Bonjour from Grand-pre!

I'm writing from the Public Internet Access Site in the new visitor's center at Grand-Pre National Historic Site. I sit a couple hundred yards away from the memorial church of St. Charles-des-Mines. A vast vacant field to my left out the window is being prepared for Sunday's closing mass.

I drove up from Yarmouth early this morning, stopping by Annapolis Royal, then to the Melanson Settlement National Historic Site, to Belle Isle Hall (which now has exhibits of Acadian artifacts and is dedicated to the memory of the Savoie family whose nearby farm has also been excavated), drove past the LeBlanc homestead, and then to Grand-Pre.

I finally got to meet my fourth-cousin-twice-removed, Lucie LeBlanc Consentino, who gave a wonderful talk on Acadians of New England. In a quickly convened meeting of the Society of New England Acadians, my design for a flag for this overlooked Acadian population was unanimously adopted. :-)

The visitor center has a very nice exhibit which includes a cut-through model of a dyke, a model of a village, and artifacts from digs. I roamed the site, taking a number of pictures.

Then across the road to visit the Grand-Pre Festival.

In 25 minutes I'm going on the Dyke/Acadian Cross tour, then off to Belliveau Cove for the beginning of the LeBlanc Reunion.