Baddeck, Saturday, 17-Jun-2023
This day had one activity, driving over to Louisbourg to visit the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site, which took a good part of the day.
Since breakfast isn't provided where we were staying, we had gotten breakfast food from the store. However, we also have no microwave or refrigerator, so we tried to get things that would keep overnight. After finishing the meal, we got in the car hoping to get to the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site right about the time they opened. The drive to the fortress was not quite an hour and a half, since Baddeck is in the middle of Cape Breton Island while the fortress is on the far east side.
As we started, it was a bit foggy, so we hoped it would burn off by the time we got to the fortress or soon thereafter. When we arrived, few cars were in the parking lot, but there was quite a bit of fog over the water.
We showed our Parks pass and paid for the walking tour, then wandered around on our own since we had some time. We walked down the central street and took a look over the outer wall at the Louisbourg Harbour. We needed to work around a tour group, one of at least a dozen that would appear while we were there.
The tour group was a pretty good size, and the guide was very knowledgeable. She mixed in stories, history, trivia, and humor. This tour didn't go into any of the buildings but did cover quite a bit of ground. She pointed out various architectural details, what we would find in all of the buildings (and the ones which were either not open or administrative), and the original use of the buildings. She also pointed out that there were swifts that liked to nest under the eaves, so if you stood too long near a nest, they would try to scare you off.
After the tour was over, we made a beeline to the café to get some lunch. Not long after we found a table, it started getting more crowded as people from the various bus tours started wandering in.
There were a few buildings we wanted to see based on the tour guide's descriptions, so we started with the Commissaire-Ordonnateur’s property where there were a couple of commissioned paintings representing what the fortress looked like when it was fully populated. One view was from the clocktower looking down at the town, and another was from a warship on the harbour.
Next, we went to the Dauphin Gate and the demi-bastion just inside of it. We got a lot of great views of the water and the rest of the fortress.
After going through a few other houses which looked like they would be quick, we went into the Engineer's Residence. Throughout the fortress, there were several people in period costumes who would answer questions and tell stories. We met with the "engineer" in the house, and for the most part, he stayed in character, relating the history in the first person. He did, however, drop into talking about his personal life for a little bit. Since we couldn't see anything but the outer case of the keyboard instrument, Melody asked what it was, and he said it was a harpsichord, and proceeded to play a few notes.
Elsewhere in the Engineer's Residence, we saw the kitchen where the dance master was. Some women dressed as servants in the room, but they left not long after we arrived. The dance master feigned exasperation, saying "Servants!". Melody asked him a bit about being a dance master and about other arts. It seemed to be a bit on the edge of his knowledge, but he was able to cover it pretty well.
The next building we went through was the King's Bastion, which is huge. There were rooms set up as recreations from the period, exhibits about the reconstruction, and a "Visible Inventory" which showed items that weren't actively being used.
We also walked around the grounds behind the bastion, which included a hen house with chickens.
The last building we looked at was on the other side of the parking lot, and it contained a scale model of the town in the fortress as it would have looked in 1744.
Done with the reconstructed buildings, we went on the Ruin Walk which showed remnants of the town outside the fortress walls. It includes a hospital and some batteries in the harbour. The road got muddy at one point, but we were able to find paths around the worst of it. After we were done, we were in the middle of the muddy area when a couple of trucks started coming toward us. Fortunately, they saw us, stopped, and waited for us to go past them.
We kept looking for the fog to dissipate, but we left in mid-afternoon and the fog was still hanging around. It wasn't until we got halfway back to Baddeck that it finally lifted. When we got back to Baddeck, got some groceries for the next day's breakfast, and returned to the room. We then went out to dinner and had a server who took the time to chat with us, asking about our vacation, and offering suggestions of things she liked that she would recommend.
It was a long day, and we were ready to just hang out for the rest of the night.
