We made a nice breakfast - oh I so love staying in Airbnb with a kitchen.
Our goal today is to visit the National Historic site of Grand Pre. It is not that far away and it is open. Some of the displays that require touching, or watching a movie are not being offered but it is still an amazing site.
If you don't know about Grand Pre and the Acadians read more and I bet you will realize that in fact you do know a bit about them.
Acadians were French settlers from the western part of central France. They first migrated to the area known as Acadie in the early 1630s. The children of these settlers became known as Acadians. Today, several million people can proudly say they are descendants from this original group.
They lived here, built homesteads, farmed the land quite nicely until the start of the Seven Year War. in 1755, the local British authorities made the decision to remove Acadians from their homes in the area known as Acadie. Why were they forced out you may ask? The Acadians were neutral, they did not want to take sides with the French or the English. Although the British were skeptic. The Acadians were mainly Catholic and they spoke French. This was a real threat to the British who had just taken hold of the area of what is known as Nova Scotia.
The Acadians were rounded up and the men were told they had to pledge allegiance to the British and promise to fight on their behalf. They refused. They wanted to remain neutral.
They were forced out and off their land. Many left and went throughout New Brunswick, Cape Breton, New England area, even some to South America. But many were deported that first year to British colonies to the south; to Massachusetts and as far south as Georgia. Some were exiled to England even France in the following years. For many, the deportation would cause years of unrest. Families were separated and communities destroyed by the British. Eventually, the survivors made new homes and lives by either returning to the Maritimes or settling in the former French colonies of Louisiana and Quebec.
So that is why you have Creole in Louisiana, the French from that area came for this area of Nova Scotia!
The site is very informative. The grounds are stunning and the replica church that was built to commemorate the area is very moving. The original church is where the men were gathered and actually forced to stay until they plead allegiance to the Monarch.
We spent about two hours here and then travelled to Horton's Landing. This area is where the Acadians were sent out into boats to far away lands. Very serene.
Driving back into Wolfville we stop at the Grand Pre winery where we had supper yesterday. We wanted to come back and try some of the wines. Boy we are glad we did. They offered a lovely wine tasting. But since we spent more that $100 on wines we got the tastings for free.
We are a little hungry so we head downtown Wolfville to a little restaurant that we had heard good things about. The Naked Crepe was lovely. But it was busy! And with Covid and the restrictions it was a little slow and patience was needed. We both had two savory crepes and it was huge and I couldn't finish the whole thing.
Since we enjoyed a lovely pear/kiwi cider from a local brewery called Annapolis Cider Company at this restaurant. The brewery has a shop a few doors down. I am greeted by a lovely lady who informs me they don't have any of the cider that I had at the restaurant but they have a nice strawberry mint cider. Oh that sounds nice too. Okay I will take two, then she recommends a hoppy pear cider. Well why not!
When we get back to the apartment we lug the wine up to the place. Okay we have almost two full cases of wine - but still room for more in those cases. We love wine and love that it is from Nova Scotia and it is so good.
Tonight we are dining Pete Luckette's Winery. I will write more about it later.
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