Respect does not mean walking on egg-shells

2014-10-10-Coureurs-des-bois

For those interested, this man is a Coureur des bois, a runner of the the woods typically, a trapper. Le Voyageur, the traveller, was basically a pack-mule, the only means of transportation across very rough terrain.

Find out more about les Coureurs de Bois here and here. You can find more images here.

This is what the outfit comprised of. Think of it as survival gear.

habit_coureur_bois

 

Top to bottom, left to right:

Red shirt.
Fur bonnet.
Red toque.
Deer skin leggings.
Hood, and jacket–and of course the iconic fletched belt.
The Besace (precursor to the fanny pack!) that held all needed equipment to make fire, powder, shot, and personal saundries.
Knife.

Find some reproductions of the kind of gear these men would use.

http://www.artindien.com/mtm2.html

 

I enthusiastically encourage you to dress up as one. I am not my clothes, but I sure can dig them.

rodrig10

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4 thoughts on “Respect does not mean walking on egg-shells

  1. Carlos Cunha says:

    The old Trade Blanket coat. I’m putting that on my Christmas List.

  2. Sandra says:

    So, did Coureur des bois really wear Hudson Bay Blankets (the striped one in your image above)? The HBC was a direct rival of the French in Rupert’s Land . . . Just curious.

    • Francis Roy says:

      Honestly, I don’t know. :)

      • Sandra says:

        :-) I asked this somewhere else (someone else blogged about it) and they said that the Hudson Bay Company (1640) was a competitor to the French fur trade system–and it was rather doubtful that they would have had any direct contact. HOWEVER, the individual reminded me that of course after the French and Indian War and the 1763 Treaty of Paris, the Hudson Bay Company became the premier company throughout all of Canada (beyond Rupert’s Land) . . . yet the French men were still there acting, in essence, as coureur de bois–and would likely have traded to HBC, therefore acquiring the coats and turning them into jackets.

        If you ever have the opportunity to go to the North Shore (Lake Superior), stop by Grand Portage National Monument’s museum, or the Northwest Fur Post Museum in Pine City, the one at Grand Portage has the design cut pattern for the blanket coats. . . but they are both excellent museums that highlight this later portion of the fur trade!~

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