From the French Fortress to the French River, BANG learns the history and the lingo

Today we visited the French part of Cape Breton.  The morning started out with a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel in Sydney, and off to the car to make it to the Fortress of Louisbourg.  Arriving just before 9:30 when scheduled to open, the driver (Adam) decides he is going to go past gate 1. Lola wasn't too impressed as we got to a place that didn't take us to the gate, although she did get a photo with the red chair looking out into the fog!

Here is us in the car ready for our adventure of the day!

Once arriving at the gate 1 after turning around. We got to the gate, parked and headed to buy tickets, only to get in line... Lola still not impressed about Adams Adventure he decided to take, but got over it once the line started moving a little quicker.

We got onto a bus that took us to the site of the fortress.  It was 100 years older than the citadel in Halifax, and French not English inspired.  It was amazing that the fortress was pretty much destroyed during battle, and reconstructed later in life.  It was very authentic and didn't know what was recreated and what was original.  

This is what the fortress looked like after it was destroyed in battle in the 1760s.

The fortress rebuilt after 20 years of research and construction.

We spent the morning exploring all the residences, storage houses, streets and grounds.

The gate

The goose looking at me in his fenced in area.

The engineers house, ranked 3rd, he had the most expensive and pretty elaborate house as no one would say no to him,  supposedly cost 3x the estimate.

The military pagentry exiting the Kings Bastion.

The men looking over the walls at the ocean.

Chapel in the Kings bastion.  It was interesting how there was a chapel but the French decided there was no money to build a church on the site.

My favorite room the Kings store house.  It was huge and the hundreds of rum barrels lined the floors.

After the fortress we headed into the town of Louisbourg to find some lunch.  On the water... Of course.  

And the crab was Delicous!

Lola's crab sandwich without the bread!

Beautiful harbour in Louisbourg.  Loved all the traps lined on the docks.

Then off to see the first lighthouse in Canada.  It was rebuilt 3 times, but an amazing site to see,  also took a hike to see the red chairs up on the hill.  Can you find Adam is the photo?

Then it was time to head off of Cape Breton along the fleur-de-lis trail.  It was windy with a few residence and no where for Lola to go pee, not before making it to St Peters that she got to go.  The lovely lady at the visitor Center told us we should go see the canal. What a site to see, there was actually a boat going through.  The bridge that we traveled over to get back to mainland had to swing open to let the boat through.  Here are a few photos and I know some readers may not like how close to the edge Adam got.

The locks.

Adam sitting on the edge

Boat coming from the ocean side.

Boat leaving towards the lake side

Bridge closing behind them.

Also we were happy to see a Tim Hortons in St. Peter, as we hadn't had one yet today.  Lola was especially happy as she was thirsty and needed some happy juice (medium steeped tea, one sugar).

Happy!

From there, off to see James, Blairs long time friend that lived in woodlands for some time while growing up, and stayed friends ever since.  We had to find somewhere to eat first.  Why not stop at the place that garuntees instant service!

The food was great

Cool glassware too!

Last stop of the day before laying our heads down in the pillow in Pictou was James place.  He lives in French River.  A tiny town with about 4 homes, an old church, old woman's club, a creek and a babbling brook as well as a neighbour that acts like the town mayor.  Here is a few photos:

The school

The club house

Jame's trailer and garage.

We were told many stories, shared memories, looked at photos, and had many laughs.  It was great to see someone so appreciative of us stopping by to say hi.  

I made sure to take a photo of the 2 boys!

 

And a photo of the man cave in the garage,

We finally made it to Pictou at about 10:30, where we were later than they were hoping and almost giving our room away to an Expedia renter.  We are in a 2 bedroom apartment on the top level, with an awesome view of the harbour, can't wait to see it in the morning.  We spent some time on the balcony where  it was cooler. 

Blair on the balcony.  We were in downtown but it was sure peaceful.

I should really head to bed, as we are leaving Nova Scotia in the morning for PEI and can't wait to spend our last days there.  

Time for bed,  good night, Lola