Quote:
Originally Posted by xzmattzx
Thanks! What is the point of the star-shaped street plan? I know that the ribbon farms that you find in French-settled areas were to give as many people as possible river access, as opposed to more square farm plots in English settlements, for instance.
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That's a good question!
Here's what I have found online about it:
(Translated from French)
''So, in February 1665, the Jesuits applied in their stronghold Notre-Dame-des-Anges a division of lands unknown until now in this country.
Instead of a rectilinear row where the inhabitants are separated from each other and instead of a village where they would be grouped apart
of their lands, here, imagined by the Jesuits, is a habitat in the form of a star: each inhabitant, holder of a lot has forty acres in trapezoid shape
(and not triangle, as it is often written), lives on his land, only about thirty meters from his neighbors, while being part of the village.''
I had no idea myself...and I think it is pretty smart!
I think the absence of a large river in Charlesbourg and Bourg-Royal may explain why they could make it.
Here's a map made by Gédéon de Catalogne in 1709:
