have to investigate that.
16:12The term was used by the inhabitants themselves and the other classes of French-Canadian society.
16:17Look at this.
16:19Abiton in New France were largely defined by a condition on the land, stating that it could be forfeited unless it was cleared within a certain period of time.
16:31So, it's a particular type of farmer.
16:34In other words, they were granted it by a seigneur, a lord, but because they'd come to New France, this became their land and they had the opportunity to pass it on to their inhabitants.
16:46And what I'm looking at over here is farmland that was Abiton land.
16:52Swathes of rolling countryside that lead me to Canada's cultural capital, Montreal.
16:59Named after Mount Royal, the triple peaked hill at the heart of the city, it's home to two million people, the majority of which are bilingual.
17:09And, by the looks of things, hung up on a fitness craze which is familiar to any modern city dweller.
17:16King to be a modern Abiton, I'm joining this throng.
17:23I hope it's worth it.
17:27Zut alors.
17:30Look at that.
17:32Fantastic.
17:33Now I understand.
17:35Maintenant, je comprends.
17:36What makes Montreal so magnificent?
17:40Originally inhabited by First Nations 8,000 years ago, the French, led by Samuel du Champlain, arrived here in 1611.
17:52Unfortunately, he encroached on Mohawk hunting grounds.
17:56Only 50 settlers survived their repeated attacks.
18:00This is a monument to the original colonists.
18:02It's actually surprisingly chauvinistic.
18:04Sort of a real, sort of, look at these great people who made Montreal what it is.
18:09But in the 17th century, they were so short of women to form a settlement that they shipped them in by the boatload called Les Filles de Roi.
18:20And they were quickly snapped up and made marriages amongst the soldiers and the trappers and the traders who were trying to establish a foothold here.
18:30Today, a surprising sort of surprising number of women trace their ancestry to that.
18:38People as diverse as Angelina Jolie and Madonna Hillary Clinton.
18:47All apparently descendants of those women.
18:54Montreal is also known as La Vie aux Sans Clochets, the city of over a hundred churches.
19:01The only city, Mark Twain, where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window.
19:07He's not the only comedian to make the most of Montreal.
19:12I'm pretty much the first Congolese comedian that made it mainstream here.
19:17So, yeah, they've been embracing me.
19:19I'm part of the history of comedy in Quebec, and I'm happy about that.
19:23But you come from France originally, don't you?
19:26Yeah, I was born and raised in Paris.
19:28Here, there's a little more flavor to the language.
19:31What about swearing?
19:32I'm told that there's a whole sort of Montreal swearing and Quebec swearing.
19:36Yeah, more of a Quebec swearing.
19:38It comes from a period of time here in Quebec that was called La Révolution Tranquille, the Quiet Revolution, right?
19:43The French-Canadian people stood up against the power, the church.
19:47One way to protest quietly is take words from church and turn them into swear words.
19:52For example, one famous word that people know, that's tabarnac, right?
19:56Tabarnac is like a tabernacle.
19:58Yes, the tabernacle, yeah.
20:00Yeah, if you say tabarnac, it's because you're mad.
20:03It's like saying, like, you know?
20:07There's nothing like learning a few profanities to make you feel at home.
20:12Like much of French-speaking Canada, Montreal's Frenchness is tinged with otherness.
20:18Immigrant communities have long jostled for position and influence here.
20:22The first Jewish community settled in Quebec in the 1760s.
20:3090,000 Jewish people live here now,
20:33and Yiddish is the third most commonly spoken language in the city.
20:37They've influenced the city's cultural and culinary tastes.
20:41I'm in Mile End now, and I've come here to try a Montreal speciality,
20:46which is apparently better than you can get in New York.
20:53Brought to Canada by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe,
20:56these bagels are unique to Montreal.
20:58Diffed in honey water, baked in wood-fired ovens,
21:01they're sweeter, thinner and smaller than the New York ones.
21:04They're a work of art, which is a shame because...
21:08I'm planning to interrupt the entire manufacturing process by learning how to do it.
21:17Tell me, Wilson, what is the key to making a great baker?
21:20It's to give love into what we do.
21:23It's just a question of counting.
21:24If you know how to count, one, two, three.
21:29This looks like magic to me.
21:39One minute there's no hoop there, and the next second there is.
21:42Okay, so it's my turn now, Wilson.
21:44Now you're going to start with the left hand.
21:46No, left. Stretch it.
21:48That's good.
21:49Yeah?
21:50You go around.
21:51Around.
21:52No, around the door.
21:53Exactly.
21:54And that's the one.
21:55You pull with this one.
21:56Pull.
21:57Pull with the left.
21:58Yeah, that's it.
21:59And then...
22:00Your nacho.
22:01I put that over there.
22:02Gee!
22:03Perfect.
22:04Look, for the first bagel.
22:05You're crazy.
22:06Start with the left.
22:07Stretch.
22:08And pull.
22:09And ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom.
22:10Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom.
22:12Can you tell just by looking at it which ones are mine?
22:17Well, yes, you can tell which are mine.
22:19My ones are the fattest ones.
22:20They're a little bit too big, perhaps.
22:22This is the hot station.
22:23Okay.
22:24You go like this, and you bang this.
22:27Okay.
22:28That's it.
22:29That's it.
22:30That's it.
22:31Oh!
22:32Okay.
22:33We lost one.
22:34We lost a soldier.
22:35You're doing pretty good.
22:36For a first-timer.
22:37That's it.
22:38That's it.
22:39I just need to inform the producers of this documentary that I now have a permanent post here in the bagel factory, and I won't be joining you for the next six weeks while I earn a bit more money.
22:54No, just slide it over and just slide it in.
22:57One of these bagels actually traveled into space with a Canadian astronaut who refused to leave Earth without his daily fix.
23:05That's the sort of dedication to applaud.
23:09Take them out and with the two hands, you look at the two hands.
23:15So.
23:16You're gonna fall off?
23:17Go out all the way out, yes.
23:18Oh!
23:19You missed one soldier.
23:20Oh, I lost another one.
23:21Two.
23:22Bravo!
23:23OK, good. It's pretty intense out there.
23:27Oh, Wilson's made about another two million bagels since I finished.
23:30They just keep coming all the time.
23:32He's Colombian. This business was originally a Jewish business.
23:36It was bought by Italians, and that's Montreal for you.
23:39It's not entirely French at all.
23:41It's... What's the word I'm searching for? It's a...
23:44It's a melange. It's a mix.
23:47It's... It's an everything bagel.
23:53So, where in this melange does Frenchness sit?
23:57Is it the glue that keeps these communities together?
24:01I'm bringing you a bagel, sir.
24:02Wow! What service! Unbelievable!
24:04I've been coming here 40 years, I've never had service like this.
24:07Comedy Festival founder Andy Norman is a fixture of this neighbourhood.
24:12Perhaps he has the answer.
24:14Oh, just out of the oven.
24:16This is your community? This is your stomping ground, your area?
24:19When I was a boy, when my parents were boys and girls,
24:22when my grandparents were boys and girls, this was the stomping ground.
24:25And this was the place where the immigrants congregated.
24:28There is a huge contingent of highly ultra-orthodox Jews
24:32in the middle of an area right now that's really been taken over by the hipsters and the millennials.
24:36And the people gather over bagels and they gather here, and this is sort of like a peacemaking place.
24:41Canada is a place that is, you know, people say that it's kind of beige and porridge-y perhaps.
24:48This, Quebec, is the spice in the porridge.
24:53When you were growing up, were you very conscious of a sort of slightly stiff Canadian culture here?
24:58Canadian culture is rooted in cliches and niceness.
25:02And one of your stereotypes is you're nice.
25:04For years you were kind of boring, but these days nice is really good.
25:08One of the great things about this country, and there are many,
25:11is the fact that it is still one of the more welcoming places on earth.
25:15And I'm not a girl.
25:16Thank you for talking to me.
25:18Great breaking bagel with you.
25:27This is fabulous, isn't it?
25:29I'm in Montreal.
25:30I'm actually in the very room, in the bed, where John Lennon and Yoko Enno decided to
25:39spend eight days in order to protest on behalf of world peace.
25:46It was here, in front of an audience of journalists and celebrities, that the couple recorded
25:51Give Peace a chance.
25:52An anthem protesting the war in Vietnam.
25:55And John's first song, separate from the other Beatles.
25:59I'm a bit of a baggist myself, and I feel that what I should really do now
26:03is spend eight days here myself, in bed.
