So now the second stage of the trip of Antoine Bourg and Antoinette Landry.  I have seen where they came from and now I have seen where they landed in 1636.  The pictures below will show you too.

Here is the inside of the little gift shop only meters away from the entrance of the Port Royal Habitation.  This is the location where across the bay from where Antoine and Antoinette landed in 1636.  The Habitation was reconstructed in 1939-40 on the site thought to be where there was an original building dating back to the 1632 landing. 

In the gift shop, I took a picture of the map dating from circa 1703 showing the names of families and where they settled along the Anapolis River.

This is the Habitation.  It was rebuilt according to the plans of Samuel de Champlain, the famous explorer and colonizer.  Many believe it is on the actual spot where it once stood in 1605.  Champlain brought the first colonists over from France.

This “peasant” helped the Francophones and Anglophones understand the history of the era.

The entrance to the Habitation.  Great doors, eh!

Up the stairs there is the rope loft.  The door to the right is where skins were cured.

This well actually existed on the original site in its current location.  It was rebuilt for the Habitation.

The well actually has water in it.

… one of the kitchens

… me waiting to be served.  Notice the pewter plates and cups.

… a fire place, about 5’4” high.

… bilingual Acadian craftsman making a wooden bottle.  Behind him is a wooden lathe that was driven by leather belts.

… the lathe

… the bottle in hand

… the unfinished bottle, just to give me an impression of what it might look like.

… stairs leading upstairs to the second and last floor with tools at the ready.

…the chapel…

… tiny bunk beds with a prie à dieu for saying prayers before sleeping.

… a desk

… a rifle with its support rod.

… crests or coats of arms.

.. a larger bed, must be a wealthier person!

… a wardrobe.

… a cured black bear hide.

… a real birch bark canoe based on Mi’kmaq design.

… coffins.

… rafters holding oars and ropes.

…below the upper loft with the canoe is this hide curing room.

… a gray wolf hide, almost five feet long.

… the forge

… the wheel for sharpening axes.

The flag is a white cross on a blue background.  In the distance is the ocean.  The boats coming from France would have been visible from here in 1605.

Another view from the Habitation out to sea.

A view of the Habitation from the ocean.

The shore opposite the Habitation.  Many people, including Antoine and Antoinette landed on that side of the river, just to the right of where the photo ends.  Today the place where they landed is called Fort Anne.  I’ll show you below.

… guns defend the fortress.

This is Fort Anne.  This is where Antoine and Antoinette actually landed in 1636 after their stay in La Have in 1632.

.. part of the Fort Anne defense system.

Today the building is a museum.  Note the moat walls on the left side of the photo.  Just to the left of this wall is the graveyard.  Many of our French relatives are buried there, but their graves are no longer precisely marked, since the wooden crosses disintegrated over time.

… a plaque telling about the history of the graveyard.

… behind the headstones in the distance, you see green grass.  That is where the French are buried.  The headstones belong to the English who came later.

… the area of the unmarked French graves.

… I wished the dead peace.

Mr. Melanson (his twin brother who works over at the Habitation looks just like him!) helped enormously with the geneology.  I did a double take when I first saw him after having spoken with his twin brother (dressed like a peasant) across the river at Port Royal. 

Mr. Melanson suggested that I take this picture showing the Annapolis river.  Way down river on the right hand side is where Port Royal is located, 9 km from Fort Anne.

Mr. Melanson’s twin told me that half way 4-5 kilometres away from Port Royal, next to the Annapolis River, our ancestors, Abraham and Bernard Bourg, held land.  Their names are on a map (at the Gift Shop) showing where the land was.  I stopped the car and took a picture to show you where they once lived.  The river is on the right.  The land between me and the river was theirs.

… another view of their land

…and another.

Meters away, in the Historic Gardens in the town of Annapolis is a wonderful example of the type of house the Acadians lived in, back in the early 1700s and earlier.  Antoine and Antoinette, or their children, could have lived in a dwelling like this.  Sometimes the families numbered 21 kids!

…from the front…

Here are copes of the brochures given out by Parks Canada when you enter the Habitation.

Below, I show you the map that bears the names Bernard and Abraham Bourg and where their land was.  To reconstruct the map, place numbers 1, 2 and 3 beside each other to form the top of the map, then place numbers 4, 5 and 6 beside each other to form the bottom.  Just to help you, Bernard and Abraham Bourg are located on plate 4 on the north (top) side of the river.

1

2

3

4

5

6