Two Sore Backs

I mentioned in a previous post that Newfoundlanders, at least the Anglos, mispronounce French words “with enthusiasm”. Well, the Nova Scotians aren’t much different. Here it is pronounced “Lewisburg”.

This is, no doubt, the result of centuries of wars, and resulting animosities, between the British and the French in this area.

And what were they fighting for? A fishery? Could it have been that important?

This helped me put it in perspective: at its height, 30% of France’s food – dried cod – came from the port of Louisbourg.

30%!

France was predominately Catholic, and if you add up all the Fridays, days of lent, church holidays, and so on, it adds up to a lot of fish.

The 1713 treaty of Utrecht left the French with control of only Cape Breton and PEI. French settlers from Newfoundland relocated to Louisbourg, but it was constantly under threat from the British and New Englanders. This prompted France’s King Louis XIV to start building a fortress there in 1719. Something we weren’t aware of: fortresses differ from forts in that they protect established settlements.

Fortress of Louisbourg is a recreation of a portion of the settlement – the British burned the original to the ground at some later point in the skirmishes.

On the day we visited, the tail end of tropical storm Franklin was dropping rain by the bucket on the Fortress. The paths between buildings were to become rivers during our visit, but on the positive side, there was hardly anyone there and we had all the actors basically to ourselves.

Here is a gallery of photos with captions.

On the way out we snapped a photo of the damage caused by Fiona last fall.

And true to form, the heavens really opened up as we charged up at Monestery. The last time we were there was after Stanfest. Weather? Same.