Grand Pre and Wolfville

Today, we took a short ride northwest, back to the Bay of Fundy and Grande Pre, one of the French settlements, founded here from the people who left La Rochelle and other parts of France. This fit in neatly with our trip to La Rochelle in May. The best part of the visit was the movie which explained the history of the area. They called this land Acadie. They built dikes to hold the tides of the Bay, and turned the land into rich farm land. The community was quite self-supporting. The problem was the British and the French were continually battling to control this region. The French controlled Quebec, the British, New England and this was the land between the two powers. The Acadians were caught in between. The British insisted that they take an oath of loyalty to the British Crown. The Acadians were concerned that this would subject them to fight the French. Meanwhile, most of their trade to get manufactured goods was with the French, which the British considered treasonous. While they tried to retain their neutrality, eventually, over the course of eight years the British deported them to New England and to France, confiscating their lands, and burning the village of Grand Pre.

Grand Pre Memorial

In the nearby town of Wolfville, we visited the AcadiaUniversity’s botanical gardens. In just a few acres, they created eight different plant zones, from bogs, to herb and vegetable gardens, to evergreen and deciduous forest. A nice little area. 

Pitcher Plant Flower