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Lac du Bois ("Lake of the Woods" in French) is a French language and culture camp at the Concordia Language Villages based in Minnesota. As with the other Concordia Language Village programs, it is a language immersion program. The Lac du Bois experience is offered in Bemidji, MN. A second site, Voyageurs (camp), provides similar language learning with a different curriculum and structure. All Concordia Language Villages programs are accredited by the American Camp Association.
Locations
editPermanent site
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The permanent Lac du Bois site is located on Turtle River Lake with several other Language Villages (Skogfjorden, Salolampi, El Lago del Bosque, Lesnoe Ozero, Waldsee) near Bemidji, Minnesota. The site is designed to be as authentically French as possible, with French style architecture, including three sets of cabins that reflect the regional architecture of Corse, Bretagne and Provence. The cabins themselves were named after major cities within those provinces; as of 2020, the cabin names change each summer to reflect the travels and origins of the counselors.
At the center of each of the main regions (the Brittany-style cabin region is now known as Centre-ville or "Downtown," whereas the Provence-style cabin region is now called La campagne, or "The Countryside"), lies a main building, flanked on each corner by a cabin that holds eight bunk beds (16 beds total). The main buildings, called Le marché ("The market") and La grange ("The barn") respectively, each contain showers, sinks, and toilets, one large carpeted room upstairs, and a basement. The basement of La grange is called Beaux-Arts, an arts-and-crafts area where villagers do activities such as collage, making friendship bracelets, and painting.
The main building is called Paris. There is also a regulation pétanque or boules court, and a small store that sells village-themed items such as t-shirts, French-language books, and stuffed animals. A counter located in the main foyer of the Paris building called "Sucré Coeur" (a pun on the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur, Paris) sells European candy and treats, and a pop-up café called Café Danièle sells both American and European sodas and beverages.
Lac du Bois has a lakefront beach on Turtle River Lake, which villagers can swim in during Free Time (Temps Libre), supervised by lifeguards. The dock is painted with the flags of various Francophone countries and territories.
A notable addition to the Bemidji site is a traditional African Round House, called a Boukarou. This is a Concordia Language Village Evergreen Award presented to Karen "Nicole" Anderson, a longtime Dean of Lac du Bois, for 25 years of service to the organization.
A recent addition to the Bemidji site includes a storage shed next to the Paris main building for woodworking tools and equipment. This was constructed in honor of Bernard "Mambo" Mambo for his 25th year of working at Lac du Bois.
A wood-fired pizza oven was constructed in 2022 using money from the Village Vision Fund and is located between the Paris main building and "Club Med," the nurse's station (a pun on Club Med, formerly known as Club Méditerranée, a French travel and tourism operator).