Day 20 of 30 on our 2017 Canadian Maritime Caravan with Yankee RV Tour

On Saturday June 24, 2017 we started to travel on the Fleur-de-lis Trail, it is the shortest of all the trails on Cape Breton Island at 37 miles, but it contains some of richest history of the area. Beginning in Sydney, the largest city on the island at 26,000, the trail travels west to the historic town of Louisbourg.

Sidney was established in 1785 and has a rich and varied history. Near by the Table Head was the site where inventor Guglielmo Marconi sent the first trans-Atlantic wireless message. The Sidney Coal Mine Museum includes a guided tour of the Ocean Deeps Colliery, an underground coal mine. Retired coal miners accompany you on this 20 minute excursion into a 1932 "room & pillar" mine, where you will experience first-hand what it was like to extract coal by the sweat of your brow. We did not stop at the mine. The mines closed at the turn of the century and the Canadian Government decided to spend over 25 million dollars and put the thousands of displaced coal miners to work restoring the famous Fortress of Louisbourg on the south eastern coast of the island.

We continued onto our main destination today, on Cape Breton’s rocky shoreline east of Sydney, Nova Scotia, the Fortress of Louisbourg brings you back into one of North America’s busiest 18th-century seaports. Founded by the French in 1713, this one-quarter reconstruction of the original French town and fortifications is the largest – and best – of its kind in North America. From the moment you enter the gates until you are transported back to the 1700’s with hundreds of occupants all in full costume and character ready to make you “feel” what it was like to live at Fortress of Louisbourg.

Construction of the Fortress began in 1719 and was only finished on the eve of the first British siege in 1745. Over the course of almost three decades, engineers surrounded the town and garrison with massive stone walls that would make it one of the most extensive fortifications in North America. In fact, the almost 3 miles of walls – measuring 30 feet high and 36 feet thick in some places and the cost of the construction was so exorbitant for the time that King Louis XV was reported to joke that one day he should be able to see Louisbourg rising over the western horizon from his palace at Versailles. The fortress changed hands between the French and the British once in 1745 and again in 1785 after which it was returned to the French by treaty in 1748.

The British did, however, steal the famous Louisbourg Cross that hung in the fortress chapel. Found later at Harvard University Archives in Boston, the cross is now on permanent loan to the fort. Following the surrender of Louisbourg, British forces and engineers set about methodically destroying the fortress with explosives, ensuring the fortress could not return to French possession a second time in the eventual peace treaty. By 1760 the entire fortress was left as mounds of rubble.

Even with its proud military heritage, the Fortress of Louisbourg was about more than just the military. At its core, Louisbourg was a thriving civilian community made prosperous by a profitable cod-fishery and strong trade ties reaching across the Atlantic. Our tour guide explained the importance of cod fishing to the success of the fortress and the reason for its existence.

During its peak it was the third busiest port in North America and was considered the jewel of France’s holdings in the new world. Louisbourg represented hope, and its prosperity convinced many of France’s poor and impoverished to leave their homes behind and seek a chance at a better life.

Upon entering the fortress, our guide, an Officer’s son, gave us a stern warning not to fraternize with the British prisoners. Looking at our attire, he was concerned that we might be the Red Coats! 

At the entrance to the King’s Bastion, there were the guard’s quarters with bunks, gun racks and two different toilets. One was in a hole in the fortress wall and the other in a quaint little room over hanging the sea wall. Looking down the hole to see the sea below, it kind of made a meal of fresh cod fish less appealing.

The fortress boasts over 30 points of interest including barracks, power magazines, bakery, forge, tavern, period hotel and inn, stables, chapel, Governor and officer’s quarters, gardens, a typical home for the nobility and the commoners and even an iron collar. The fortress walls and ramparts boasted 18, 24 and 36 pound cannons, all original. Each area had “locals” who loved to strike up a conversation and would answer questions.

We started at the McLennan Center, with it's detailed trim work. We saw the King’s Garden, De la Valliere Storehouse, and the Louisbourg Cross. We purchased local bread. 

Some went to confession at the chapel and others experienced the punishment of the iron collar near the Frederic Gate. 

We toured the Ordonnateur’s Residence, ate lunch at the Petit Grandchamp House, looked for a room at the Hotel de la Marine, strolled the Quay and others ate lunch at the L’Epee Royal Café.

 

Original artifacts recovered from the site were cataloged, photographed and measured to reproduce every aspect of the reconstruction. Many of the original items are present in each of the exhibits. Countless hours were spent in France documenting the original printed plans of the complex.

The Fortress of Louisbourg might have been lost to history had it not been designated a National Historic Site and partially reconstructed in the 1960s. One quarter of the original French town and fortifications. It has become the largest reconstructed 18th-century French fortified town in North America, with archaeologists, and engineers and historians working together to recreate the town as it was in the 1740’s.

There is so much more I can tell you about Fortress of Louisbourg, but it is better to experience it yourself! 

Whether you’re strolling through the town’s streets or simply sitting in front of a crackling fire, you will feel that, for a brief time, you have been transported to 18^th century New France. 

After we departed the fort, we stopped at Lighthouse Point. On a clear day, you can stand on the rocky cliffs gazing out at the harbor entrance with its islands and mighty fortress. 

We were lucky to be able to see the lighthouse in the fog! We could hear the ocean rumbling at our feet and imagine the hundreds and hundreds of ships and fishing boats that have sailed in and out of this harbor since the 1600s. This historic site, where Canada’s first lighthouse was first lit in 1734, offers one of the most picturesque coastal vistas in Nova Scotia. The existing lighthouse was built in 1923 and is not open to the public.