Saint-Venant-de-Paquette is a municipality in Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

.

History

Founded in 1862, the village of Saint-Venant-de-Paquette is nicknamed "The Turtle Dove of the Eastern Townships". This small village of a hundred people is the oldest settlement near the U.S. border.

Population

There are about 100 residents; however, the exact number is not available. The municipality is unable to provide an exact figure because many of the homes are used as cottage

Cottage

__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...

s or as second homes.

About the Village

The village is situated north of East-Hereford

East Hereford, Quebec

East Hereford is a village of 300 people in southeastern Quebec, Canada, in the Coaticook Regional County Municipality.East Hereford is located just north over the Beecher Falls , Vermont USA border and on the east side of East Hereford it is bordered by New Hampshire...

, south of St. Malo

Saint-Malo, Quebec

Saint-Malo is a municipality which has the highest elevation in Quebec. At 640 metres, local residents live in an environment of forests, farms, and waterways that supply their livelihood. Every September, they revive the traditions of their ancestors with a Harvest Festival that includes a...

, and east of Coaticook

Coaticook, Quebec

Coaticook is a town in southeastern Quebec, Canada on the Coaticook River; it is the seat of the Coaticook Regional County Municipality. Its southern border is also the border with the United States-Communities:...

.

Saint-Venant-de-Paquette strives on: enhancing the natural environment in which the municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 is located. It promotes the works of Quebecois poets.

The community offers its visitors access to sites where they can learn

LEARN

LEARN may refer to:* Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network, a website run by the Anti-Defamation League* LEARN diet, a brand name diet product...

, relax

Relaxation technique

A relaxation technique is any method, process, procedure, or activity that helps a person to relax; to attain a state of increased calmness; or otherwise reduce levels of anxiety, stress or anger...

, talk about the past and reunite with nature

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

.
It also provides the public

General Public

General Public were a band formed by The Beat vocalists, Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger, and which included former members of Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Specials and The Clash...

 with popular shows and classical concerts.

However, the village provides no services such as a school

School

A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...

, a gas station, or even a convenience store

Convenience store

A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...

. As a consequence

Causality

Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....

, the village employs only two part-time workers: the mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 and a secretary

Secretary

A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...

.

Property taxes are relatively high even though the village provides little-to-no services

Public services

Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income...

. The only service provided is waste management, and snow removal.

Most villagers do not have access to high-speed internet.

Most villagers have wells

Water well

A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

 to provide water.

The nearest fire department

Fire department

A fire department or fire brigade is a public or private organization that provides fire protection for a certain jurisdiction, which typically is a municipality, county, or fire protection district...

 is in Beecher Falls, Vermont

Canaan, Vermont

Canaan is a town in Essex County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,078 at the 2000 census. Canaan contains the village of Beecher Falls, located at the confluence of the Connecticut River and Halls Stream...

.

The village attempts to keep its church in such a condition as to provide a means for income

Income

Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...

. The church has been exploited

Exploitation

This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...

by turning it into a museum.

Les Amis du Patrimoine

Since 1993, a committee called Les Amis du Patrimoine was organized in order to promote and organize cultural and artistic activities in the village. Some of these activities have funded, in part, the maintenance and renovation of the church. Further, Les Amis du Patrimoine have added, to their list of responsibilities, the opening of a small boutique called the "Tree House", and, have created a nature-path called the "Poetic Trail". Les Amis du Patrimoine in Saint-Venant-de-Paquette is a non-profit organization that depends mainly on the voluntary involvement of its citizens and from elsewhere.