Je me souviens

Je me souviens (French pronunciation: [ʒə mə suvjɛ̃]) is the official motto of Quebec, and translated literally into English means: "I remember."

[3] Chapais, during a speech given for the occasion of the unveiling of a bronze statue honouring de Lévis, on June 24, 1895, said: The province of Quebec has a motto of which she is proud and which she likes enough to carve it on her monuments and palaces.

"[6] In 1919, seven years after Taché's death, the historian Pierre-Georges Roy underlined the symbolic character of the three-word motto: "which says so eloquently in three words, the past as well as the present and the future of the only French province of the confederation.

The ethnologist Conrad Laforte has suggested that they might derive from the song Un Canadien errant,[8] or possibly Victor Hugo's poem "Lueur au couchant".

[3] In 1955, the historian Mason Wade wrote: "When the French Canadian says Je me souviens, he not only remembers the days of New France but also the fact that he belongs to a conquered people.

[13][14] According to the historian Gaston Deschênes, this event marks the start of a new period of attempts to reinterpret the meaning of the motto in the mainstream media of Canada.

This article attracted the attention of a reader, Hélène Pâquet, a granddaughter of Taché who replied on February 15 in an open letter entitled Je me souviens.

Her statements were not conformable to those of her father, Lieutenant-Colonel Étienne-Théodore Pâquet Jr.,[17] who on March 3, 1939, wrote in a letter to John Samuel Bourque, Tâché's son-in-law, and Minister of Public Works, that "the one who synthesized in three words the history and traditions of our race deserves to be recognized"[3] as much as Routhier and Lavallée who composed the "O Canada".

[3] While the project was never realized, the idea was "recycled" in a commemorative medal for the 300th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City, created by Taché, on which is written "Née sous les lis, Dieu aidant, l'œuvre de Champlain a grandi sous les roses" ("Born under the lilies, God helping, Champlain's work has grown under the roses").