The Fortress of Louisbourg is an amazing historical site in Nova Scotia. We have been here three times and it is always an amazing visit; we get swept away in the history of the place! The entire site is an accurate recreation of buildings and includes re-enactments of events and daily life by authentically costumed actors and guides on site.
This is way beyond a museum! The people dressed in costume are actually performing the day to day activities that they actual residents would perform 200 years ago! There are live animals, actual gardens, and inside the homes you can see and meet people and furnishings from the time.
You see the life and times of a soldier during the time and they recreate the cannon blasts and musket firings from the day. There are also very interesting displays from the original MiqMaq peoples of the region who helped the French and English during the period.
We visited The Fortress of Louisbourg in the summer of 2013 while it was celebrating its 300th. It was our second visit and this time we brought Mama D. Maybe she would have preferred a nice sunny day! It was windy and grey and cold when we got there but of course in Nova Scotia, they say, if you don’t like the weather then just wait 30 minutes and it will change!
After paying the entry fee at the information center, we are transported by bus to the Fortress site, a few hundred meters away. The ride is magical, kind of like a WDW ride but this time we are talking about the real thing, an exact replica of some of the excavated buildings of the fort that passed through the hands of the French and The British colonies.
We are looking at what the Fortress would have looked like in 1745 while the French were settled there. And we’re not only talking about the buildings, but everything from the furnishings, the clothing, and of course the interpreters. Many of them have been there for a long time, like our hostess at the restaurant where we had an authentic dinner style lunch a la Bourgeoise because soldiers ate what they could and their diet consisted of bread and any scrapped meat they could find.
The meal was the highlight of our day. The three of us had the turkey dinner with a vegetable soup, fresh bread and a mini apple tart: it was so delicious!
Louisbourg is a very windy place, no matter what the weather is like; it almost has its own micro-climate. It was raining when we got there and it cleared up throughout the afternoon. Mama D and I had our travel cheap Dollar Store ponchos but a real raincoat would have been better because of the wind that got under the poncho and all you could hear was FlopFlopFlopFlopFlopFlopFlopFlopFlopFlop. You can forget your umbrella! I was so jealous of everyone with a decent raincoat. I have my green rubber poncho but Mama D and I were traveling light.
Tapocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pock! Tapocketa-pocketa-pocketa pock!
No wonder the solders 200 years ago were miserable in such a place!!
