Maritime Adventure - Part Nine

Finally out of Sydney (ha, it was not even 24 hours that we were there...but that was enough!) and off to The Fortress of Louisbourg. A National Historic site...this almost made the 4.5 hour drive to Cape Breton worth it. Almost.

This Fort is one of the largest historical recreations in Canada. It is the largest reconstruction of an 18th century French fortified town in all of North America. I have to give credit where credit is due...they've done a FANTASTIC job. Complete with staff in period costumes with an outstanding knowledge of the fort and it's history, it was totally interesting to be a part of.

DBF and Shooby had great fun laughing about the fact that this French fort was beseiged by the British not just once, but twice. It's one of those "fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me" situations. You'd think those silly French would have been on the lookout for those Brits once they rebuilt after the first attack. Funny this wasn't discussed in any of the brochures, etc.... the town has actually been reconstructed as it would have been in 1740, before the British attacked. :)


I especially love that this reconstruction was started in the 1960s as a way to help employ locals during a downturn in the local economy. It was about a $25 million project back then, so that wasn't chump change. But it helped keep people on Cape Breton that may have otherwise had to leave their homes in search of employment elsewhere. How cool is that?! Especially since almost 50 years later it's still keeping the locals at home and the ecomomy afloat with tourism.

We spent about 3 hours here just wandering and enjoying the different displays and the beautiful weather. We could have easily spent more time wandering the rest of the ruins and checking out the variety of monuments that have been erected over the last couple of hundred years, but we decided we didn't want to have to deal with another hotel overnight and embarked on the long drive back to Halifax.

On the way back through the town of Louisbourg we made a quick stop at the lighthouse (cuz you know how much I love them!) where I just ran up to take some pictures and check out the view back across the bay towards the fort. Man, I wish the weather had been like that the whole time. The ocean was so shiny and blue!

Of course, we needed to find dinner along the way, so before we left Cape Breton we stopped at Mother Webbs in Antigonish. It's one of those places that every visitor has to stop when in the area. We had seen several billboards for the place, so it was like it was calling out to us. What's better is the menu consisted of nothing healthy. LOL. Their seafood chowder was awesome and buttery, the fish and chips crunchy and greasy and the apple pie looked like it could clog a few arteries but I just didn't have room for it.