 
Kathleen
Member
Username: Kathleen
Post Number: 2817
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 12:52 pm: |    |
He must be referring to Laclede's Landing in St. Louis. It's a riverfront dining and entertainment district. It's been a while since I was in St. Louis, but I wouldn't exactly call it their "French Quarter" even though the Laclede name may be French.
http://www.lacledeslanding.com /index.html |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 55
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 2:22 pm: | |
I'm not sure what he was referring to. I'll ask him. Whatever St. Louis has, Detroit can do better. |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 54
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 4:16 pm: | |
It's always better in Detroit. |
French777
Member
Username: French777
Post Number: 403
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 4:46 pm: | |
a french Craperi is coming to Downtown.
I saw it on WDIV 4 like a week ago! |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 55
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 4:49 pm: | |
more info please!••• if what you are telling us is true, I am totally excited!•• |
French777
Member
Username: French777
Post Number: 404
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 6:33 pm: | |
From my last Trip to France
These are photo's from CAEN ( Normandy Area)
and St. Malo
|
French777
Member
Username: French777
Post Number: 405
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 6:35 pm: | |
I took over 600 pictures
these ones relate to French Design. For Frenchtown! |
French777
Member
Username: French777
Post Number: 406
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 6:43 pm: | |
If you havent been to Paris I would suggest going!
Words/Pictures/Movies cannot even remotely describe it!
Here is a video I made also!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=csDZ4c20Nz (part 2)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_uJFJwvWczo&feature=related (Part 1) |
French777
Member
Username: French777
Post Number: 407
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 6:45 pm: | |
http://youtube.com/watch?v=csD Z4c20NzI&feature=related (Part DEUX ) |
Lafayette
Member
Username: Lafayette
Post Number: 33
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 7:10 pm: | |
My maternal great grandfather was a french canadian logger from calumet whose family was originally from quebec. He came to detroit and married my great grandmother in 1904. They stayed in detroit since then, where he began delivering milk for the detroit creamery. |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 57
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 7:30 pm: | |
so we need to design the French Quarter after France and Quebec. Who would do that the type of work? I'm not big on that. But we still need a location. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 59
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 12:00 am: | |
The St. Louis French Quarter is called Soulard. They have a Mardi Gras every year - the second biggest to the Mardi Gras after New Orleans. It's not far from Budweiser.
French and Quebec architecture would work well with brick streets. I can almost see it. |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 59
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 12:07 am: | |
So all we need to know is how to get started on this daunting task. I am totally ready to help. |
Lifeinmontage
Member
Username: Lifeinmontage
Post Number: 102
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 2:09 am: | |
that's a good question dtowncitylover. are there any architecture firms that specialize in "old-fashioned" styles of architecture? |
Sumas
Member
Username: Sumas
Post Number: 90
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 7:15 am: | |
The idea for a French Quarter is long overdue. The ideal spot would have the area around Campus Martius, the French drilling ground. But I forgot, the city tore down most of the historic buildings in the area. Another location would have been what was once called Victorian Village, an area bounded by the I-75 business loop, Harper Hospital, Woodward and I-75. But i forgot, that area is now mostly demolished by the city. One last suggestion would be an area that was called the Warehouse district east of the RenCen on the riverfront. It was once a viable entertainment area until the city evicted everyone to sell the land to failed casinos proposal. At least the buildings still stand for the most part. Don't expect any support from the City Council however. They are still pouting that the "African Village" proposal was laughed out of existance. |
Pam
Member
Username: Pam
Post Number: 3892
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 7:35 am: | |
Building a fake French quarter sounds too Disneyland, no thanks. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 1883
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 9:12 am: | |
What would be there besides food and drink? Bistro, creperie, boulangerie, patisserie, what else? Those all need some kind of supporting businesses/residences to stay alive.
I was talking with a fellow in Ferndale at the community center. He was really happy to be living in Ferndale where he could live a European lifestyle, walking to the market for fresh food daily, lots of streetside gathering spots, and cultural offerings, music, plays, and plenty of activities.
