The drive from Perce, Quebec to New Brunswick was long and hard. About 250 miles but mostly 2 lane roads with several towns to go through. The road again hugged the coast much of the way with awesome views.
New Brunswick is the only Canadian provence that is officially bilingual, English and French. Quebec is officially French and the government has strict laws to avoid English signs, English sounding names for businesses. New Brunswick is not a prohibitive but the area we visited, Acadia, is primarily French speaking. The remainder of Canada is officially English. Remeind me sometime to tell you my views on official languages: I'm against them (oh, I told you). In New Brunswick we encountered many people, even in shops and restaurants, who had very limited abilities in English.
The Acadians are people who came from France in the 17th and 18th centuries and settled in what is now much of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Maine. There were several wars and purges to get rid of these Frenchmen and many went to Louisiana, where they developed the Cajun traditions. Many were killed or starved but many persisted and still inhabit large parts of New Brunswick. Their culture and even their language are distinct from the French people who settled in Quebec
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| This is the official flag of New Brunswick which we didn't see very often. |
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| This is the unofficial flag of Acadia which we saw everywhere. |
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Caraquet is the town near where we camped. It is business like and not very picturesque, at least not what we saw.
This harbor is an exception. |
We visited The Acadian Village which replica of a typical settlement back in the late 1700's.
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| The Acadians were mostly farmers. |
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| The Acadians were almost entirely Catholic. |
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| Sandra & Jack are from South Carolina |
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| Joe from Lincoln, Nebraska |
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| We had a nice Acadian meal at the Acadian Village |
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| The pub |
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| In constructing this village they tried to use original methods |
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Fishing was also important to the Acadians.
This man was demonstrating the making of a net, in French, so I didn't get the fine details. |
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| We stayed at a nice wooded campground. |
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We noticed that many of the seasonal campers at the campground had Christmas decorations up in July.
We heard two explanations: 1. It was just a "camping thing" and 2. The end of July marks the end of vacation for many Acadians and they must soon return to work. I think they just like Christmas decorations. |
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| Long live the Acadians! |
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| The ride from our campsite in New Brunswick to our next site in Prince Edward Island (PEI) was done largely in the rain which was quite hard at times. |
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| Diva takes a rest at an information center. |
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| At the rest center there was an observation tower looking out to the Northumberland Strait and this lighthouse. |
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The Confederation Bridge is 8 miles long. We say goodbye to New Brunswick and to the Acadian people
and howdie to our next stop: Prince Edward Island |
Ciao, Frank
