After last night's nasty squall, Sunday dawned clear and very breezy. After breakfast and our morning 'disconnecting' (i.e, removing the front wheel leveling blocks [It's amazing how few sites are truly level.], retracting the slider and disconnecting water and electricity then dumping 'black' and 'gray' water), we headed for the Acadian Village about 10 miles from Caraquet that we had located yesterday afternoon.
We spent nearly four hours in the best recreation of early life that we have ever experienced! This is a leap beyond Plimouth Plantation, Old Sturbridge Village or any other recreation of old time living that we have ever visited. Old Acadian farm houses, outbuildings, general store's taverns, schools, churches, a carding and grist mill, carpenter shop, blacksmith shop and forge, a fish packing company, etc., etc. have been relocated to this site, board by board, timber by timber, stone by stone..
The bilingual people on the site explaining life in the 19th century in New Brunswick are dressed in period clothing, cooking real food on hearths and in pots, making furniture, rope, dyeing and spinning wool and flax and all the other needs of rural living in the mid to late 1800s. A horse-drawn wagon circulates throughout the property transporting people who may become tired of walking. The lush fields enclosed by cedar rail fences lashed at the joints with twisted alder saplings are populated with cows and sheep. Turkeys and chickens gobble and cackle in spruce pole pens. Even a large sow is quartered behind one of the barns. Even last year's meadow hay, cut by hand, is stacked on poles in the low ground.
The Village is supported by the provincial government and is a powerful expression of the Acadian culture. A new section of a dozen or so more buildings has been built capturing early 20th century Acadian life and is scheduled for a huge grand opening with Acadians...and Cajuns... from North America and other places on June 28.
The Village opened today for the season and turnout was fairly good, given it's early in the tourist season. All the people are extraordinarily friendly and communicative as we've found the Acadians to be wherever we have met them. We had an Acadian soup for lunch, created from an Acadian recipe, made with potatoes, turnip, onions, barley and a bit of beef. It was clearly a soup, not a stew, and was delicious. The restaurant is as authentic as possible and still able to serve 40-50 people at a sitting. No creit cards accepted, only cash as the bill is tallied by hand.
If you are ever in this area of New Brunswick, Acadian Village is a 'must see.' It has been in existence for ~30 years and is still going strong. We have so many photos that we'll need to do a special Acadian Village slideshow!
We jumped on the road again at mid-afternoon and drove Route 11 straight through to Campbellton, where we shopped for groceries and fuel before continuing into Quebec's Gaspe' Peninsula. We are tonight at Carleton at a beautiful municipally operated campground on a narrow spit of sand stretching into the Chaleur Bay with ocean on all four side this time. Very few people here at this very nice place. It was windy all afternoon and has only now become calm and clear at sunset as a full moon rises. The WiFi signal is strong and connection is speedy.
Carol's needle felting an Airedale and I think she also has a lobster in progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment