Idyllic.
I love French rural areas in North America.
There's just something about them that's exotic because, despite myself, I still instinctively expect rural areas to be English-speaking.
And, also, it's in rural areas that you can really see just how different the French people and lifestyles were from English-speaking settlers.
Granted, 99% of it is identical - it's not like we're a different species - but the tiny ways that they are different, I admire and prefer the French way more.
For example, a much greater emphasis on aesthetics.
I noticed flying over Quebec that the farmland is organized along rather densely-populated roads. Most people have neighbours who are almost as close as they would be in a suburban area.
In rural Manitoba, there are farm houses dotted, completely alone, throughout the countryside, surrounded by large, square farms (in Quebec, they tend to be longer and more rectangular).
There's just something really charming about the way they did things.
Great photo thread, by the way!