26:06But I just...
26:09The problem is I feel so bad because I, you know, I feel I'm letting him down, really.
26:14I don't have that commitment.
26:15I'm just too excited to get out and see Montreal.
26:24I love my wet weather gear.
26:25It has restrictive vision, though, so I have to sort of room for my whole body if I just
26:30want to check that I'm not getting run over.
26:33To avoid Montreal's punishing seasonal weather, the preferred way to travel is, of course,
26:39under the surface.
26:40In winter, it becomes an underground city, shopping malls, everything.
26:45The people live like moles in hibernation under the earth.
26:52What's different for me is just how uncrowded and quiet it is now.
26:58It's a guaranteed smooth ride because the trains run on tyres instead of rattling along the rails.
27:06Montreal's metro is part of its culture.
27:09In the 1970s, the mayor commissioned different architects to design a station each
27:14and create a sort of underground museum.
27:17It's nice and clean compared with the rodents all over the London underground.
27:22But rodents get a look in here, too.
27:26Stop tittering.
27:27You have no idea how important the beaver was to Montreal.
27:31It was from here that huge boats went out into the furthest reaches of Canada
27:36to bring in the very, very important beaver fur.
27:41They built this city on rodent fur.
27:50There we are, isn't this delightful?
27:52Here, the Paris metro and Art Nouveau.
27:56And over there, looking down on it, our own Queen Victoria.
28:01I've made my way in the fading light to downtown Montreal to take part in a ritual
28:11which happens every other night during the season, 82 times a year.
28:18And it sort of defines Canada more than anything I have so far looked at.
28:26And for me, it takes place in that sports bar over there.
28:35I've come here to watch the city's most popular hockey team,
28:38the Montreal Canadiens, with superfan Fred Boucher.
28:47Also known as the Habs, short for Abiton, in fact,
28:51the team is one of the longest surviving ice hockey teams in the world.
28:5594% of Quebec province support them.
28:58But if I want to understand what it is to be Canadian,
29:01I need to change my virgin ice hockey status.
29:05I've only watched one game. Really?
29:07I don't know much about it. So how long is a game?
29:10Well, it's three period of 20 minutes.
29:13It's the greatest TV show on Earth.
29:15I mean, we have 82 episodes during a year.
29:18And the tension builds.
29:19And the tension builds.
29:20And every episode, you have different stories to tell.
29:23But when you watch it, that puck is a tiny thing.
29:27It's a little, little thing.
29:28And it goes shup, shup, shup, shup.
29:29And I can't... whenever I watch it on the television,
29:30I thought, what's happening? Where is the thing gone?
29:35Okay, they're off as quick as that.
29:37Do you see where the puck is?
29:38No. No, of course not.
29:39Why don't they have a light on the puck?
29:41And then you'll be able to see it.
29:42The light?
29:43Everybody's waving their sticks.
29:44You can't tell who's got it.
29:46Okay, we are the red one.
29:47We are the red one.
29:48I understand that.
29:49I understand that it's going from one end of the ice rink
29:52to the other.
29:53Yeah.
29:54I feel it. I feel it. Come on!
29:57I've just seen the puck.
29:59Yeah, yeah.
30:00For the first time.
30:01Hold on, hold on, hold on.
30:02Let's go!
30:03Come on!
30:04Oh!
30:05Come on!
30:07You get that?
30:08You get that?
30:09No.
30:10What do they call it? A puck-off?
30:11Or what do they call it when the two have a go?
30:12A puck-off?
30:13It's a face-off.
30:14A face-off, not a puck-off.
30:16No, no, no.
30:17Face-off.
30:18Oh, that's good!
30:19Come on!
30:20Yeah!
30:21Woo!
30:23Come on!
30:25Yeah!
30:26It was so fast!
30:29This is a good moment for you!
30:31I'm glad I'm on the winning side.
30:35That's all I can say at this stage in the tournament.
30:38Hold on.
30:39They are challenging golf.
30:41Oh!
30:42Tensions are rising.
30:44Possibly a good time to get my skates on.
30:46Figuratively speaking, of course.
30:49The Canadian image, even the self-image, is of a sort of quiet, reserved, slightly stolid
30:56individual.
30:57Well, obviously not Fred, but when you witness a game like that and you realise their commitment
31:03to it, you're looking at something which is so quick, so fast, so energetic that it's almost
31:10impossible to follow.
