This is a wonderful example of a folk song that came to Canada (Quebec) from Europe (France) and was made into a ‘local’ work song with the addition of a refrain– all sung to make the hard work enjoyable while paddling canoes on early Quebec’s waterways.
This song is a hybrid of a folksong from France with a refrain added by early Quebec canoe-men. It tells of a man who, meeting three girls on the road from La Rochelle, gives the most beautiful of them a ride on his horse. Enamored of his passenger, he tries to gain her attentions. However she will neither talk nor drink with him at the fountain, but upon being taken to her parent’s place drinks a toast to her father, mother, sisters, brothers, and…her own lover.
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