We decided to go visit Fortress Lousbourg since it seemed like the thing to do around here. I've stopped googling the places we are about to visit, as has Josh, so we didn't know what to expect at all. For example, we were wondering why we were parking so far away from the Fortress. And then, to our surprise, we had to get on a shuttle bus. What the heck? What is this place?
When we arrived we were in the 1700's (us and a gaggle of other tourists). People in 1700's costumes greeted us, the whole town was set up as it was. There were restaurants and bars, chickens, I even saw a little girl walking with her mom in a little French Colonial dress. As soon as I saw the set up, I knew my mission. To get to the bottom of the tricorn hat. It has no apparent function, I know it doesn't keep the sun off. Was it just for show?
What was the point of this hat?
As we approached the town the cannon was set off at noon, it was loud!
Photo from wikimedia commons showing pointless head gear.
The entrance to Louisbourg
We walked around the town and went in many exhibits. The place is expansive, each street we went down revealed more streets. One of the exhibits had displays about their clothing but the hat was not mentioned.Hilarious chickens with hairdos
Meandering through the large fortress, we found ourselves in a room that contained a lot of bunk beds, it turned out to be the soldiers barracks. One of the many employees/interpreters was sitting in there. We saw a lot of wooden clogs on the floor for tourists to try on.
The interpreter told us that the soldiers would wear the clogs on their off hours because they were more comfortable than their regular shoes! Their regular shoes were 'one size fits all' so were often too large or too small. They must have been horrible if they preferred a wooden clog! When I think of a comfortable shoe the last type of shoe that would come to mind would be a wooden one. They are not flexible, very heavy and have no give for your toes. I know that a shapely calf was popular for men at this time, perhaps they wore them to fill out their white stockings?
I took the opportunity to ask about the Tricorn hat. He picked his up and spun it around. He said he was wearing it yesterday when he was stationed on the windy dock and it didn't fall off because it's aerodynamic. That's the function of the three sides! Hurricane Fiona couldn't have blown it off! He also said the rain filled it up but he just tipped his head to empty it.
Obviously the Tricorn hat is meant for somewhere wet and windy. Coming from the prairies, my main concern is sun.
I didn't realize I was standing in an unfortunate spot in this photo.
After our mind-expanding visit to Fortress Louisbourg we went swimming at Kennington Beach with our friends that moved to Cape Breton.
I noticed this interpretive sign, which was so far from Fortress Louisbourg, I imagine it was erroneously shot from a cannon and landed on Kennington Beach.
The arrow indicates where Fort Louisbourg is. Interpretive sign is on the right.
The sign was about the Indigenous contribution to the Fortress and the battles it was involved in. Perhaps it should be moved to the Fortress town itself? It deserves a better place than the path to the outhouse.
Birds 'n Mammals
Chickens who should be in a punk band
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