Fortress Louisbourg Highway

Today was another interesting day, we started at the Bed and Breakfast in Sydney. The full name being the Park Place Bed and Breakfast, and I have to to endorse it heartily. The two proprietors of the place were a kindly old couple who kept their house as a B&B over the summer, although fortunately for us they opened early. The breakfast was really great, a full serving of some super casserole consisting of cheese, bacon, eggs, hashbrown, onion and deliciousness. They also had home made bread, biscuits and jams which was just icing on the cake. I have to say well worth the price.

Although today was mostly driving back towards the west, we did make a stop over at Fort Louisbourg, and while today we were again greeted by clouds, fog and dampness, it did not dampen our spirits for adventure. The there was short, if bumpy, and when we got there we discovered that like the campgrounds, we arrived out of season so there were no interpreters, we were on our own to look around. Fortunately a self guided tour with some bits of pre-Canadian history and a office distributed map was just what we were looking for.

We got to wander around the town for about half an hour taking a look at all the buildings that were open. These included a public storehouse, a storehouse for a rich guy, the gate to the ocean where we assume personal boats landed and various other assorted buildings. We also got a mini farm experience because one of the houses contained a pen keeping sheep and chickens, and boy were they ever noisy!

Storehouse the first

The French didn`t do anything in half measures apparently

Whoever can translate this can leave the English in the comments please

The French also loved the... crap out of their storehouses

Baaaaaaa.... BAAAAAAAAAAA (This is the sound they made)

After that sighting we made our way over to the Forts. I found Fortress Louisbourg Town and Fortress really interesting. It was all such an exercise in futility, the French King Louis XIII (I believe) spent all this money building this huge fortress to protect Acadia, in the process practically bankrupting the French Empire in the process. Then what happens? Within a few years of it's completion the British take it over, via the land, a direction they never anticipated an attack to come from. The British traded it back, only to win the fort and all of Acadia in the resolution of the Seven Years War. Then what to the British do? Knock it down of course. So all this money and manpower went into this Fortress and then it barely even fires a shot.

The Forts themselves were also a lesson in the scale that they build siege works back in the day. Most of the buildings were basically built into the hill to protect it from cannon fire, and the walls left slots for dozens of cannons to stick out of to bombard the stuffing out of an incoming Navy. From land, walls protected the fortress where the corners were little look out towers to make sure no one was sneaking up in the blind spots. It also included the original magazine shed that was apparently the most completed structure when the excavated the site back in the 60s or 70s... whenever they did the excavation.

Pow! Right in the Kisser

I wouldn't want to face down that gate

You could say it was a veritable, Powder Keg!

After the lower Fort, we wondered our way up to the Governors Mansion, which was protected by it's own fort as well. That fort was largely the same as the other, with the exception of the King Turkey. Like the town, the Governors Mansion kept a pen of birds including turkeys, geese and chickens. Out of all the Turkeys there was one really huge one with it's feathers all puffed out like he owned the place. However the turkeys and the geese seemed to be constantly engaged in a battle for dominance.

Look at him, LOOK AT HIM!

Other than that, after about an hour and a half we high tailed it back towards Sydney and then back towards New Brunswick. Although Louisbourg could easily entertain for the whole day, that's really only the case when the interpreters were there. If you go in the off season you could likely tour the whole place in about 2-3 hours.

So eight hours of driving later, we find ourselves in the Fredericton area surrounded by old friends watching a great movie: Tron (The new one) after going out for an awesome supper of food, reminiscing and catching up. As well, on a positive note, this is the first night of the trip we are staying somewhere for free, which is always nice.

Tomorrow it another day of driving up to Quebec, past Quebec City and North to the manoir richelieu, it should be a subdued day.