Out of Jeanne Lajoie pavillon elementaire and Ecole L'Equinoxe gymnasiums the smell of paint wafted down the halls as the large rooms were alive with brilliant colours and bustling with activity when the La Francoderole rolled into town recently.

Dressed in painting clothes the students at each school created a keepsake mural for their school while a few Grade 5 and 6 students depicted life in the Ottawa Valley on the largest painting in the world by children La Francoderole.

"The mural represents so many schools in Canada and the U.S.," said Lise Levassuer, chairperson for the association Canadienne-Française de l'Ontario Renfrew County.

The association brought Jean-Pierre Arcand's La Francoderole to town to expose the local students to French communities around the world.