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Published: August 13th 2012
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Sunrise at Camping by the Bay at Black Point
This was a great place to camp on the water's edge. It was wonderful to watch the tides and the water birds. An added bonus was that it is a Passport America Park We wanted to time our visit to Caraquet to coincide with the Festival Acadien de Caraquet. It is their 50
thyear for having the festival. Even though we don’t understand French enough to comprehend the lyrics to songs, we hoped to still enjoy the experience. We did stop at the local visitor’s center and asked for some guidance. They were helpful in showing us some free events and one that had some reggae English music.
The other thing we wanted to do while in Caraquet was to tour the Village Historique Acadien. This year they are celebrating their 35
th anniversary. The Village is huge! Fortunately the admission is good for 2 days. We toured about 2/3 on the first day and then the remainder on the second day with time for revisiting some of the buildings from the first day.
Each house or business had a bilingual interpreter dressed in a period costume. Their English ranged from okay to excellent. Some would switch back and forth from French to English, so there was never a long period of time for either group to not understand what was being said. Others would go through their entire spiel in one language before
switching to the other language. The gentleman at the Tavern had a long animated story in French the first day that went on so long, we moved on without any info. We did revisit the second day and he interrupted his conversation with a French speaking couple after a short period to tell us the facts of the building and then went back to his conversation once we thanked him and started to leave. At one point we buddied up with a couple from Ontario, for several houses, so that there was a larger audience that needed English. It is also educational to tour with other people as they have different questions.
There are different events that are staged throughout the summer. We got to witness “A Visit from the School Inspector.” Children ages 7-12 can spend the day experiencing life back then. They dress in traditional costume, eat Acadien cooking, and learn games and skills from that period. We were outside the schoolhouse when the inspector arrived by carriage. He apparently portrayed a bureaucratic official who ONLY spoke English and the school teacher would translate. It appeared that she must have put her own spin on the translations,
1852 Mazerolle Farm
I think I have the correct house name and date with the right photo....but I am not positive. as the people who understood French, would occasionally laugh.
Our first day at The Village was in the section that covered the time period1770 to1890. The farms and houses usually represented a period several years after they were first built. It would take about 20 years to build all the out-buildings and make improvements to the house. There were many little details that were fascinating in their innovation: Vines to hold fences together, chicken pens without chicken wire, drainage systems to drain marshes and an indoor well to name just a few things. The houses went from simple one room to multiple separate rooms as time progressed.
Our second day covered 1905 to 1949. In addition to the houses there was a hotel, train station, cobbler shop, gas station and saw mill. Electricity, phones, automobiles were new and high tech for that period. There was a dresser in one of the houses that immediately reminded me of a dresser at my cousin’s cottage in Ontario. Items in the General Store were also a trip down memory lane, but more and more so are antique shops.
We learned some history as we toured The Village. We learned about
1840 Blackhall House
This was a Scottish style house. He was a protestant Scott and she was catholic Irish, so it was a mixed marriage. The boys were raised protestant and the girls catholic. the deportation of the Acadians, which went on for a period of several years. Also how after the American Revolution the Loyalists left the USA and some resettled in this area. Apparently they could take over land, so it was important for the Acadians to not look too prosperous. We also learned that the Acadians were not deported to Louisiana, but were invited to come and settle there as they needed people in that area. When we toured the Acadian Village in Lafayette Louisiana there was a different feel to that village. I won’t speculate or the differences or the reasons, but each has been thought provoking.
We attended 2 evenings of free music and saw three performers. The first night the songs were reggae, some in English, most in French and one in Spanish. The intro and any speech were in French. The music was fun and it was interesting to watch the performers and their outfits and movements. When the second performer started several people left and we wondered why, but stayed. Later we looked up info and the songs were probably controversial for religious or political reasons. The music part of the performance was good but
if we could have understood the lyrics we may not have enjoyed it so much or perhaps we may have also have left. Before returning to hear more music on the second night we checked out the performer online. He was a folksinger and there were even translations of some of his songs online. We enjoyed his music and probably would have enjoyed it even more if we understood the words while he was singing, but it still made for a pleasant evening.
We learned that the French of Quebec, the French of the Acadians and the French of France are all different. There are different phrases and slang. One of the interpreters was explaining how sometimes to understand someone else’s French she or they need to speak slower or explain what is meant by a term. I can somewhat relate, as in traveling around the USA some of the accents or terms in some regions are hard to understand, especially when we first arrive.
People continue to be helpful, even when we don’t speak the same language. I was looking for Wal-Mart and had missed a turn and there were streets that hadn’t been on my map,
etc. I saw a man walking so pulled up to ask him for help. I start out just asking if he speaks English (Parlez-vous anglais?)…he answers “No.” My next word is Wal-Mart. He brightens and becomes very animated with gestures for directions “Stop. Turn. Stop. Turn. Wal-Mart.” I thanked him; and his directions were right on!
I needed to buy a birthday card due to my not planning ahead. All the cards are in French, but that is okay and will just make it more memorable. I chose a card that seemed appropriate and then searched the store for someone who could translate. No luck with the first person, but I hit the jackpot with the second couple. Perhaps they were having fun with me, but they said that it was a birthday card and translated it for me. Later with my phone app and Wi-Fi I did check out the translation and perhaps the Bon Fete (good feast) was a regional birthday greeting. The inside sentence was what they had said “May you be the star of your day.”
Now it is time to move on to our next adventure….see you down the road!
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