Letters from the Lighthouse: Travel Edition: Cape Breton

I should know better than to try and blog each day of my vacation. I go, go, go all day long and come home so tired. I barely have the energy to look through all my pictures, edit and delete, and maybe get some posted on Facebook. But it requires too much energy to actually write about the day. Besides, I want to crawl in this nice comfy bed and read my book, like one should when one is on vacation.

I'll try putting some thoughts together in some kind of chronological order.

Here is a picture of the B&B - "A Boat to Sea" from the water looking up at it. It really is wonderful. The front porch is so inviting, and it leads to a wrap-around-to-the-the back deck that is off the dining room area. I would stay here again.

Off to find a lighthouse. This is the Louisbourg Lighthouse and it was the first lighthouse built in Canada, and the second one built in North America. Loved the winding, pot-holed, narrow road to get up to it!

Across the bay is the Fortress of Louisbourg. Imagine English and French

warships in this bay!

I don't know if you can see them or not, but there are two bright red

Adirondack chairs just sitting up there, empty, enjoying the view.

I learned a lot about Nova Scotia / Cape Breton history while visiting the Fortress of Louisbourg. The fortress is a National Historic Site of Canada and the location of a one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th century French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton. Its two sieges, especially that of 1758, were turning points in the Anglo-French struggle for what today is Canada. It was hard keeping track of who owned it - the French, the English, the French, the English. I did learn that a fortress is different from a fort because a fortress encompasses the whole town, people's homes and shops, etc. A fort is just the military.

New things I learned:

the Mi'kmaw were/are the people that were indigenous to Canada's Atlantic Provinces. Basically, the native North Americans who lived in this area first.
then there were the Acadians, the first European (French) settlers to arrive in this area. The Acadians are proud of their heritage as two Acadians that I met on this trip told me, proudly, the they are of Acadian ancestry.
In 1775, the Acadians were deported. Tension and mistrust arising from the war between New France and 13 English colonies led to their expulsion from this area. The British thought the Acadians were a threat to appropriation of land. The Acadians who ended up down in the southern part of the US are today known as "cajuns." Did not know that!
There were wars between France and England for ownership of the area - everybody wanted the land. England was the last to call it theirs, and when they left, they blew up the fortress.
Over 700,000 documents were found in France and that is how they have been able to recreate the Fortress of Louisbourg.

A woman demonstrating how to make bobbin lace. Very intricate.

On February 24, 2015, Nova Scotia's Authentic Seacoast Distilling Company Ltd., together with Parks Canada and Fortress Louisbourg Association, unveiled its new brand for the rum that has been patiently maturing in oak barrels in the Magazin du Roi at Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site since its arrival last September. Fortress Rum, the first rum to be matured onsite in almost 300 years, is sold in traditional bottles and sealed in wax, capturing the authentic spirit of New France’s historic rum trade.

In the 18th century, Louisbourg was one of North America's busiest seaports and France's centre of trade and military strength in the New World. Caribbean rum was a major trading good of the times. It was brought ashore in large oak casks through the Frédéric Gate and rolled into storehouses.

It was definitely fun to see the people working at the Fortress dressed up in period clothing, doing things that would have been done in the time of the French Fortress, including having a tourist dress up as a prisoner and walk the walk of shame to the stocks. Great place to visit. Plan on spending several hours there to learn and watch demonstrations. My GPS took me to the unauthorized road, so the directions should be to go to the Visitor's Centre first and then take a bus down to the fortress.

Here are some other pictures from this day. The clouds were sometimes ominous and sometimes just white and fluffy, but always interesting to watch against the blue sky.