July 21, 2008

July 21, 2008

Our plan was to take a mid-morning cruise with a lobster boat to see how lobster fishing is done. Unfortunately it is pouring so we punt. Instead we head north from Lunenberg, NS across Nova Scotia to the Bay of Fundy and stop at the Grand Pre National Historic Site. It is also a World Heritage Site. Grand Pre is the museum and memorial to the Acadian Diaspora that started on this spot in 1755. After England took Nova Scotia away from France, the French-speaking inhabitants adopted a position of neutrality refusing to swear allegiance to England. On the brink of another war with France in 1755, the British couldn’t trust the Acadians not to secretly aid the enemy, so they rounded them up, burnt the villages, loaded them on ships and dispersed them amongst the American colonies. In time, most of the Acadians wound up remigrating to Lousiana, Quebec, and the Maritimes.

After going thru the small history museum, we take a quick rainy walk thru the memorial garden. The centerpiece is a statue of Evangeline, the star character in a fictional story Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about the tragedy. The poetic narrative galvanized Acadian national identity when it was published in 1847.

From Grand Pre we work our way around the Bay of Fundy to Amherst, NS on the border with New Brunswick where we stay at a private campground. We are not happy campers. It rained most of the day again and the forecast is just as gloomy.