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| Day 51 - Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, NS | ||
 The scene from our campground at around 7:30 AM. |
 One of the fishing boats was offloading their catch at the fish processing plant. Yes, when the wind was coming from the wrong direction, there was a slight odor. |
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 Today the main attraction for us was to visit the reconstructed Fortress of Louisbourg, a National Historic Site of Canada and the largest reconstructed 18th-century French fortified town in North America. |
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 The tour begine at the visitor center and museum. This huge anchor dominates the front entrance to the building. |
 Inside is a history of the fortress. The French first came here in 1713, and it was abandoned by the English in 1768. |
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 Cars are not allowed in the reconstructed fortress, so busses transported us from the visitor center. |
 We were greeted by a French soldier wearing the uniform that would have been worn in the 1700's, and carrying a musket of the same period. |
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 He asked many questions including what the guy with the strange device (my Nikon camera!) was up to. |
 We entered the outer gates and the guard told us about some basic rules to observe while visiting the fortress. |
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 We walked over a large moat |
 and entered through the main gate of the fortress. |
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 View looking toward the harbor through one of the cannon ports. |
 A closer view of a perfectly calm morning with a reproduction boat of the era at anchor in the harbor. |
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 We had a wonderful guide who discussed the history of the fortress and walked with us through the main areas of the reconstructed town. |
 This is the main gate to the harbor. |
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 One of the many houses in the city. This one was owned by the city administrator who controlled all the purse strings. He was more important than the governor at the time. |
 One of the interpreters was dressed in a period costume that would have been worn by the administrators assistant. The park has their own costume department where all the garments worn by the various interpreters are made. |
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 The masonry work on the buildings was excellent. The reconstruction was done during the 1930's to give out-of-work coal miners jobs during the depression. Much like the WPA in American at the same time. |
 In the foreground is the start of a garden, and on the other side of the fence is a dove cote. Doves were a delicacy during that period and were raised here for food. |
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 A lady in full period costume walked by us her cape in hand. |
 The soldiers of the garrison were on duty as we walked up to the largest building in the complex which contained the Governor's Apartments and the Kings Bastion Barracks. |
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 This is a view of the Governor's Apartments and Barracks from a distance. |
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| Two views standing on the walk overlooking the ditch separating the outer defenses and the main gate. | ||
 This is the jail where the accused would have been held prior to trial. Do you see the shackles? |
 Carolyn Powers listens intently while an interpreter explains how barrack life would have been during the 1700's. |
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 The army chapel that was used by all the towns people. |
 One of the guards gives a demonstration of firing a musket. |
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 There are five restaurants located in the town. The Shallbetter's and Barack's decided to have lunch in the more upscale restaurant... |
 while some street urchins looked on with hungry faces as their accomplice behind them kept a lookout for the militia. |
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 In each building they had reproduction equipment situated around the rooms. This wooden pulley with a metal wheel caught my eye. It was about 12 inches long and looked like it was very old. |
 A wooden barrel and wooden wheelbarrow that may have been appropriate for the time period. |
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 A lady is demonstrating the art of tatting. She's making very intricate lace that will adorn men's or women's garments. She uses a series of bobbins with linen and silk thread, and creates the pattern around pins stuck into a design on the rotating wheel. The lace on the right is using 78 bobbins to create the pattern. |
 This is the blacksmith shop where the blacksmith was working on a piece of ornamental iron. |
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 One of the attractions was the firing of a cannon. The fife and drum core led the parade to the cannon, |
 with the rifleman following them. |
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 The soldiers prepared the canon by loading the black powder, inserting the wick, |
 and then, amid shouts of "Vive la Roi", lighting it off. |
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 About 4:15 PM, Terry Klein and Sue Schmidt, walked around to all our units to show us the king crab legs they had purchased from the fish processing plant next door. |
 So many of rushed over before they closed, to buy king crab legs for $4.00 per pound. They are fully cooked and frozen so 5 lbs will make two meals for us. |
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 Tonight at the driver's meeting, Susan Barack, the previous winner of Moishe, gave it to Mike Morrell who presented it to.. |
 Jim Hamp. Mike had two cracked wheel rims on his 5th wheel, and he installed his spare, but couldn't find a replacement for the second wheel. So, Jim loaned him the spare from his 5th wheel. This could only happen on a caravan. Thanks Jim! |
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 Tonight we were treated to a show at the Louisbourg Playhouse. It is adjacent to our campground so we just walked over after the driver's meeting. |
 Constructed originally for the Disney movie "Squanto:Warrior's Tale", this 17th century style structure now provides a unique venue for the performing arts in the Louisbourg area. |
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 We were all seated together on the main floor. There were no bad seats in this small theater which is a replica of Shakespeare's Globe theater. |
 Spirit of The Island is the name of the group performing and they were very good. Most of the songs were related to Nova Scotia or Cape Breton Island. |
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Click here for a Google map of above pictures. |
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