Pretty sure its a typo and meant to say 50ft, which is about 15m or about 2.7m/floor plus another 1.5m extra for the roof for the five story buildings you can see in the pictures.
I didn’t expect to end up reading this whole thing, but I did and really enjoyed it! Love a good old fashioned travelblog without the bs “hacks”, ads, and affiliate links.
Back in the 90s I lived in NYC and took a bicycle trip to Chibougamau, and then another summer rode a motorcycle as far as I could on pavement along the St Lawrence river. Your blog took me right back to those adventures; thanks so much for sharing!
From a bit later in the trip is a photo from the shore of Manicouagan Reservoir. According to Wikipedia [1], it's an annular lake formed about 214 million years ago by the impact of a meteor 5 km in diameter. It has an outer diameter of about 72 km, and it's "the Earth's sixth-largest confirmed impact crater according to rim-to-rim diameter", and one of the oldest known.
Wonderful post. I have a feeling they did something very right by making the interior corridor so wide. I imagine it feel a lot more open. Did the noisy ventilation at least keep it from smelling bad?
It doesn't surprise me that small mining towns have strip clubs. Lots of people temporarily move to work there and are lacking in human comforts of all types.
I was in Fermont a long time ago. I was driving from Goose Bay all the way south. in the 90s, the Labrador highway wasn't paved, it was just rough gravel.
I got a flat tire somewhere near the border, then pulled into Fermont and tried my best high school-level French to find somewhere to fix my flat tire.
I asked the guy at the gas station: "Excusez-moi, savez-vous où je peux trouver un garage pour réparer mon pneu crevé ?"
He looked at me and said "Fixer le flat, huh?"
No amount of formal French prepares you for Northern Quebecois "French" :-)
If you want a happy rabbit-hole to visit for a few minutes, take a look at these examples of "Chiac", an Acadian French variety spoken in parts of New Brunswick:
I recommend P'tit Belliveau, in particular Income Tax, which has a nice "Glossaire acadjonne" and lines like "J'vais blower friggin' 300$ au liquor store": https://youtu.be/Ri0r0_urwo8
A guy I worked with from New Brunswick was bilingual. He dated a woman from northern New Brunswick she only spoke French. When he met her parents he said her dad scowled at his poor French. To the father he was not French. So this person my co-worker bilingual French/English since birth had to take French lessons. I guess the words he used were bizarre to French-only ears.
I think that is the point they was making. Also I read this in a Brunswick french accent until the word shortage, and it kinda worked(as franco-english like they were describing).
I went with a canadian friend to Quebec and thought "boy is his french bad" when he ordered a room. Much to my surprise the answer wad in exactly the same dialect. Loved it and ruined in the local radio stations for the whole drive after.
Still have a certain song in my ear that we heard live in a bar in Quebec "Quand je change ma vie, je rue la Gaspesie...". Which is what we did after Quebec... If you asked in French, the local people immediately switched to English and were extremely nice and helpful.
Do not let them fool you. If they recognize you as a tourist they will happily switch to English, however broken theirs may be, however much trouble they might have speaking it.
If they recognize you as a 'local' (i.e. immigrant) and you don't speak French you will get into trouble in most places in Quebec. Even in Montreal though not everywhere in Montreal. If you aren't aware, Google about the referendum and the "OQLF" and their practices for example. It's very telling that even the Bank of Montreal moved their headquarters to Toronto back then.
When I lived in a dorm in Montreal, a pizza delivery guy passed by and asked my neighbor for directions to a room, in English. He replied that he doesn't know. Obviously he does, so after helping the guy I asked my neighbor why he'd say that. He said essentially if the guy lives here and can't speak basic French he doesn't deserve an answer.
Most people aren't like that, but there are assholes out there...
I had to let someone go at a company we had just acquired in Montreal a while ago. The guy was underperforming and had a huge attitude problem. One of the frequent arguments he had with everyone was that he insisted he didn’t need to learn French to live in Montreal and was somehow hostile to the language.