We have places like that in Detroit, just not fully utilized yet. Eastern Market comes to mind and it is just in the right spot for the French history, too.
I think these things have to evolve rather than spring up like a mushroom overnight, but we can help it along.
OH!! I just thought, what about the area around Ste. Anne's? That is the original church for Detroit, and the second oldest parish in the nation.
(Message edited by gazhekwe on April 10, 2008) |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 60
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 9:15 am: | |
I don't think it would turn into a disneyland. Detroiters are always looking for something new to do in their city and a French Quarter would be an ideal place to go and have a crepe, have a cafe du lait, and just sit and watch the world around you. I don't think it would be fake. Fake would mean that we build standard businesses with french names, but we are trying to create a unique French/Quebec quarter with the old type of architecture. I can see it being very prosperous and with Windsor, too, there are French people in the Windsor area there who would love this. African Village? That was the biggest joke of the 21st century. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 1884
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 9:18 am: | |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S te._Anne_de_Detroit_Catholic_C hurch
According to this article, the last sermon in French was given in 1942. |
Pam
Member
Username: Pam
Post Number: 3893
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 10:02 am: | |
quote:Fake would mean that we build standard businesses with french names, but we are trying to create a unique French/Quebec quarter with the old type of architecture
Old type architecture that isn't really old is still fake. The fakeness is what I meant by Disneyland. I'd rather see money spent preserving the actual old buildings we have. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 1886
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 10:03 am: | |
Here is a nice article on Detroit in the 1700s and a sketch of the place. No European looking structures yet.
http://info.detnews.com/redesi gn/history/story/historytempla te.cfm?id=180&CFID=19993256&CF TOKEN=76326262 |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 61
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 11:34 am: | |
Gazhekwe: thanks about the French mass, I already knew that, but at least someone responded about that, i'm going to try the archdiocese archives. And I don't think the French were serious yet about settling Fort Detroit and didn't bother putting up serious buildings, that's when the Brits came and screwed up history. But anyways, Even if they were "fake", people would still come. People like the old time feel of things, like the streets of Old Detroit in the Historical Museum. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 60
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 11:44 am: | |
The most successful French Quarter is the one in Nawlins. It has businesses (bars, restaurants, boutiques, souvenir shops with apartments on top of the businesses. It has the St. Louis Cathederal and sidewalk cafes. Musicians and dancers (mostly impromptu) in the streeets mingle with the tourists, and an occasional jazz band comes down Bourbon or Royal, with dancing people following them. A very big thing in the morning that attracts locals (mostly downtown workers) and many tourists is the French Coffee and the beignets (French pasteries.) From early morning on, the place is jammed.
Detroit can do this Detroit style, and has a huge advantage over New Orleans. It doesn't get the threat of hurricanes, and the year-round drenching rains (they get over 60 inches of rain a year.) |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 1894
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 11:56 am: | |
DTCL, I kind of like the building behind the traders in that one drawing, see it? Chimneys on each end, peaked roof, two stories, brick or stone, it looks like? They would have used local materials for the most part.
Here are some pix from Castroville, TX, built by Alsatians in the mid-1840s. Those buildings are probably just the style that would have been built here, too.
