FORT KENT, Maine — For the first time in Fort Kent Community High School’s French exchange program, students on both sides of the Atlantic share a common ancestor.
Fort Kent French teacher Robert Daigle, who launched the effort 12 years ago, said his students have met relatives in Cholet, France, in both 2019 and 2023, but this will be the first time a relative is actually in the program.
Lucie Moreau of Cholet is among a group of Cholet students who arrived in Fort Kent on Nov. 3. She is a descendant of Acadian deportees Paul Boudrot and Francoise Daigre, who were deported from what is now known as Prince Edward Island to France, Daigle said. Now, northern Maine students and long-lost relatives, who for hundreds of years have been separated by an ocean, are forging connections.
Daigle first applied to participate in the program via the Maine Department of Education in early 2011.
“The program pairs schools from Maine with schools from Maine-et-Loire in France,” he said. “I was paired up with Cholet in December 2011. We started communicating via Skype with our students.”
The students have been traveling to visit each other for more than a decade. The first exchange took place in 2013, with students traveling to France in March and then French students coming to Fort Kent in October.
Students were excited about the opportunity to meet a relative from France.
“It’s exciting to know I have family connections there,” said Zoe Daigle, a French student who is also Daigle’s daughter. “And it makes the trip feel even more special.”
Zoe Daigle is an eighth cousin of Lucie’s grandmother, or an eighth cousin twice removed. Her father has introduced her to many distant relatives in the past, she said.
“I’m definitely excited about meeting [Lucie], but I think I’m even more excited about getting to go to France and experience everything there,” Zoe Daigle said.
Madelyn Morgan said she is excited to meet Lucie and the rest of the French students participating in the program. Lucie is 10th cousins with Morgan’s grandfather.
“I am very excited to have a cousin in this year’s exchange,” Morgan said, “because to me it reminds me that even though there may be people all over the world, we are all still connected, no matter how close.”
Jana Nadeau, a 22-year-old participant in the exchange program and host student, is Lucie’s 11th cousin. Nadeau said she has been looking forward to meeting a cousin in France since she was a junior in high school five years ago. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nadeau was unfortunately not able to participate in the exchange program while she was in high school.
“Mr. Daigle was gracious enough to allow me to participate this year, and I find myself just as excited as I was almost six years ago for this program.”
She said it is fascinating that so many people in the small community of Fort Kent come from such a long bloodline, and that it is a testament to the power of historical record-keeping.
Daigle said that nearly 97% of students with French roots are descended from the Acadian couple Jean Baptiste Thibodeau and Marie Leblanc, and because of this they are all cousins to Lucie Moreau.
Thibodeau and Leblanc were one of 15 founding couples of the region. And Francoise Daigre is related to all the Daigles in the St. John Valley.
“Daigre was the original spelling of the Daigle family name in Acadia,” Daigle said. “The name was changed by priests in Quebec during the deportation. The priests were unfamiliar with the Daigre name but were familiar with the Daigle name.”
Daigle said his students liked talking over Skype, but thought it would be more fun to actually travel to France.
“We set about planning our first trip to France in March 2013,” he said. “The rest is history.”
Aside from being a fun opportunity, Daigle said the program has clear educational benefits.
“There is nothing like immersion to create fast linguistic growth,” he said. “Recording projects completed before and after the exchange consistently show marked gains in pronunciation. Immersion results in rapid vocabulary development as well.”
Daigle said that consistent immersion in France and Quebec has helped him maintain a high level of proficiency as well.
“It is the best professional development I have had as an instructor,” he said.
He said the program is made possible through generous contributions from the Madawaska-based Le Club Francais, which ensures that the exchange is affordable.
Daigle said it is wonderful that he has the opportunity to take students from a small, rural area and give them a big city experience by visiting Paris at the end of every trip to France.
“In a world where so much media time is devoted to things that divide us, I like to focus my energy in the exchange on things that connect and bring us together,” he said.
