August 18, 2008 Scenic Drive to Yarmouth via Cote D?Acadienne
9:30 am was the departure time for our car tour today. We headed south down Highway 1 to explore the 14 Acadian villages that claim to be the largest Francophone enclave in Nova Scotia. Families re-settled here after being expelled by British in 1755 and the ?came back? to their roots. Now around 250 years later the communities still proudly fly their flag, red white and blue with a yellow star that signifies the virgin Mary. It was the day of churches. We saw one made of stone, St. Bernard with a congregation of only 100. It seems families long ago had families of 10-14 children all of whom attended, now days families are much smaller and young people move on to cities like Halifax for job opportunities,. We saw the largest wooden church, Sainte-Anne. We saw the oldest church on a hill, the Sacred Heart Church. We saw the Saint Alphonse, built by sailors with incredible murals inside. We saw lovely seaside villages on a clear day and had no wonder that French families would want to settle this little piece of the earth. The flags and banners marking city limits highlighted their pride.
We had lunch in Cape St Mary thrilled that they had clam chowder on menu. It tuned out to me more like potato soup with clam flavoring but it was tasty. We traveled on to Yarmouth. In it?s heyday it was the shipping capitol of Canada. We toured old neighborhood where 200 sea captains had their beautiful homes built in several forms of architecture. Most of them are fully restored and make for an impressive neighborhood. We visited the Yarmouth County Museum, housed in a 1893 granite church and discovered the city?s enduring relationship with the sea.
A highlight for me was the next door neighbor. The house was the summer home of the guy who founded the Fuller Brush Company. His widow donated it lock stock and barrel as a museum and we had a first hand look at this wonderful business man. I recall the Fuller brush man coming to our door when I was a kid. The company is no longer in the Fuller family but at one time, in the 30?s the company was producing $3000,000 per day in product.
We toured Cape Forchu Lighthouse in the fog, despite the fact that most of the day was very sunny. Russ and I had a nap in the car on the way home while Terry drove us soundly back to Digby. We move on North in the morning.