Winooski has French bread and Quebecois roots — and now the taste of chicken banh mi from Vietnam, colorful weave-work crafted by Nepalese hands and Kenyan folk music. 

By Max Handelman

WINOOSKI — The word “Vermont” comes from the French — the state’s vast range of green mountains earning it the apt name in 1777. 

With the first French explorers arriving here in the 17th century and a wave of French-Canadian immigration in the 1800s, Vermont has been an epicenter for French and Quebecois culture in the U.S. 

On June 29, over 100 vendors and visitors gathered to celebrate that history with a day of food, music and traditional French competitions. Now in its 20th year, French Heritage Day in Winooski honors a slice of Vermont’s origins and the people who make it what it is today.

“It’s about being involved in the community, promoting French culture and expanding our languages,” said Lise Veronneau, honorary consul to France in Vermont, a French government title given to volunteers who help the country’s consulate in Boston. 

“Our French history is already here, and let’s not lose that,” she said. “Let’s maximize the reality that we are French in Vermont.” 

The day encapsulates over 400 years of history, starting with Samuel de Champlain’s first voyage to Vermont in 1609 from the French city of Honfleur — which, many centuries later, would become Burlington’s sister city. 

The Honfleur Sister City Committee of Burlington, which had a booth at the Winooski festivities, hosts culture exchange events between Vermont and France. Committee representative Jeanne Keller said the exchanges aim to honor French contributions in Vermont and vice versa.

“We do art exchanges, music exchanges and Honfleur had a ribbon cutting for a housing development, Quartier de Vermont, and the town square is Burlington Square,” Keller said. “Their folks come here, our folks come there, it’s a hands-across-the-water relationship.”

Overlooking rows of tents, a wooden ship hull bore a flag adorned with a trio of fleur-de-lis. The little flowers represent Quebec in particular, and they’ve had deep roots in Winooski for over a century. 

The city earned the name “P’tit Canada” because of its Quebecois heritage, and Winooski officials designated this past March as “Francaphonie” month in recognition of the city’s different French language speakers.

“If you had family in Quebec before the 1800s, then you’re related to everybody else. I look at the phone book in Winooski and I know I’m related to these people,” said Keller. “We have to keep our relationship with Canada and Quebec alive because we have blood. Our relationship is built on blood, courage, food and love.” 

Attendees felt that love on the bright summer morning of the event — tapping their feet to the fiddle-piano melodies of award-winning Franco-American folk singer Michèle Choinière and her daughter Isabella, eating hot breakfast sandwiches from Starch Brothers and perusing handcrafted pottery, jewelry, woodblock prints and other wares. 

Under one tent, Jamie Skye Bianco filled three baskets with fresh bread: one for her sourdough loaf, another with classic French baguettes and another with pain de campagne. Also called “French sourdough,” Bianco brought the round loaves as her main contender in the day’s bread-baking competition.

Bread is pivotal to French culture and is the center of heated contests. Every three years, France hosts the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie — the Bakery World Cup — and invites teams worldwide to showcase their expertise. 

The competition elevates the platform of artisanal baking and encourages competitors to experiment with techniques from across the world.

In Winooski, Bianco used a blend of whole wheat and regular flour to give her pain de campagne a crunch worthy of taking first prize. She was thankful to share both a piece of her bread and a piece of a culture often overlooked. 

“French heritage is here, but it’s largely not visible. And making things visible is incredibly important,” Bianco said. “It’s in this land everywhere, it’s in the name of our state.”

French bread is traditionally served in a French café — another major part of the country’s culture. While stereotypes often portray café wait staff as slow, the Course des Garçons de Café in Paris has been proving this a myth since 1914. 

Also known as “the waiters’ race,” onlookers watch as participants holding a platter topped with a glass of water, a cup of coffee and a croissant race down the street in a battle for the title of swiftest steward. 

Many attendees in Winooski jumped at the chance to test their balancing mettle. For both the kid and adult races, the crowd roared as glasses spilled and croissants tumbled to the ground. During the latter battle, they watched as Angela Izzo and Kim Schmidt raced neck-and-neck to the finish line. 

After judge deliberation Izzo earned first place, but she said the best part of it all was getting to know Schmidt beforehand, sharing their stories about their ancestries and recipes for rhubarb pie.

“We all have to remember that all of us came here from somewhere else. We have to be more sympathetic to others that want to come here and be the melting pot of America,” Izzo said.

Between chatter and plates heaped with food, a man draped in blue coattails and a golden top hat strolled through the crowd, parchment in hand. 

The figure, famed Frenchman and Revolutionary War leader Lafayette (played by Michael Halbert) spoke in French and English to commemorate Winooski’s long-standing Franco-American bond forged “by the true spirit of liberty.” 

“I am pleased to present today in Winooski, where the sons of my contemporaries, all devoted to the United States, are imbued with the same feeling of patriotism,” Lafayette said. “I am flattered to see Vermont … against persecutions of so many different natures.”

For many Winooskians, that’s what defines their city. 

Winooski has French bread and Quebecois roots — and now the taste of chicken banh mi from Vietnam, colorful weave-work crafted by Nepalese hands and Kenyan folk music. 

“There’s a big piece of French heritage in our history, but we’re such a diverse city,” Mayor Kristine Lott said. “Irish immigrants, Bosnians, Vietnamese, Congolese, Nepalese: We’ve had so many people come here, and to see their heritages carry forward and broaden what our community is made of is really exciting.”

Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Winooski News.