If you really want to get a feel for Acadian culture, don’t miss the Village Historique Acadien (“Acadian Historic Village”) outside the town of Caraquet on the Acadian Peninsula. At the Village Historique Acadien, you’ll find 25 houses and town buildings that have been moved from Acadian areas throughout New Brunswick or faithfully reconstructed because the original structures were destroyed by fire.
Costumed interpreters cook, weave, build, smith and ply the trades common from the 1770’s to the 1890’s. You can visit working farms, where wool from sheep is washed, teased, carded and spun. You can sit in the schoolhouse – grades one through eight only – and try out a slate and slate pencil. The grist mill, powered by water, boasts state-of-the-art 1890’s machinery, and it still works beautifully. The bread lady will show you her outdoor oven, with bread baking inside – 30 loaves at a time. If she invites you to return, come back for a thick slice of wheat bread, warm from the oven and dripping with butter.
The gravel pathways of the village are fairly flat, but may present some difficulty for wheelchair users. The Reception Center, Dugas House (restauarant) and Post House I are all wheelchair accessible.
Village Historique Acadien has two unique features that deserve mention. First, your experience there can, if you wish, be completely bilingual. Every staff member and costumed interpreter can speak both French and English. If you truly want to understand Acadian culture, stick around and listen to the explanations in both languages, even if you don’t understand the words. In spite of the Acadians’ forced exodus from their homeland, this proud people has fought to preserve language, religion and traditions over the centuries, and it’s worth spending some time to hear the musical overtones of French spoken by the descendants of the original Acadians.
More importantly, the Acadians throughout Canada’s maritime provinces are quietly, fiercely proud of their heritage. They have been fighting to preserve their cultural inheritance and their language since 1755, when Acadian families were forcibly resettled, sometimes by being burned out of their homes and villages. Even today, Acadians who wish to preserve their French-language culture and patrimony face the twin problems of misunderstanding – why is it important to preserve this history, after all? – and budget constraints, which limit the availability of completely bilingual education to the province’s children. Village Historique Acadien gives the Acadians an opportunity to share their traditions and history with visitors from Canada, the U.S. and beyond.
As you walk the pathways of Village Historique Acadien, you’ll discover a sense of shared adversity – one that, if you hail from the U.S., Ireland or Scotland will resonate somewhere deep inside.
If You Go
Summer Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. daily, June 7 - September 12, 2009. Open 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. August 15 only.
Fall Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. daily, September 13 - 26, 2009.
Senior discounts available.
Contact information:
Village Historique Acadien
14311 Road 11
P.O. Box 5626
Caraquet (N.B.)
E1W 1B7
Canada
Tel.: (506) 726-2600
