Yellowknife (Mar 05/04) - Internet surfers are getting an up-close and personal view of Yellowknife ... only it's originating from another continent.

Francoise Jaussoin came to our city in August 2002 and stayed for a year before returning to France. Now from her home in Europe she has created a Web site (www.grands-nords.com) about life in Yellowknife.

"I have a passion for the NWT, especially Yellowknife, and I enjoy sharing it," she said via e-mail.

Though born in the south of France, Jaussoin had dreamed of living in the Canadian North, but when she went looking for information on modern, everyday life here before her move, she couldn't find what she was looking for.

"I read a lot of books, classic as well as modern authors, magazines and institutional Web sites. But topics were always the same: nature, men's adventure, civilizations based on hunting and fishing, and courageous nurses and bush pilots," she said.

"There was no practical information about daily life in a modern city, about how to find a job, get a rental, meet friends, the cost of living, or buying groceries. I was disappointed."

On top of that her friends in France kept asking her why she wanted to live in the middle of nowhere.

"In their opinion Northern Canada had nothing to offer but mining, alcohol, hard living conditions and Inuit carvings," she said.

But Jaussoin took the plunge and boarded the flight to Yellowknife with her daughter Aude and her son Olivier. She found work at the Association franco-culturelle de Yellowknife, and enrolled her children with the francophone school board.

On her Web site, which she tries to update weekly, she shares stories about everyday life (like a trip to the dump, or the itemized cost of groceries) and she profiles people she met in Yellowknife such as Dogrib elder Alice Lafferty, L'Aquilon journalist Simon Berube and painter Antoine Mountain.

"It makes the information I was desperately looking for immediately accessible," said Jaussoin.

Jaussoin estimated at least half the bilingual Web site's visitors are from Canada, but the site has also drawn visitors from the U.S., Japan, Africa and Europe.

Her point of view highlights aspects of Yellowknife most residents, and most Canadians for that matter, take for granted.

"Yellowknife is a multicultural city. I love it, but who knows it? Who knows that many cultures and religions live side by side peacefully? Who knows that there are jobs for everybody? Who knows that there are wonderful artists living there?"