Léo-Lagrange Recreation Center Campground
And Their Children After ThemThe Léo-Lagrange Recreation Center Campground is a small camp between the forest and the lake, associated both with an organized outdoor program for young people and with Anthony’s nighttime search for Stéphanie. Its position at the edge of the woods gives the place a practical role in the story: Anthony can leave his motorcycle nearby, approach the tents, and reach her without drawing attention.
Setting and Program
For the two years before Anthony’s visit, the recreation center had offered a nature-discovery program in the campground. Its two-week sessions combined hikes and classes on local flora and fauna with campfires and tent camping. The young participants cooked, washed dishes, and carried knives; the program was presented as a kind of secular scouting led by counselors described as loosely hippie. Children with varied styles and backgrounds took part, and they left with dirty laundry and lasting memories.
Physical Layout
The camp occupies a clearing between a forest wall and the lake. A dozen tents stand near a firepit, and the tents are divided by sex. In the nighttime scene, the fire has dwindled to embers; the expected rainstorm has not arrived, and the campers remain waiting. These details establish a working camp rather than an empty wilderness: Anthony must identify the right tent among sleeping teenagers and avoid making a mistake that would cause a scandal.
Anthony’s Visit
After riding around the lakeshore, Anthony passes the recreation center for the second time and stops when an idea occurs to him. He leaves his motorcycle partly hidden in the forest and walks into the campground clearing. He recognizes the tent he seeks as smaller than the others and set off to one side, then scratches its fabric to attract attention. When the flap opens, he is told not to speak loudly; he crawls inside. The campground thus becomes the setting for an intimate, clandestine encounter, its tents and forest edge providing concealment while the presence of the other campers imposes a risk of discovery.
