The Fortress of Louisbourg
For the pictures visit:
A visit to Louisbourg is a step back in time to the year 1744! Our lifelong fascination with time travel has finally reached fruition! What’s more, minutes after entering the reconstructed village with its wide, flat unpaved streets, I had a strong feeling of deja vu. No doubt about it, this was the setting for the French film, La Veuve de St. Pierre starring Juliette Binoche. Now there were two histories competing for my attention. Not to worry! The costumed members of this “living theatre” played their roles so well, down to the last detail, such as the smell of the roast pork that cooked over the wood fire while turning on a mechanized spit invented by a clockmaker using weights. We believed we were in the Louisbourg of 1744. Bravo!
Louisbourg was a thriving seaport and the capital of Ile Royale (Cape Breton Island). The Fortress of Louisbourg was one of the busiest harbors in North America and also one of France's key centers of trade and military strength in the New World. The French came to Louisbourg in 1713, after ceding Acadia and Newfoundland to the British by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. France's only remaining possessions in what is now Atlantic Canada were the islands of Cape Breton and Prince Edward, which were then called Isle Royale and Isle Saint-Jean. The French used these islands as a base to continue the lucrative cod fishery of the Grand Banks.
In 1719 construction of a fortified town began and was just completed on the eve of the first siege in 1745 following a declaration of war between Britain and France. One might think that the fortress would be prepared for any onslaught. Yet, while the harbor was well defended, a series of low hills, some dangerously close to the fortifications, provided excellent locations for siege batteries. Charged with the fervor of a religious crusade and informed that its poorly supplied troops on the verge of mutiny, the New Englanders mounted an assault on Louisbourg.
Within 46 days of the invasion, the fortress was captured. To the chagrin of the New Englanders, only three years later the town was restored to the French by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1758 Louisbourg was besieged a second time. Without a strong navy to patrol the sea beyond its walls, Louisbourg was impossible to defend. Attacking with 16,000 troops supported by 150 ships, a British army captured the fortress in seven weeks. Determined that Louisbourg would never again become a fortified French base, the British demolished the fortress walls.
In 1961 the Government of Canada began a $25 million dollar project aimed at reconstructing approximately one-quarter of the original town and fortifications. Within this area, the buildings, yards, gardens and streets are being recreated as they were during the 1740s, immediately preceding Louisbourg's first siege.
Archaeological excavation has yielded millions of artifacts as well as the ruins of fortifications and buildings. Some 750,000 pages of documents and 500 maps and plans have been copied from archives in France, England, Scotland, the United States and Canada. The historical evidence reveals much about life at Louisbourg and provides an excellent base for the study of the French in North America.
One thing that really stood out was the total lack of commercialism. Buildings bore numbers to help us find them on our maps. Only the restaurants had discreet signs bearing their names. Costumed residents played music, sang, danced, walked down the streets and told us about their activities as we entered rooms where they sewed, cooked or rested from their military duties.
Entering one of the three discretely indicated taverns for lunch, we were seated at a long pine wood table covered with a white muslin cloth and provided with napkins of the same cloth to be worn like bibs completely covering our upper bodies. The waitress presented us with a simple white paper menu on which were printed the daily offerings. We ordered a vegetable soup, a pea soup and two glasses of ale. The soups arrived in pewter bowls accompanied by a slice of brown bread. Our only utensil was a large soup spoon and there were no condiments on the table. Although satisfied with the delicious soups, we were curious about the desserts of the era, so we shared a blueberry tart with cream. The waitress informed us that our spoons were our only utensil and denied ever having heard of “ice cream”.
We covered a lot of ground and explored just about every nook and cranny but eventually exhaustion took over and we had to say goodbye to this incredible voyage in time. We are not what you’d call museum goers or history buffs but we highly recommend a visit to Louisbourg. You will never forget it.
