Sometimes we accidentally stumble across things and find ourselves in the middle of great stuff....
Today is Acadian Day here in New Brunswick (and all over the Canadian Maritimes). Big-big day, with parades and parties and everything, the culmination of two weeks of celebrating the Acadian culture. Did we know this? Why, no. But this is the day we have decided to visit the historic
Acadian Village. We showed up just before lunch only to discover that it's going to be packed with people (Acadian Day, dontcha know!) and closing early at 3 p.m. (Acadian Day!!!). And that it's a huge place - see the map below. Undaunted, we tackled it all anyway.
This village is completely authentic, right down to the people wearing the clothes and doing everything the old way, growing food and raising animals and farming. The "characters" in costume went about their daily business in spite of all us gawkers. Since it was lunchtime, we saw them cooking and eating and - well, you get the idea. All the buildings are originals and were moved here from other places.
We took a zillion pictures and it was hard to cull out just a few......
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| In french it mentions the Fete on 15 August... |
This map shows the extent of this place; enlarge the picture to get an idea of what we saw. Kindly note, Duane and Michelle Doucet, the 1860 "Doucet" farm on the map on the lower right.
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| Gobblers. |
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| Big old fat cochon. (pig) |
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| Buuuuuck buck buck.... |
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| Bovines and ovines. Moos and baas. |
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| Dude! Mr. Goat! |
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| Every single farm had a wonderful garden to provide food. |
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| Root cellar. |
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Inside each home was a character who explained things -
all in french so we don't have a clue what was being said.... |
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| Serving up lunch to her man. |
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| Family sitting down to lunch. Beef stew. |
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| If you got tired of walking this nice man would let you ride. |
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| The smithy. |
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| Printing company. |
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| Old-time printing press. One sheet at a time..... |
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| Racks for drying fish; fishing was a big part of their lives here. |
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| Oven for baking. They'd just pulled out a batch of bread. |
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| In addition to the gardens, there were lots of fruit trees. |
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| DOUCET home, 1860. |
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DOUCET home, 1860.
Do you see Bubba? |
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| DOUCET home, 1860. |
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| All the kids in period costume, they were so dang cute! |
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This was at the tavern. These two gents were playing lively tunes and drawing a crowd.
Wish I could post the video. Now and then the older man would get up and dance.
Found myself doing a little two-stepping. |
What a wonderful day you guys had! I would've loved being there.
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