31:11And clearly it represents the sort of inner fervour of every Canadian male.
31:19All I can say is I'm really glad that I never have to get out on that ice.
31:24But then you never know what fate has in store.
31:33The point of a goalie, as far as I can tell, in ice hockey, is to position yourself in
31:42the goal and act as a sort of human shield.
31:46A sort of tank.
31:48And they fire things at me.
31:53I'm going to go, eventually, over to Alexei, who's going to give me some tutoring.
31:57For me, just getting there is a super-human effort.
32:09I had no intention of turning round then, and I turned round.
32:13I'm circling.
32:14I'll get to you eventually.
32:20Good job.
32:21Are you a hockey fan?
32:22Yes.
32:23What's your team?
32:24The Montreal Canadiens.
32:25The Hags.
32:26Yes.
32:28Not doing so well this year, but...
32:29It wasn't a great game last night.
32:31No, it wasn't a great game.
32:32No.
32:34And so I notice you do little twists and turns.
32:37So you're trying to just be in the way of the puck all the time.
32:41Yeah.
32:42So I have to be over there?
32:43I have to be over there quickly.
32:44Yeah.
32:45What's this for?
32:46When the puck goes high, it's to catch the puck.
32:49You get down as well, don't you?
32:50Yep.
32:51So...
32:52Let me try this.
32:53One leg first.
32:55You got it.
32:57Let me just move this like that.
33:00Yeah, you need a lot of agility.
33:02You need to be flexible.
33:03Okay.
33:04Ready?
33:05Yeah.
33:06Oh.
33:08How long have you been doing hockey?
33:11Since I was five.
33:12What made you think I need to be in goal?
33:16I just love being a goalie and also because it gave my mom heart attacks.
33:27So much for Canadians being nice, feisty, fast, and tough.
33:33So, Griff, are you ready to try?
33:34No.
33:35Help me, mommy.
33:36I'm inclined to just sort of not really do anything except have my pads closed in this general
33:46area.
33:47No, no, no, no.
33:49None of that.
33:50Come on.
33:51Okay, here comes one.
33:52Here comes one.
33:53Oh, my God!
33:54No!
33:55God!
33:56Do you want to stay more in the middle of that?
33:58Yeah, right there.
33:59I'm going up.
34:00I really can't let these kids get the better of me.
34:13I think it's time to get serious.
34:15It's enough for that.
34:19Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
34:21No!
34:22Hey!
34:23Scared him!
34:24Slaps him right!
34:25Oh, oh, oh!
34:27What a save!
34:29No, no, no, no.
34:31Yeah!
34:32That was a beautiful save.
34:34It did really well.
34:35They come hurtling down.
34:37Yeah, they do.
34:38They shoot at your face.
34:40Yeah.
34:41Oh, they don't try to.
34:42It's just that.
34:43Sometimes it happens.
34:44Okay.
34:45Well, you're a brave goalie.
34:46I'm glad I've finished.
34:47That's all I can say.
34:48I need to go and lie down in a very hot bath full of assy's milk for about two days.
34:54But I'll be all right.
34:56Bye-bye, Aleski.
34:57Oh, oh.
34:58Thank you so much, Griff.
34:59Oh, my God.
35:00Oh.
35:01Montreal has the highest number of restaurants per capita in the country, and the second
35:15highest in North America after New York.
35:17It has also created a dish of huge Canadian significance.
35:22Speaking as a slightly podgy gourmet, the greatest legacy that I feel the French culture has given
35:28the world, of course, has given the world, of course, is its food, its cookery.
35:31And I'm really excited that now it's lunchtime and I can have my déjeuner here in Montreal.
35:41The entire country is unified in its admiration for French Canada's culinary export.
35:49And that is something called poutine.
35:53Now, I've never eaten poutine, but I'm told that it is essentially the national dish.
36:00And here it is.
36:02Merci beaucoup.
36:03It's French fries and the sort of cheese, but not cheese as such, but I understand it's
36:14sort of cheese curds with gravy on top of it.
36:17And everybody at some point or another feels a necessity to eat it.
36:21So I feel I must, er, I must do the same.
36:30Right.
36:31The gravy is not what I'd call a highlight of the sort of the saucier skill, you know,
36:35which is not exactly a reduced sauce.
