Hi everyone. Today I am taking you back to the Fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. If you missed part 1, you can find it here: Part 1. As I mentioned in that post, the Fortress of Louisbourg is the largest living history and historic reconstruction in North America. It originally was a town and a fortress built by the French starting in 1713 and continuing into 1758 when the British besieged the area and took the land away from the French. This reconstruction began in the 1960's.
And just to give you a reminder of where this living history museum is located, look just above the title on this map.
I think a good starting place would be the lunch we had in the restaurant in the museum. It was a relatively historic meal, or so we were informed, although we were told the kitchen was modern. It must be a bit tricky to make a historic restaurant meal and deal with modern cleanliness, cooking standards and tastes. I will say that even though the meals weren't 100% historic, it was a fun lunch and a little glimpse into what food would be like in the early 1700's.
Unlike in restaurants today, if you were at the hotel back in the early 1700's, you'd have shared your table with whoever else was eating, and you'd have eaten what ever might have been stewing or roasting over the fire. We shared a table with a couple from the Truro area of Nova Scotia, which was where we had just been. Plus they were very familiar with New Hampshire, and so we had a lovely hour lunch with them. They even suggested a couple of places to visit, which we did later in the trip.
We were each given a very very large napkin/towel and were told to tie it around our necks because that was what would keep our clothes clean (and it did). You can see my husband's in the next photo. We were also given just a large serving sized spoon to eat our entire meal with, because that is all you would have used (except maybe the do anything with knife attached to your belt-but hopefully in the present time no one was carrying one of those. 😏)
The bread is baked in one of the museum buildings (more about that in a minute), and my husband chose pain perdu which is French toast in English.
I had grilled cheese and some pea soup. The drinks were not really historic as I don't think the French in the early 1700's would be drinking iced tea. 😉
And for dessert I had a tasty rum cake.
After lunch we continued visiting buildings. When we walked into one and I noticed the cornmeal everywhere, I knew right away it was the bakery. I mentioned how my kitchen looks the same way when I make bread, and one of the bakers was very pleased I seem to know something about bread baking. He took us back behind the closed off section to where they actually make the bread and filled us in on all the details. Of course by this hour of the day the bread baking was finished as they begin at about 5 AM making the dough and then baking it. All I was able to photograph was the oven (which holds over 100 loaves) stocked up with wood so they can start a new fire the next morning to make that days loaves.
But you can still see the cornmeal. 😏
In another building they talked about the early construction methods. In this next photo you can mostly see the new stone walls but in the bottom right lit-up area, you can see the original walls that were excavated.
And here's some shingles that were also dug up. I'm pretty impressed the wood lasted that long.
And this next photo shows the wall construction.
And here's some original hinges that were discovered by the archaeologists.
In the fortress were several rooms with some fascinating exhibits about all the archaeology of this site, as well as lots of information about daily life. They also had some remade period clothing. The only clothing piece I snapped a photo of was this dress, which I can't imagine wearing. This must be for a nice day when the roads and paths wouldn't be so muddy.
And the second photo shares some pieces found of the original fortress.
Not all of the buildings were open that day, but the Engineer's House (Mason de l'Ingenieur) was. It was the one of the wealthier and fancier homes in the village area. Although I didn't get a photo of the women in the kitchen, there were 2 women who entertained and taught us about what the roles of the kitchen servants would be.
Here's the dining room. In the back you can see the piano pushed aside. I'm sure after the meal the table and the piano would switch places.
We could not go upstairs to the bedrooms, but we could see the engineer's study
and his fancy telescope.
But the engineer's home was not the most ornate. That one belonged to the Governor of Louisbourg. That apartment was located in the fortress.
The red bedroom was his, and the grey paneled one in the next photo was for his guests.
The dining room was the most public room in the Governor's apartments. The table could be taken down for other activities to happen.
Beyond his rooms, there was an interesting couple of rooms where all the items the governor would have had in his apartment were displayed in glass cabinets. The sign explained about how people went to France in the 1970's to search for pieces that would work in reconstructions. Here's just a peek of all the items from not only these cooking pots and earthenware but furniture, chandeliers, linens and clothing.
Compare those fine rooms to where the French soldiers stayed in the fortress. There the soldiers shared straw mattress beds (only changed around once a year), cooked, ate and entertained each other. There was actually one less bed than soldiers assigned to a room because each soldier would have a 24 hour duty shift, when they went off shift, another from their squad would go onto the 24 hours duty so you never actually had a bed for your own.
However the higher ranking Sargent's would have their own spaces.
The chapel was also located in the fortress so the Governor would not have to travel far over muddy roads to worship.
This post is getting long, and I have some random photos from our day left. I'll share those tomorrow.
Until then, have a super rest of your day.
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