As our French is far from fluent, we found ourselves playing a guessing game with a particular sign we kept seeing in Quebec campgrounds. After a few wild, and probably inappropriate, guesses, we finally Googled it: “Watch out for our children – it could be yours.” The image—a child lying prone—was quite different from the standard “Caution: Children Playing” signs used across the rest of Canada, and it certainly caught our attention.
Monday morning saw us leaving Sainte‑Agathe‑des‑Monts and settling in for the long drive to Peterborough, Ontario. Peterborough might seem like an odd choice for a stop, except for one key detail: my good friend Michael Beauclerc lives there. Michael is a fellow musician, and we first met in Whitehorse, Yukon, when we were both visiting faculty at the Yukon Summer Music Camp—he teaching drums and marching band, and me the Orff programme. By sheer luck we shared the same teaching schedule and were the only instructors without afternoon classes, so we spent those free hours exploring Whitehorse together and quickly became fast friends. He was also my partner in crime for the faculty concert, where—armed only with a plastic recorder, a kid’s drum, and a pencil for a mallet—we brought the house down with a set of Irish tunes. Resourcefulness at its finest.
We arrived late in Peterborough, and after setting up headed straight to Chaska for Indian street food. It was delicious in the moment… but delivered a lingering indigestion that stayed with us far longer than expected. After dinner we wandered the nearby streets.
Peterborough has a relaxed small‑town feel: a mix of quirky local shops, specialty stores, and older red‑brick buildings clustered around the city center. It also has its share of homelessness, though everyone we encountered was polite and friendly. One scantily dressed young woman provided unexpected theatre, loudly proclaiming her need for money whenever an audience appeared—silent when alone, dramatic when observed, and increasingly theatrical with any potential increase in audience!
All in all, our first impressions of Peterborough were warm and surprisingly charming.
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