Despite being born and raised in America and having lived the last 20+ years in the Bay I somehow spoke more French than him. But I honestly questioned why he immigrated there in the first place when there’s 50 states and 9 other provinces he could go to and live exclusively in English? I get he probably couldn’t pass the higher bar for US immigration but that still leaves 2/3rd of Canada to go to.
This is a guess but Quebec and even Montreal are quite unique in North America. There's influence from both North America but also Europe. It may sound cliche but it is true. E.g. try to ignore or cut through the language politics of various parties and it will be hard to find equivalents in many other places in NA. Maybe some of that is something that spoke to him and made him go there. If he went to Montreal specifically it is even true what he said: He didn't have to learn French to be able to live and survive in Montreal, depending on the area he lived in and frequented.
Side note: apparently there are "agencies" in some countries that let you pick an equivalent city in their own country as a "benchmark" for the kind of lifestyle you'd like to have and they tell you which North American city to immigrate to and how to do that (i.e. how to meet the legal requirements, paperwork etc.). Maybe he used one of those services.
> Maybe some of that is something that spoke to him and made him go there. If he went to Montreal specifically it is even true what he said: He didn't have to learn French to be able to live and survive in Montreal, depending on the area he lived in and frequented.
Maybe. He seemed to really want to come to the US but the performance and behavioral issues made it a big no. I don’t think he would have passed the stricter requirements anyways.
One of the things he ranted about was how his kids attended public school in French. I mean, here in California public schools operate in English because it’s what the people speak. In Quebec it’s logical they would operate in French in a French province.
So by law you may not be able to send your kids to English school even though there's one down the road, which I guess can be a bit surprising. Not sure if that was the case for that person though, or if they were just complaining about lack of English schools in general...
From the previous answers it seems like he was an immigrant to Canada. As such he would not be eligible to send his kids to public English school in Quebec. All immigrants have to send their kids to French public school. That changes only if you pay for private school in which case you are free to choose the language even as an immigrant. Quebec has been trying to limit access to English schools even for Quebecers as many Francophones are sending their kids to English schools.
I just measured it on Google Maps as 979 metres long (the Fermont Wall is 1.3 km). Also, i don't think it has continuous internal corridors and extensive commercial space, as Fermont does. It's just an unusually long block of flats. I'm also not sure it's continuous - i think there might be breaks around the swimming pool building.
What the two walls have in common is that they were built to protect an enclosed area from an external hazard - in Fermont, it was the wind, but in Byker, it was noise from a proposed motorway which would have run round the estate.
There's also the largest "underground city" in Montréal, Québec to avoid winter. It links up universities, stores, offices, subways and much, much more!
I feel the "underground city" is a bit oversold to tourists. It's mostly just a bunch of shopping malls and bland corridors. But yeah, you can walk for miles below ground level without ever setting foot outside. Especially if you include a Metro hop or two.
I lived in a building connected to the underground in Montreal. I could go see a movie, eat at any major restaurant chain, shop in massive shopping malls, and even get to NYC without ever going outside. I'd say that's pretty cool. Even if it is just a loosely connected group of underground corridors between buildings.
I think the idea of the underground city is that it's nice in the winter.
I lived in Chicago which has something similar, and never went down there except to take the train. It's all chain stores that have "upstairs" versions as well. Good if you're walking around outside and you notice there's a tornado heading your way, though.
While living in Montréal, I could walk around 5 minutes outside (from my apartment to the metro) and never have to go outside again to go to work or school until I had to come back home.
The RÉSO is pretty nice, its main part connects between 6 subway stations under downtown: Lucien L'Allier, Bonaventure (with its bus and railway station), Square-Victoria, Place d'Armes, McGill and Peel. It connects directly to shopping malls, to "Centre Bell" arena and to multiple office buildings. It would be perfect to extend it and connect through Saint-Laurent station to Berri-UQÀM, the biggest station with 3 lines and tunnels to multiple university buildings.
Can't imagine what it would be like to live in one of these things. Probably the closest we'll ever get to seeing how real life vault dwellers would play out.
A while ago I saw a tv series 'The Wall' (2019) [0]. Took me a few episodes to understand the name relates to an actual building that really is like a wall.
Original title "la faille" (fault, rift) translated as "the wall". I always wonder why the translation from english to french (usually, or the other way around) often changes the semantic. note the "la faille" in french may also mean "the flaw".
If you want to see another example of urban 'planning' against powerful winds, see Mediterranean coast. It's littered with densly packed narrow streets.
Yeah, coast can get a bit intense https://youtu.be/_rf9Jtgc1mE where there's a strong cold northern wind rushing down the coastal mountains (bura) and then there's a strong southern moist and warm wind coming from the open sea (jugo).. the interplay of the two dictated coastal settlements to be built like that where within the settlement you can barely feel it (as much).
I don't understand high density housing in low density neighborhoods with huge empty lawns. Seems an artificial, Le Corbusier style of utopia where the actual inhabitants are forced to conform to the architect's vision of how they should live.
When people want to escape suburbia, the natural higher density option is the 2-3 story terrace, rows of individual homes that share lateral walls and have front access to the street and a back yard. Owning your own personal yard and trees is an immense quality of life factor compared to a cramped apartment and a balcony.
The next, even higher density option I've seen in some european cities is to squeeze the frontal street, remove all parking there and move it in the back yards. A concrete slab covers the back parking and the backyard is effectively elevated one flood into the air.
This produces a dense, walkable urban environment with comfortable individual houses, each with a lot on the order of 150 square meters (1600 sq feet).
Fermont was founded as a company town when they opened the Mont Wright mine and most homes were under the ownership of the company (Québec Cartier back then, now ArcelorMittal).
Take this with a grain of salt, but I believe a big percentage of the habitations still are under their ownership. A lot of split houses were built in the last 10 years and if you work for the company and accept to transfer to Fermont, they offer you to live in the house for cheaper and offers you to buy it for a reasonable price after a few years.
It is a small compact town, but as soon as you leave, you're in the wilderness. It's paradise.
> The next, even higher density option I've seen in some european cities is to squeeze the frontal street, remove all parking there and move it in the back yards.
I lived in Munich and it seemed like the default was almost always having underground parking. Our first place was in an apartment complex of maybe 10 units, and it had its own underground parking garage. Next place was a backyard duplex with a 6-unit complex in front, and this combined complex also had an underground parking garage.
I'm not sure I've ever seen tiny little underground parking garages like this in the states for small multi-family housing buildings, but in Munich they were everywhere.
In high density cities, the idea of covering the unsightly parking and keep the people and greenery out into the sun is a no brainer. It's even better for the car.
But in some cities, for example highly priced London areas, people have been starting to do the opposite: they dig lavish basements at enormous expense and keep large front lawns and wide streets with ample parking spaces, all in the name of preservation of the area's "character", as understood by the local council doing the permitting. Humans are a wierd bunch.
> In high density cities, the idea of covering the unsightly parking and keep the people and greenery out into the sun is a no brainer.
I get the impression that this style of development is common even in somewhat lower density areas. People in Germany just don't like the seas of asphalt so common in the states.
Vitruvius, “Ten books on architecture”, talks extensively about city design and how to make it so there are no wind corridors. An excellent reading and most relevant to software architecture: he distills things down to basics shared across time and disciplines.
I don't know very much about this stuff but it seems to me that the fairly dense housing just "behind" the wall relative to the prevailing winds would suffer from A LOT of snow accumulation.
I am sure I would enjoy living in that building and the community design seems good, if not quite as dense as might be ideal given some of the green space placement. If they have concerns about the wind they really need a lot more trees, I would venture a guess that a couple of good windrows of trees would be as good or better than the building -- but then of course trees aren't houses!
Not military but it's a mining town and as such most infrastructure might be private? Which would explain the limited streetview. But if you're willing to drive there yourself, it's not closed or anything.
