The Mennonite Heritage Village had two special guests Monday afternoon.

26-year old Jean-Baptiste Cornet and 27-year old Remi Foletto met while attending university in France and studying mechanical engineering. Foletto says Cornet had dreamt about the Northwest Passage since he was young and, for himself, he simply wanted to travel. He adds the two worked after university to save enough money to buy a boat and start their journey, with the goal of sailing through the Northwest Passage, then south around South America, and back up to France.

Foletto says they set off from France on May 30, 2016 and landed in Seward, Alaska near the end of September. Cornet notes there was trouble along the way which was not a part of the plan.

"We left Brittany Island, then [went to] Greenland, then we went up north and followed the west coast of Greenland. Then we crossed the Baffin Sea to go to Nunavut, and then all the way through Nunavut, north of Northwest Territories, then we broke the engine. We finished with the sail all the way around Alaska up to south of Alaska next to Anchorage and Seward where we put the boat on dry docks because the engine was dead."

Cornet says they were not able to purchase an engine in Alaska and had to have one shipped from France which would take five months. He adds they were not able to work in Alaska because they did not have a green card, and decided to start a bike trip instead, cycling from Alaska, through the winter, and ending up in southern Manitoba.

In France, Cornet says they only hit a low of -5ºC in winter and had to learn how to keep warm and survive in the minus -30ºC temperatures experienced here in Canada.

"We discovered minus 30 and we discovered how to survive in the cold through the people we met. Many in Manitoba. We met a lot of Native people and they explained to us how to build a quinzee and how to make quick fires."

He adds they met some very friendly people during their time in Manitoba.

"Blaine Klippenstein is a man we met on our way south to Winnipeg. We met him and he invited us for a coffee in his house, he was nice. We stay 30 days in his house helping him with stuff and then he [introduced] us to Ron."

Ron had lived in Steinbach previously and offered to show Cornet and Foletto the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach and what the history of the culture here looked like. Foletto says how the people here worked to build everything and live off the land is impressive. He adds through their journey in Manitoba they have found the saying 'Friendly Manitoba' to be very true.

Cornet adds, "we discovered new culture here in Canada. You are lucky because you have all this Native culture all around you. In France there is only French, that is all."

Foletto and Cornet fly out of Winnipeg back to Alaska Tuesday to change the engine on their boat and continue along their sailing journey.

"If we follow the original plan before we broke the engine," notes Foletto. "It was to make the round trip around both America's, North and South."

Foletto says from Alaska they will sail to San Francisco and stay there until July at which time they will continue south, sail around the southern portion of South America, and then back home to France.