East Coast Memories - Day 5

So ... the next morning we were recharged from a good night's rest.  Unfortunately, our car was not.  We forgot to unplug the cool-a-tron.  Thankfully, Uncle Marv just hooked us up to his car, and away we went!

On the way to Louisbourg, I got pulled over for the first time in my life for speeding.  Thankfully, I just got a warning.  PHEW!  We stopped for lunch and the beauty of seafood kept coming.  I enjoyed a seafood chowder.  We parked in a lot and saw the fort from afar via shuttle.  This is what it looked like:

 See the guy sitting on a bench?

He greeted us and told us that soldiers were

looking for criminals so be aware!  

 In the first house - this was used as a home and tavern.  

There should be a rope thing somewhere which was used for fishing.

Only ale and rum would be served as beverages.

The people working here wore authentic outfits and pretended that they were actually

from this time period as opposed to serving as tour guides.

Getting further in the fort 

 Where the soldiers slept - 3 to a bunk.  

Windows would get boarded up during winter

 so you can imagine how nice this room smelled!

 This man was accused of stealing a bottle of wine and was sentenced

to endure a public humiliation trial and to stay in the stocks.  A woman

in the crowd begged the magistrate to let him off as it would bring too
much embarrassment to their family.

"Voleur" on his sign means "Thief"

If only my garden could look like this ... 

They were really excited about ... a seagull?  ... a cloud? ... an airplane?

The inside of the fort

They had a real farm on the premises.

We visited a room that had children dancing.  Women were selling fresh bread in the streets with signs saying: "French bread pour acheter".  We saw a public demonstration of the shooting of the guns.  And, we also saw (and I participated in) some 17th century adult dancing, just like what you would see in the Jane Austen movies.  It was so fun!!  I think I'll have to post those videos in another blog, because I think this one might be too big already?  They are posted at the bottom of the blog.  Other characters we met were innkeepers, cannonists and a priest.  There were soldiers who had to work 24 hours straight and then had 48 hours off.  The men explained that the cultural and societal expectation to bow originated to show the people they greeted that they had no weapons on them.  Various rooms we saw ranged from the soldiers' barracks to barns, storehouses to the latrines, a general store, a restaurant, the guards' quarters.

Any minor offense that the guards committed and they would be placed on a wooden horse with their hands tied behind their back, their waist tied to their feet.  Not only was this process completely painful, but it was extremely humiliating as it was done at the changing of the guards.  These minor offences could include smoking on duty, not having 3 rounds of bullets on his person, sleeping on the job or arriving late.  When the guard asked us where we were from, we had to say that we were not from Toronto, not even Upper Canada, but rather from York.  

Hehehehehehehehe