Yea the building is open to the public; there is a hotel and I have stayed there, and some stores too; there's a grocery store on the lower level. I did some "sightseeing" indoors so to speak; I walked the corridor all the way down through the pool & gym area and the school area.
I wish there were photos from inside the building. External views don't show how it feels to be inside, which is an extremely important characteristic of any building.
Pardon my poor English, it isn't my first language.
I've worked many years in the mining industry where I had to stay both in Fermont and inside workers camps on the mine itself (Mont-Wright). I went back during the summer of 2021 during my vacations to reminisce the good old days. Here is a video that shows older footages from inside "Le Mur", but it still looks the same to this day, minus the fact that most stores has since been closed.
This structure is hosting a lot of apartments, a grocery store, a school, a medical clinic that I believe is only accessible from outside (You sometimes see people wearing pajamas at the grocery store or inside "The Wall" itself), a small bar with erotic dancers (La Fer-Tek), an ice rink and much more. I'd return live there in a heartbeat if I had the opportunity.
The first video shows the inside of an apartment at time 5:40, https://youtu.be/wQWQqVp8v6w?t=340 . It has plenty of natural light, with windows on two sides. Nice!
What did you like about life in Fermont? What were the downsides for you?
Thank you for the questions!
As a nature kind of person, Fermont had everything I was seeking; Plenty of forest, the ability to hunt, trap, fish almost anywhere, a lot of snow during the winter, the Northern lights, the fauna and much more. It IS the place for outdoor activities. If you ever drive on the 389, I recommend you check out the Mont Groulx. [1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monts_Groulx
The infamous Manic 5 hydroelectric water dam is on that road. Bring a camera, don't be scared to enter the trails near rivers and lakes, you won't regret it. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel-Johnson_dam
You are close to Labrador City in case you need to take a flight, the salaries were insanely good in my field, the inhabitants were really friendly and always ready to help no matter what.
On the downside, I would say that other than going in Newfoundland for errands, you are really far away from any other town and the more importantly, the sea (I'm from a fisherman village). Other than that, it does get really cold during winter. I've personally witnessed -63C on an iron mine, but fortunately, the humidity level is really low (it's dry).
I do not believe Fermont is dying out, but it's flame has reduced considerably.
The economy over there is mostly driven by the price of iron which has ups and downs. The future is never certain.
Also, a lot of workers are doing fly-in fly-out contracts (mostly 7, 14 or 21 days in a row) hence the decline in population. It does have a toll on the local business and I'll add my grain of salt by saying that Fermont mostly had essential stores with the exception of a few non-essential ones which has mostly died since.
Furthermore, most people drive ~20-30 minutes to reach Labrador City and buy what they need from the multiple stores you can find (Walmart, Canadian Tire, etc). As for Amazon, I'm confident it's been used by many people and has an impact, but I personally doubt they could've have found these items locally if all these closed stores were still open.
Quebec was pretty disconnected from France for a long time, and it was not until very recently with Charles de Gaulle that the friendship started again.
Now Quebec is more influenced by the European way of living, but there is still a very "American" way of life.
Yes, Quebec was disconnected from France for centuries. Totally agree with that.
However, a European way of living in Quebec? Not sure, I agree with that. Sure, there are more bakeries than in neighboring Ontario, but it pretty much stops there.
I always wonder how much cumulative value has been generated by remote company towns built around resource extraction. Always a marvel to see civilization at work.
I measured only 911 m on Google Maps, along the roof, and there is a sharp kink in that line and few smaller ones.
The Karl-Marx-Hof in Vienna, Austria is over 1000 m in a straight line, from one end to the other. Still the longest residential building in the world.
In USSR/Russia it is pretty typical to build wall-like housing. That one is a modern take on it (nicknamed "bleeding attic" for what architects intended to depict "northern lights" :)
There are pros and cons to such long buildings. Hong Kong actually started regulating breaks in buildings, because tall walls of buildings + mountains + irregular street grid meant that there was insufficient ventilation for roadside pollution to dissipate.
