Isle Royale and Isle St.-Jean

Isle Royale...


the Island of Cape Breton as we know it today, is the home of one of Canada's most famous man made land marks.  Isle St.-Jean on the other hand is better know as... Prince Edward Island.

When the French agreed to the Treaty of Utrecht, they retired to these two Islands to carry on the cod fishery for France.  In them days, Cod fishing on the Grand Banks was gold for many nations.  When Cabot first visited these waters, he had remarked that "Cod could be lifted from the sea in baskets, that they were so thick as to support a man..." Dried, they were packed by the tons into holds bound for Europe.

Bahhhh bahhhh!

Unfortunately, France and England went to war and the fortress was besieged by a British Naval expedition in 1745, only to be handed back to the French three years later.

Governors chapel

Again in 1758, the British landed an army behind the fortress where is was most vulnerable, and took control once more.  In it's very brief history of only 45 years, the monumental effort in it's construction was all for naught.  The buildings were burned and the walls demolished.  The Brits were here to stay...

By contrast the sleepy town of Louisburg, across the shallow harbor, is a quaint little community of 1200 people.  Bed and Breakfast, motels, restaurants and of course the National Historic (Fort) site are it's major attractions.  When we went through after spending the afternoon wandering the fort, there was nary a soul in sight!

Home Depot, 1744 style.

A good dinner served up at the bright little "Lobster Kettle" literally right on the bay, by* a pleasant and cute young hostess transplanted from Alberta, Terri Vallis, capped off our Louisburg visit.

Quaint

Old dude, Ron.  Young dudette, Terri V.

The weather was great, the ride back to D&D's in North Sydney short and sweet, no one fell off, no one got hurt!

The T Bird, I'd like to mention, gets high 50's and low 60's fuel mileage, and while I'm on that, who in the hel_ came up with that asinine liters per 100 kilometers. Must have been some politician... umm, on second thought, a government bureaucrat, politicians aren't that bright! What would have been wrong with simply kilometers per liter as in miles per gallon?!  Duh!

The VX got only slightly poorer mileage, averaging low to mid 50's.

Visit the Fort some day and step back into 1744...

This is what 4 hours of walking in Prexports does for you!

 * Bay by... sounds like Newfie don't it?