Day 27 - Louisbourg

Day 27 – Louisbourg
Today I rode my bike to the fortress and around town while Leo spend another day at the Fortress to take some more pictures.

In the evening we both went to the PARADE, and a parade it was. I had heard earlier in the day that the “old fortress” people would come down main street from the left and the “new Louisbourg” people would come from the right and then merge as one for the opening ceremonies at the waterfront site. We were located at where they were to merge. Well first of all there was a heavy fog and it took quite some time before we heard and saw “the parade”. We figured they got lost in the fog, they should have taken their Tom Tom with them. We finally saw a military truck, pulling a canon, emerge from the right with about 10 English military personnel and all the spectators from that part of the parade route. We could drums and bagpipes coming from somewhere but no parade. It took a minute or two before we finally saw the parade come out of the fog walking towards us. After some confusion the ‘parade’ was to move on to the waterfront site as well for a 5-salvo salute to start the celebrations. After this the parade was over and everyone dispersed. The evening entertainment was 4 modern folk singers from Cape Breton, we stayed for the first song but left during the second one as sound was turned up to high to enjoy. Back to our trailer, which was only half a block away from the entertainment stage so we got to hear it all at a most enjoyable sound level.

Leo did his best again to show you the activities at the Fortress for this day. Prominent was a re-enactment of tactical moves made by the French and English forces during the siege, as the former would try to leave the fortress to eliminate one of the latter’s artillery batteries which were pounding the fortifications. More than 1000 amateur “re-enactors” have come to Louisbourg to participate in these re-enactments from all over Canada and the Unites States. These people are history junkies who often make their own uniforms, and buy original weaponry from the era to allow them to go from one such event to another throughout North America. As indicated, the day was generally foggy, but the fog miraculously retreated out to sea for a couple of hours to allow the battle to take place in wonderful sunshine, which was a great blessing to all the photographers present. Leo’s photos for the day are to be found here.