Adventures Through Acadian Lands
Félix had promised to give the four of us a tour of the area and some info about our Acadian heritage as well as treat us to some homemade breakfast. Berthe had made french toast and fritatta, it was really good. After our meal, the four of us, Kizmet and Félix packed into our truck and we went down to Lac Des Englis, the area where Félix’s family home is and their mill used to be. We met Félix’s brother when we first got out of the car and had a chat with him before Félix took us over to where the mill stood before it was dismantled. The dam is still there though and Kizzy got to run around in the water. The we walked up the stream a little further to go see the fish holding tanks
that used to hold trout and salmon. They’re empty now, but when they were full, the fish were used for studies. Next stop was Smuggler’s Cove. The cove has a hidden cave that you can only access at low tide and that you can’t see from the open ocean.It was used for rum running during prohibition in the States. Apparently you can see names inscribed in the rock on the inside of the cave approximately fifteen feet off the ground. The reason they are so high up is because the ocean has been eroding the floor of the cave over the years. There were lots of skipping stones around the area, so Mum and I were skipping them and Kizzy was trying to chase them, even though she was scared of the waves. At one point she was too close to the water when a large wave came in and she got completely soaked. Poor Kizkiz. The third stop was Mavilette, where we were going to eat lunch but the restaurant Félix had recommended was closed unfortunately. Instead, we checked out a massive beach edged by sand dunes in the town. Since Belliveau Cove is off the Bay of
Fundy, the tides are rather larger than average, so most of the beach will be covered during high tide. It was low tide when we went though, so we actually had to walk down about 100 meters of sand to get to the water. It was really cool. However, Dad, Isaac and I had a race and Dad is still faster than the both of us, which was disappointing for me. Not so much for Dad. Anyway, the entire beach was empty, but if it was a few hundred kms south, it would be a massive tourist attraction. Even in the summer, there’s only about 200 people that come to this spring break sized beach at a time. It could easily hold 10 000. For lunch, we drove to Meteghan and stopped at a restaurant with ocean views. Mum and I both had the bacon wrapped scallops and fries. Our last stop was the Acadian Heritage Museum at the Université Ste. Anne. It was very interesting. It spoke about the Grand Dérangement, which was the deportation of the Acadians in the 1700s, and then the reestablishment of Acadie in the 1800s. They had tools that settling families would have used, such as looms and plows. There was also
stories about important historical Acadians, including some of my ancestors, the LeBlanc family. It was very interesting to look around. By the time we said goodbye to Félix, it was almost 6:00pm, and we had only expected to be out until noon. The plan was to leave the next day, but we hadn’t gone back to see Tante Marguerite again, so Dad said we might have to stay another day. For dinner, Michel cooked some haddock, which he did magnificently, and we also had some freshly baked buns we’d had delivered from the bakery. After dinner, I played some 120s with Dad, Mariette and Mum. Dad and I won with major comeback. It was 10-110 for the other team and we managed to pull out of that because we’re just that good. Then we played a couple games of dice, which Mum dominated at. Peace out m8s.