Looking for a tourist attraction where your kid can learn how to gut a cod? Look no further than the Fortress of Louisbourg!
The Fortress of Louisbourg is a National Historic Site with a re-creation of an 18th century French settlement. After our somewhat underwhelming experience with a Canadian living history site at Port Royal, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Louisbourg. But it turned out to be an extensive site with a ton going on–on par with somewhere like Colonial Williamsburg or Mystic Seaport in the US. Which makes the admission price of $17.60CDN for adults and free for kids 17 and under (or free with your Parks Canada pass) seem like a huge bargain.
Your visit starts at the visitors center, where you buy tickets and tour a museum before getting on a bus to go to town. The bus ride might have been Abe’s favorite part:
Before you enter the walls of the Fortress, you pass through a small cottage where there’s a guide to tell you a little about the history of Louisbourg and why it was there (it has a lot to do with cod):
Then through the gates! After the guard makes fun of people a bit for not speaking French, perhaps, and threatens not to let you in:
And then you’re turned loose in the town, and you can wander around and peek into assorted buildings or take advantage of a full range of scheduled activities (in season).
We watched a presentation on soldier life, complete with musket firing:
You can stay overnight in these tents if you want the full 18th century experience:
There was dancing! We got here a little late, though–otherwise maybe the kids could have gotten in on on some dancing themselves? Or this might have been a special day camp kind of program. anyway, there was dancing.
At one point we followed the crowd to watch a slightly odd re-enactment of a public punishment. If you’re so inclined, you can pay $36 or so to be the “prisoner of the day” yourself. A lot of this happened in French, so it was a bit difficult to follow:
There are lots of historical interpreters around to answer questions and to explain to your five year old that, as someone from the American colonies, he’s a British subject and the enemy of the French. Technically speaking:
Also there are farm animals to interact with! Always a crowd favorite here:
As we were winding down and getting ready to leave, one of the guides told Abe that he could come back in a little while to hear the harpsichord he was tuning. Abe got a little obsessed with the idea, so we went and had some snacks and waited until it was time. Then Abe decided he didn’t want to see the harpsichord after all. But we’d just spent $25 on snacks specifically to kill time until we could hear the harpsichord, so we insisted on trekking back over.
But THEN we consulted the times guide and realized that the harpsichord demonstration we’d been promised was actually a dance. With visitor participation. And we were the only visitors there. This sounded like WAY more audience participation than we were up for, so we quickly fled before anyone could make us dance.
There are a number of programs you can add on for an additional cost (besides being prisoner of the day). You can fire a cannon or a musket or do a rum tasting. Abe did the “Rookie tour” for kids ages 5-12 and really loved it. It’s $7.30CDN for a one hour program, which we felt was a great deal. The older kids got a chance to explore on their own while we went along with Abe on his tour.
First everyone gets a hat and musket and learns to march like a soldier:
Then they learn all about taking care of the gardens and livestock:
And then it’s time for the (fake!) cod gutting!
We spent a full day here (we packed a lunch and went back to the car to eat it at midday, but there are also restaurants on site), and could have found enough to do for another day or half day easily. Everything was very well done, and we learned a lot!
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