Back to France! (Acadia Peninsula)

7/8/25 to 7/13/25

From Grand Falls, New Brunswick, we drove east to Pokemouche, New Brunswick. As we got closer to our destination, I kept seeing a flag more frequently than Canadian or New Brunswick.

The flag I kept seeing was for "Acadia"

Acadia was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula (of Quebec) and Maine to the Kennebec River. Today, the term Acadia refers to regions of the Maritimes with Acadian roots, language, and culture. In the years after the British conquest, the Acadians refused to swear unconditional oaths of allegiance to the British crown. During the French and Indian War, the British sought to neutralize any military threat Acadians posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg by deporting them. After 1764, many exiled Acadians finally settled in Louisiana, which had been transferred by France to Spain. The term Acadian developed into Cajun. Britain eventually moderated its policies and allowed Acadians to return, however, most of their lands were now occupied by British colonists. The returning Acadians settled into more outlying areas of the original Acadia, such as Cape Breton and the areas which are now New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. (From Wikipedia)

French seems to be the preferred language in this area. At least this province feels English is important: The Official Languages Act is a law enacted which makes New Brunswick the only officially bilingual province of Canada. This law prescribes that English and French are the two official languages of New Brunswick and have equal status in all provincial government institutions.

I think I will have to switch to French on Duolingo for the rest of this trip!!

We had a beautiful campsite on the Pokemouche River

We relaxed quite a bit over the 6 days we stayed here.

Biking on a portion of the 190 miles of paved trails in the Acadian Peninsula. We also did some mountain-biking.

We golfed once. What a horrible golf swing on this sign!!

Caraquet, a harbor town, was about 15 minutes away from our campground

We went to Caraquet a few times and had some excellent seafood

We went to the town of Shippegan and visited the New Brunswick Aquarium. It was quite small but we enjoyed looking at the different colors of American Lobster. Here: calico, red, albino, blue.

While waiting for laundry cycles, we looked at the fishing boats near the Shippegan harbor.

We learned more about the types of fishing...

...and how many fishing harbors there are on the Acadian Peninsula

Tomorrow we drive to Prince Edward Island where we hope to score more great seafood!