Village Historique Acadien

 6/29/24

Today we visited the Village Historique Acadian, a living history museum of the Acadian people and culture. This was probably the best living history museum we have ever been to, showing the structures, dress, and lives of Acadians in the region from 1770 to 1949. You walked through time, beginning with the first Acadians and their structures and working your way up through the years

1770’s man in entry to his log cabin

Fish drying racks

Placed in field to drain excess water

The wooden platforms in the field were to dry the hay after it was cut

Dyed with barks and flowers

A dying pot

Hook rug made with torn strips of old dresses

She started heating the oven by burning wood at 9:30am. After cleaning out the ashes, the bread went in about 2pm and took about 20 minutes to cook. We all got to try it when done and it was yummy.

Making cedar shakes for the houses

The general store

Three level oven with the top for baking bread

Luxury - an indoor well!

Called a beggars bench, the owner of this house used to let beggars spend the night on it in front of the fire. It opened up to act as a playpen for the children when the mother was cooking and working in the kitchen.

A wool carding machine in upstairs of the grist mill

The bridge from the far past to the more “modern times” of 1949

This is a hotel that you can stay the night in the village

Beautiful modern stove

We left the village and drove back to Neguac where we parked for the night on Hay Island. We intended to camp with a view of the Bay again, but the winds were so strong we opted for the shelter of the trees and found a pull-off along there.

This fox came walking along beside our car and sat to clean itself for a bit before wandering off.

Shediac, Bouctouche Dune, and Kouchibouguac NP

 6/28/24

Shediac was a lovely town with a mix of original small homes and large wealthy homes. It bills itself as a Lobster Capital.

Then we headed up the coast and stumbled upon the Bouctouche Dunes.

An oyster grower - oyster larva are collected and placed in these cages where they are submerged until they are big enough. Usually the black floats would be empty and above water, but every so often the cages are flipped upside down so the sun can help eliminate any harmful things. In the winter the floats are filled with water and sunk so that the oysters stay below the ice.

Patterns made by the grasses in the wind

A shell return center so that shells don’t leave the beach - piping plovers nest on the ground among shells and rocks and their sites are protected during nesting seasons

The Acadian Flag. New Brunswick is bilingual, the only bilingual province in Canada, and French is predominate in the Acadian region that we are in. Even among many of the young people English is their second language and they may have difficulty with speaking English. Nonetheless they are far more proficient than Matthew or I am in French.

We left the Dunes and headed to Kouchibouguac National Park. We walked along the boardwalk to Kelly’s Beach

An Arctic Red jellyfish - though I like the French term, Medusa, for jellyfish better

Another Medusa

After stopping and making a dinner of stir fry, we headed too the bog

Sarracenia Purpurea- Northern Pitcher plant flower

Underside of the flower

The pitcher

We drove to Lower Neguac for the night and had a lovely view

And awoke to this view! We are so lucky.