SUSAN: We woke pretty early and had a breakfast of toast and cereal at our nice little AirBnB. It is decorated with lots of pink … elaborate images of Paris, and women with flowers and butterflies all over their faces. We had pink shaggy throws on the dresser that had green glass elephants on top of it.
JAMES: Hit the road today for Louisbourg. Louisbourg is the home of the Louisbourg Fort, the historic French bastion on the Atlantic. Louisbourg was famous for its cod fishing and supplied the Catholic French with all of the meatless Friday/holiday meals on the calendar. The cod were so prolific back in the 1700’s that it was said that you could walk on water on the back of cod. Since there was no refrigeration, the fish were skinned, gutted and dried on the beach at Louisbourg. We paid our entry fee at the park and for a tour.
SUSAN: The tours were split between English and French speaking…the English group was quite large while the French had maybe 5 people. Our guide pulled into a place that sheltered us from the wind and proceeded to tell us the history of the area.
The Fortress of Louisbourg was built by the French to be a bastion against invaders. But the English actually beat the French twice there! When it defeated them the last time the English completely burnt everything to the ground. The Canadian government rebuilt this version of the fortress to the style it would have been in the mid 1740’s. My thought was, how were they able to restore it. The guide addressed the question before I even had a chance to pose it. He said that the French kept incredible documentation in triplicate and that copies of that was sent to France. So they used all that documentation to recreate 1/5th of the fortress. All the people that work there play the role of people from that era and have to stay in role whenever they have their costumes on. They are all incredibly knowledgeable.
JAMES: So much interesting history, too much to relay here, but a few of the highlights were that the French soldiers that served at the fort were either homeless or criminals in France. Being a soldier was kind of the end of the line for a career. Prisoners were given the option of joining the navy or staying in the slammer. For a homeless person with no future in France, at least the navy was a place where you get fed, have a roof over your head and even make a little money. The other main takeaway for me was the number of times that the fort changed hands. It seems like the French and English have been at war with each other for centuries. As a result, the fort changed hands several times during its lifetime. Crazy.
It was a quite cool, overcast day. After our tour we were chilled to the bone. There is a restaurant on the grounds that advertises that it features typical food from the 1700’s and you only get one implement to eat with: a very large spoon. It was right there so we ducked in. The inn is cozy, all hand hewn beams and furniture. You get an oversized cloth napkin to tuck in or wipe off with. There is no artificial lighting. We eschewed the special of the day, turkey pot pie (it is the Canadian Thanksgiving). I had a grilled cheese sandwich with vegetable soup and the other had French onion soup with homemade bread. Of course we had dessert- bread pudding with caramel sauce.
SUSAN: The walls of the restaurant were decorated with what looked like pencil sketches of images from the period. I thought they looked really cool!
JAMES: Sitting and eating gave us time to thaw out and when we were done, we walked out into sunshine and warmth for the first time today. We walked down to the seawall and then up to fort comptroller’s splendid house. We also toured an army major’s house. There was an “animator”, a human role player in period dress who explained her role. Next we went up to the Governor’s house and fort. We toured the fort and spoke to many of the animators. They were without exception friendly, informative and talkative. Canadians are such nice people! We hadn’t planned on spending the entire day at the Louisbourg Fort, but it was well worth it.
SUSAN: The views from on top of the fortress were great! It was fun to talk to the re-enactors. We talked to two different French soldiers, one in the chapel and the other in the living quarters.
When we were leaving the fortress we saw one of them fire a musket.
Left the fortress around 2:45 pm and made the drive back to the AirBnB. We had plans to meet Jeff and Lauren for dinner at FlavorH2O. It was on the water and across the Sydney River from where we are staying. Lauren sent me a text to say that she found the restaurant and there was a huge cruise ship parked right outside the door of the restaurant…I guess I was hoping we would have a water view during our meal…oh well, maybe not.
We met Lauren and Jeff at 5:30 pm. It sounded like they have been having a marvelous time. Outside the restaurant was not only the huge cruise ship, but also a giant fiddler! It was pretty good food. I had fish and chips which was good.
JAMES: Lauren and Jeff had been in Nova Scotia for several days already. It was an okay meal for me, fried tofu on quinoa and roasted veggies. It sounded better than it was and I watched in envy as my fellow diners enjoyed their mussels and fish and chips.
SUSAN: It was time for our second concert that was held at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre. This venue could not be more different from the first concert. It was a huge hall with tables and we had reserved seats. Our table was right at the front and they sold alcohol. So Jim and I got a local IPA beer. The featured acts were:
Christine and John had heard of Liz Carroll before so they knew how good she was. I knew none of them. It started with the Sons of Membertou using a native greeting songs and some dance. It was well done and moving.
JAMES: The music venue for tonight was also a short drive away in Membertou at a civic center. It was a nice venue with a full stage. The seating was a large tables and quite comfortable. I don’t know how we did it, but we had the best seats in the house! We were at Table #2, literally right in front of the stage. The night started with a performance by a drumming group of the local Mi’cmaw tribe. Then it was a trio of Irish musicians and singers called “Voices of Ireland”. They had some fantastic harmonies and instrumentals and put on a terrific show. Some fun repartee also. The headline act of the night was Liz Carrol and her guitar player Jake Charron. She plays flawlessly and he was an energetic and skilled side man. They were brilliant but we couldn’t get them to come back for an encore. A very fun night.
SUSAN: Spectators are not allowed to record anything during concerts but the some of the shows were live streamed and recorded as this concert was so here is the concert we saw.
My favorite of the nice was the second act, the Voice of Ireland. The voices of these three men were so perfectly harmonized and sounded luxurious! One of the singer was an incredibly large man! I am not sure how he fit on the plane. And they played some really interesting instruments at this concert:
A penny whistle—also known as a tin whistle, Irish whistle, or feadóg stáin—is a simple, six-holed woodwind instrument belonging to the fipple flute family.
The bodhrán (often pronounced "bor-awn" or "bor-un") is a traditional Irish frame drum
A mandocello is a large, plucked string instrument in the mandolin family, serving as the baritone or tenor voice of the family.
These are things I had never even heard of. All in all it was good, but I liked the first concert at Boisdale better.
We were exhausted — thank goodness our AirBnB was nearby. We got home in about 15 minutes and quickly went to bed!