Day 19 (September 9, 2009) – Acadian Village

Today our planned adventure was the Acadian Village, a portrayal of Acadian life using historic house re-located to this “village.” They come from various towns from New Brunswick and show a progression of house types and lifestyles from the 18th and 19th centuries (1700’s & 1800’s). These included complete farms with outbuildings, traditional crops and livestock, tavern, a fisherman’s house with shed for preparing salt cod, woodworking shop, school, a small church, general store, and a covered bridge, all original. After crossing the covered bridge there is a grouping of buildings representing 20th century (1900’s), of which some are reconstructions.

All of the early period buildings were hosted with people in period dress and every kitchen was in the process of cooking the noonday meal. They were "stews" of varying types being cooked in dutch ovens over the fire. Every one smelled scrumptious. The houses represented families of all economic levels. Most consisted of one room downstairs with an upstairs storage area for grain. Almost all housed mom, dad and 10-15 kids! One of the farms grew flax and included a demonstration of making linen and another wool. The flax from this year's harvest was in the field redding or drying. It is pulled up with the roots, not cut. Both were quite interesting processes. The woodwork shop proprietor was making water buckets. A shot of gin (de Kuyper Geneva from Holland) at the tavern was 10 cents, about 4 weeks work for a common person. According to the schoolmistress, teaching in French was prohibited until 1963! Most schools taught in French on the sly, with children memorizing answers to English questions posed by government inspectors. Today the French schools teach entirely in French with English as an elective. Prior to the Expulsion (1755 to 1763), most Acadians were farmers. Those that avoided the Expulsion or returned later were forced to become coastal fisherman dominated by the Jersey Company until the 1940’s when U.S. corporations began buying seafood for cash. In the U.S. we learn of the “French and Indian War,” but not the repercussions for the losing side.

Crossing the covered bridge brought one into the 1900’s. This section included a steam powered sawmill and barrel maker. The sawmill was on lunch break, but the barrel maker was hard at work. Another building was a 1936 Irving Oil Station (it smelled like one too). Interestingly, Irving also sold Fords along with the oil and gas. Next-door was the Hotel Chateau Albert, a 1907 reproduction. Two more interesting shops were the Tin & Stove Shop (1915) and Cobbler Shop (1900), both reproductions of actual buildings, but with period functional equipment. The walk through the village was over 4 Km, so we got our exercise today. It took us about 4 hours to tour the village and most of the buildings.

Afterwards we headed south instead of saying another night in Caraquet, our unplanned adventure. We bit off more than we bargained for, bypassing one very nice campground about an hour south. As we trundled on, our drive on the “scenic route,” Rt 117 was a bit long and reminiscent of roads in Alaska, a tad bumpy to me, but OK (that is what I drove up here for… the scenic roads). Others had somewhat different opinions. Add to that, a wrong turn to get on the road to our campground in Cap Lumiere, led to a long day, but a much shorter day tomorrow. We are in a little RV park just across the road from the Gulf, not quite 10-10-10 in Trailer-Life, oh, not in TL. It is PPA, thus inexpensive. There is no one here to take our money, so it’s the honor system. We can see Prince Edward Island on the horizon and a Lighthouse right across the street. Oh! The wrong turn…we followed our sense of direction instead of the road signs. “They can’t be right we’d be going in the wrong direction!”