http://www.castrovilletx.com/c astroville-texas-photos.htm |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 62
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 1:45 pm: | |
Yeah it do see it. That's a neat idea. I like the TX pictures, though Alsatian are mostly Allemanic (why in French, Germany is "Allemagne" and German is "Allemand") people with a heavy German influence, and we already have the Rathskeller and Frankenmuth. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 64
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 2:56 pm: | |
Castroville and most of Central Texas has a lot of German influences. In the mid to late 1800's, German settlers flooded the Texas Coast and moved west. But in Castroville, you can still see the French influence. Those are nice pictures, and that influence could be used in a French Quarter for Detroit. (If you've never been to Castroville, it's beautiful, esp. this time of year with the Bluebonnets.) |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 1900
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 7:39 pm: | |
There is a restaurant in Castroville called the Alsatian House. When we went there, they served a country French menu in a vintage building with a courtyard in back. The walls were white stucco, the woodwork and tables dark and ancient looking. It is interesting to look over a history of Alsace-Lorraine, at times French, at times German. The city heritage celebrates the French ancestry. That's why I think the buildings are a good example of French style of the time(Mid-1800s). |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 63
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 8:42 pm: | |
I had to do a report on Alsace-Lorraine in my french class during high school. it went back and forth between france and germany too many time to count. So where do we go from here? |
Sumas
Member
Username: Sumas
Post Number: 93
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 9:27 pm: | |
I see that as a part of the mayor's economic stimulus plan he wants to create a Paradise Valley re-creation in Harmonie Park. Nice idea, bad choice of location. The Harmonie Club was a German Social Club with an emphasis on Chorale singing, hence the auditorium. Also, a drinking venue. Any thoughts out there for a "relocation" of Paradise Valley? The German French border has historically been fluid, so it seemed appropriate to talk about German town on this thread
(Message edited by sumas on April 11, 2008) |
Lifeinmontage
Member
Username: Lifeinmontage
Post Number: 104
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 1:30 am: | |
"Fake would mean that we build standard businesses with french names"
well there goes my ideas for Le Bar and Le French Restaurant to go along with my Le Car. jk |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 64
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 11:54 am: | |
lifeinmontage, you just made my day. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 67
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 1:02 pm: | |
I believe that a new French Quarter could have the sense of reality. I lived in Germany in 1966 and l967. Just over 20 years before that, German cities and towns were gutted by the Allies. When I was there, it had almost totally been rebuilt. It still had the sense of permanence about it.
I left to come back here, staying with some relatives in New Jersey for a few weeks. The Newark riots started. Then I went to Detroit, and the riots broke out there. I left for Houston, unwillingly on my part. My husband (from Detroit) didn't want to stay. |
Miketoronto
Member
Username: Miketoronto
Post Number: 861
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 11:42 pm: | |
Hey Detroit could have been in Canada, if we won the wars, and taken hold of you guys 
Imagine, Detroit, Canada instead of USA. Don't think you guys would have like that much.
It is a shame that the French lost out in some ways, because they were the founding fathers. Even Toronto was founded by the French and was a French fort for a while, untill the British came in. |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 65
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, April 12, 2008 - 2:20 am: | |
Actually, the French abandoned and burned their fort called, Fort Rouille. Toronto was then founded by United Empire Loyalist from America and called it "York". Now could you imagine if they called their new city New York? But we still need a location for the French Quarter. I was thinking Cass and Peterboro, the location of the Detroit's second Chinatown, which has been gone for decade now. |
Lifeinmontage
Member
Username: Lifeinmontage
Post Number: 105
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008 - 11:07 pm: | |
the way i envision a french quarter is with three or four story buildings among a bunch of other medium-height blocks. but the cass/peterboro intersection is pretty flat with the exception of one three story building.
however, i'm not saying my idea is the best. i just pictured something more dense than your suggestion, DTCL. |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 66
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008 - 11:58 pm: | |
yes i understand. i just thought of starting from scratch and cass/peterboro is an area where one could tear down the old and build the new. but, w/e i'm not the kind of person who knows where to put these kinds of development. |
English
Member
Username: English
Post Number: 701
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 12:05 am: | |
OK, I know I'm thread jacking, but this is a splendid idea. Would Rivertown (east of the RenCen) be a good spot?
Would a "French Detroit" ethnic festival in Hart Plaza be a good starting place? I definitely would love to learn more about the French roots of our fair city. |
Deteamster
Member
Username: Deteamster
Post Number: 106
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 12:23 am: | |
This is the worst idea ever.
Ever go to Asian Village on the Riverfront? That's what happens when you try to artificially create an ethnic "feeling" in a city.
New Orleans and the surrounding parishes actually have Francophone people living in and around them- Detroit, aside from a bit in Monroe and Windsor(which doesn't count since the border is essentially closed nowadays) does not. They have an authentic French quarter and buildings; Detroit does not.
Nonsensical romanticism. Our most enduring cultural settlements, the Mexicans in Southwest, the Poles in Greater Hamtramck, the Arabs in Dearborn, our African-American eateries and retail, to name but a few, have all developed organically, without any planning, and continue to bolster our struggling region.
By the way, je parle francais et je suis habite en Detroit, mais we need to get more cops on the beat, turn on the streetlights, and clean up the litter instead of dreaming of some Disneyland New France in Detroit. We must remember and celebrate our heritage- go visit the Historical Museum- but concentrate on the problems at hand. |
English
Member
Username: English
Post Number: 705
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 12:57 am: | |
Deteamster, most cities did a combination of letting things grow organically & good urban planning.
Besides, what's wrong with people dreaming? Many forumers are committed to the welfare of the city. If I can dream of having an huge Detroit Music Hall of Fame Museum at the corner of Woodward and I-75, I think dreaming about a "French Detroit" quarter or festival is just fine. |
Ravine
Member
Username: Ravine
Post Number: 2208
Registered: 01-2006
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 3:16 am: | |
I am in favor of this idea of having streets that are secure, well-lit, and clean, but dreams are a great thing. A person without dreams is most of the way to being dead, and I believe that formula works when applied to a community, as well. Even a dream which, looking back later, one might describe as "silly" has value in that it lifts one's spirit.
Besides, it isn't an either/or type of thing. Having dreams doesn't impede your ability to clean up the alley.
Without people having dreams of cool new stuff, there would never be any cool new stuff. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 72
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 10:56 am: | |
Detroit has the French history. I really think it could work. Right now, this city needs all the positives it can get, and this could be a big one. Most of the people coming to Nawlins French Quarter come for the food, and just for a good time, which there is plenty of. |
Dtowncitylover
Member
Username: Dtowncitylover
Post Number: 67
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 12:54 pm: | |
Deteamster: One wouldn't say "Je suis habite en Detroit" you would say "J'habite en Detroit". Asian Village was never met to be the next Chinatown, just Asian restuarants to go to when one is down there. While the Historical Museum is great I don't think it brings alive Detroit's French past, a past we must hold onto. While my first priority is that Detroit must have safe streets that are well light, I think Detroit could have it's own French Quarter. |
Lifeinmontage
Member
Username: Lifeinmontage
Post Number: 116
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 11:32 pm: | |
deteamster,
i can tell you that if i had millions of dollars, chances are i would invest it in something more stable (right now). we're talking in hypotheticals. everyone else pretty much already said what i would have in response to you, so i won't repeat it. how, might you ask, am i living up to the possibility of one day having this "french quarter"? frenglish. baby steps. . .
"papa, puis-je avoir un coca?"
"no"
"pourquoi pas?"
"parce-que 'because' " |
French777
Member
Username: French777
Post Number: 430
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 6:14 am: | |
Why not locate the French quarter near
Lafayette Park? |
Stlgasm
Member
Username: Stlgasm
Post Number: 17
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 8:38 am: | |
Hey guys, it's been a while since I've posted here, but I still like to lurk.
Not to pick a fight, but I take issue with Gaz's comment that "Whetever St. Louis does, Detroit does better." Pass the bong, dude. I love Detroit, but St. Louis is much farther along in terms of historic preservation and the back-to-the-city movement. A good friend from Detroit just visited STL for the first time two weekends ago, and her final comment about St. Louis was, "I'm so jealous." (She lives Hamtramck.) If you haven't visited St. Louis lately, I urge you to plan a trip here and visit the amazing historic neighborhoods that are intact, functional and thriving. Coming to STL and not venturing outside of downtown is like sleeping next to a beautiful girl and not taking her clothes off. |
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