36:37It's, erm, it's certainly reduced in flavour.
36:41Now, these are the curds.
36:45It's a bit like eating extruded polystyrene.
36:49Actually, that is very, very chewy.
36:56Such is the desire for this dish that this place stays open 24 hours a day.
37:04And that's because this is the equivalent, really, of a big curry after a night out.
37:09If I was completely and utterly rat-assed, this would undoubtedly be the stuff.
37:14I feel embarrassed because I don't have a dog, but I should ask for a doggy bag.
37:18But it's not really, I can't imagine any self-respecting dog eating this.
37:22And I apologise to everybody now who loves poutine.
37:26I've had such a good relationship with the crew.
37:32They've been my friends, we've bonded, we've loved each other.
37:35And now we've got to the point where they're all gazing at me in absolute horror.
37:40Horror.
37:42Are you waiting to eat it all?
37:45Well, I'm going to step back from this gun.
37:47Oh, look at this.
37:51They're falling on it like ravenous eagles chomping away at my poutine.
37:55They just can't wait for me to step back.
37:57How does it compare, poutine?
37:59They're all nodding.
38:00It's delicious.
38:06I'd better go off to another part of Montreal and see if I can find another cuisine which is more to my taste.
38:14Just outside the city grows a delicacy that is known around the world as uniquely Canadian.
38:21This truly is Canada.
38:24And let's face it, if I wanted to be a country boy, a habitant, a farmer, surely the best thing to do would be to come out here to the woods and farm the real gold, the natural resource that is maple syrup.
38:42Legend has it that a First Nation chief once threw his tomahawk at one of these trees and his tribe discovered a sap so sweet that they used it to cook and cure meat.
38:56French settlers caught on to the idea and started producing maple sugar from the late 1700s.
39:02Today, at Sucrerie de la Montagne, Pierre Fauchet and his son Stéphane carry on a tradition which is steeped in their family history.
39:13So Stéphane, you're dressed as an oldie-worldie farmer. What sort of century are you coming from?
39:18Late 1800s, early 1900s. But these arrowhead sashes were worn for longer than that.
39:23But my family came from France on my dad's side in 1659 to Ile d'Orléans.
39:29Wow! So your father's antecedents were actually habitants?
39:37That's right.
39:38Ah!
39:40Sure, that's...
39:42And so were my grandparents.
39:45How fantastic. So I have actually met a real habitant.
39:49And you're an honorary habitant.
39:51That's just what my challenge was and I have in you found one.
39:55Not only found one, but one dressed as an habitant.
39:58There you go. I'm ready to go.
40:00And go we must.
40:02All these trees are sugar maples.
40:04Because now that I've found my inner habitant, I can be initiated into my new role as master of the maple.
40:12Do you want to get drilling?
40:13I think you should.
40:15Okay. I feel like a surgeon.
40:16So, we're intravenous now.
40:22That's right. This is la goudrelle in French, or the spigot. Put this into the tree and the bucket on the hook.
40:29Maple trees store starch in their roots. It turns into sugar and comes up as sap ready to be extracted as the weather warms.
40:38If you gave blood from three buckets out of your body, after about five days, you'd say stop, stop. But then it doesn't harm the tree?
40:47Not this way.
40:48You've then got to run around and check every day how much is coming out.
40:50That's right. Yeah, we got that old 1940s tractor with a tub on the back and we go around the forest.
40:55And then we need to transfer it into other tubs and then boil it in our evaporator.
40:59Let me see your evaporator.
41:00Go check it out.
41:02To get hold of one litre of maple syrup, you need to reduce 40 litres of maple water.
41:08This is done here in the old-fashioned way, over a wood-fired stove.
41:14So, you're getting maximum heat here.
41:15That's right.
41:16So, we've taken maple syrup and we're boiling it longer to evaporate more water out of it to concentrate it even more and into maple sugar.
41:22What's the significance? There are two pieces of bacon hanging out. What are they doing?
41:26When you first start boiling it, it tends to boil up and the fat content keeps it from boiling over.
41:34The legacy of sugar is truly bittersweet. The colonies were built on it. With it came the slave trade.
41:42I mean, the whole of Britain's rise to be a wealthy nation was really based upon the exploitation of the Caribbean to get sugar out of it.
