CAPE BRETON ISLAND and THE CABOT TRAIL

Our first visit was to the area in PINK

CAPE BRETON ISLAND and the village of BADDECK.

In the northern part of Nova Scotia is the island of Cape Breton, where you find the
Cabot Trail, famous for its magnificent scenery. The area also hosts a popular National Historic Site known as the Fortress of Louisburg.  But the busy entry to all of this is through the village of Baddeck, at the southern end of the trail, where we stationed ourselves for 5 days.


Highlights of Baddeck, Cape Breton

Alexander Graham Bell Museum

Alexander Graham Bell actually worked and lived in Baddeck and a spacious museum is open to exhibit his life.  We know him as the inventor of the telephone, but his work with the hearing impaired, inventing visible speech,  is still a therapy used today.  It is  a method where a deaf individual can acquire speech.  His wife, who was deaf, learned several languages this way. He worked on many other projects during his lifetime, but with limited success.  For example, he competed with the Wright brothers, working on a flying machine.

I had to put this photo from the museum 
in the blog because no one would believe this.

Bell studied anatomy of the throat and mouth to see which sounds could produce words.  His unlikely student was actually his dog.  As the dog growled, Bell manipulated his mouth to form parts of words.  A very daring move on his part.

SAILING ON THE AMOEBA

We had an unexpected fun trip when we decided to sign up for the sailing excursion.  We have never been on a sail boat this size which was exciting, plus we had a entertaining crew who told us stories about the area and themselves.  

We had a smooth sail that day, but the captain often sails to the Virgin Islands for the winter.
Not a trip I would make from the north Atlantic.

I can't tell how much we enjoyed that experience!

Finding something to grasp was very important. Fortunately, not one of us slipped overboard!

Bell's home as seen from the schooner. (The only way to see it.)
It took 120 men 1 year to build their home and is still privately owned by Bell's decedents.

THE CABOT TRAIL

The Cabot Trail starts and ends at Baddeck and can be traveled in either direction, but clock
-wise is preferred.  Cape Breton Highland National Park hosts 3 campgrounds and a number of hikes.  Energetic people can be seen biking the Trail but it is very challenging and the pictures tell why.  No words are necessary to describe the land meeting the ocean at Cape Breton.

The northern most part of Cape Breton is Meat Cove...
an unusual little village because it is so remote.

Clearly biking, especially when it is windy, would be difficult.

Even our new friend, Dillon, loves to travel the Cabot Trail in back of a motorcycle.

THE FORTRESS OF LOUISBURG

In the mid 1700's, the French were busy establishing footholds in North America naming it New France.  One of the largest was Louisburg.  At its height, the port was the 3rd busiest, following New York and Boston! (If you look at the map, it is on the north Atlantic coast.)
This is a recreated site.  Having said this, years of researching architectural and cultural details was done to recreate what we can experience today....a French Fortress of the 1700's.

A fort is a military establishment only, while a fortress incorporates a town.  The reason for being here was to protect the fishing industry for France.

  This Fortress was built in the 1960's as an exact replica of the original in every detail even down to the gardens.  The work force came from displaced coal miners who needed work when area mines closed.  They were trained to build with identical methods that were first used in the 1700's.

When the fortress established, young French men were recruited from Paris to serve as soldiers at the Fortress.  They were promised much, but received little when they arrived.  Yet they were better off here than living under the harsh Paris conditions.

The main street does not look busy here, but a few hundred people were there the day we toured.

People in period dress takes their roles very seriously
and are never out of character.

This woman was actually a freed servant who ran a
business in the 1700's.  I never thought of slavery as
part of Canada's history.  Canada had an active
slave trade.

This man portrayed a Catholic Priest who lived at Louisburg.
These people make history come alive.  This man had such a sense of humor,
we could have listen all day.  We were served Heritage Chocolate, a drink served at historical sites in the U.S. and Canada. It is the most amazing concoction. 

The animals were even in character.  Garden plots grew behind houses.

Only 20% of the original Fortress was rebuilt using as many of the original stones.

I am sorry the pictures look a little bland, but the weather here is often cool, overcast, misty and very breezy.  It is said the area has its own weather patterns.

This is a painting of Louisburg and all the activity.  Fishing, like many of the shoreline communities, made the residents prosperous.

Time to leave our 18th century friends behind and drive into the sunshine
.....literally

On to the rest of Nova Scotia......