41:50That's right.
41:51Because Queen Elizabeth I, she had a real taste for sugar. She lost all her teeth. Anyway, here we go.
41:57So, right now in Celsius, we're at 114 and we need 118. So, we're not quite there yet.
42:04As soon as it's at the right temperature, then we put it on ice.
42:07Yeah.
42:08And once it's on the ice, then we'll stir it non-stop for five minutes.
42:12Okay, I feel like I'm in the laboratory of Dr. Stefan here.
42:14I know, I know.
42:15Yes.
42:16And do we actually create sort of life forms as well if it goes wrong?
42:19Oh, yes.
42:20Or nuclear fission or something like that?
42:23I'm just keeping an eye on that temperature.
42:25Well, you're still about four degrees off.
42:29I'll do another piece for you.
42:35About 115 now. We're going up. We've got about two degrees to go, Professor.
42:40Yeah.
42:43Okay, we're ready.
42:44We're ready.
42:45Here's my moment.
42:46As if I'm not hot enough already.
42:48Not a second to be lost, or indeed, all will be lost.
42:52Here it comes.
42:53Yeah?
42:54So, just lay the whole pan in the ice.
42:56Yes.
42:57You've got to stir it square.
42:59Not too fast.
43:00Back and forth.
43:01Like, make a square circle.
43:02My dad always said it's the first hour that's the hardest.
43:04You've not decided at any point to mechanize your process in any way.
43:11I told you, we're proud and stubborn.
43:13Okay.
43:14Okay, here it goes.
43:15Good, keep going, keep going.
43:17Next one.
43:20It's going to set too solidly to finish all the molds if we don't hurry up.
43:24It's going to fall into the shape of the blob and start attacking us all.
43:28Look at this stuff.
43:29God, Taffy.
43:30Taffy.
43:31Look at that.
43:35My first wife, you know, pretty good, I think.
43:37And this one has become the monster from the Black Lagoon.
43:42I can see why it's important to move quickly.
43:44Yep.
43:45Good job.
43:46You could survive 1890 at a maple farm.
43:50Well, I'm not going to waste any of this, because if I wanted to be a proper habitant,
43:55I would have to be very, very careful.
43:57The point was, in the end, they became subsistence farmers.
44:00They lived in an old fashioned way by providing what they needed and not a huge sort of extra wealth.
44:10And they could never have foreseen what riches this precious resource would bring to this country.
44:15The maple syrup industry is so lucrative today, its reserves are stored by the barrel load in a secret warehouse, a bit like a bank vault.
44:26If I was a bit more sort of, you know, inventive, I could go and steal 560,000 gallons from the global reserve worth something like 13 million.
44:38Yes.
44:39Or something it was.
44:40And that happened, didn't it?
44:41It did happen.
44:42There was a robbery.
44:43Yes.
44:44And they started moving some of the cans around and found they'd been filled with water.
44:47That's right.
44:48But that's because maple syrup is pretty valuable stuff.
44:51That's right.
44:52On the open market.
44:53Very valuable.
44:54It's liquid gold.
44:55Yeah.
44:56In the look and in the price.
45:03In the end, of course, the maple tree is far more than the source of just a rather sweet syrup.
45:13It's a symbol of Canada.
45:15And that red maple leaf was chosen over a beaver because, try as they could, they couldn't get the beaver to look like anything other than a large rat.
45:28But in French, it's called the unifoliée, the one leaf, the unified leaf.
45:35And it really doesn't matter whether you're a French habitant or an English habitant or an Algerian habitant.
45:42You are unified because you're an habitant of Canada.
45:48Canada still accepts more immigrants than any other major country in the world.
46:00Next time, I get to experience one of the great wonders of the world.
46:04Great support, sir.
46:05Everybody aboard is hanging on for dear life.
46:07Here it is, the beautiful metropolis of Toronto.
46:10The Canadians are Americans with manners.
46:14Exactly.
46:15Weather feels like home, doesn't it?
46:17I love a canoe.
46:20I want a little bit more of the true wilderness.
46:25There it goes.
46:26There it is.
46:27That was exciting.
46:28Yeah, glad we got to see that.
46:47You're out there.
46:48You can find your way, as soon as I'm starting to answer this.
46:49That's the best place to do.
46:50It's a good place to do.
46:55You
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