Weather: Mostly cloudy 56/77F
Route: From Saint John 228km ESE on ferry to Digby, NS-303 S, NS-101 E.
Significance: Acadia was a colony of New France, which in the early 18th century stretched from northern Maine to the current Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. During the French and Indian War (the one where George Washington was still fighting for the Brits) the Acadians were expelled from their land - called "Le Grand Derangement" en Francais. They were mostly resettled in the American Colonies or escaped to other French speaking areas of present day Canada, however a large group of them resettled in Spanish Louisiana and became known as "Cajuns."
The story of the Acadians deportation was popularized in the 19th century by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem Evangeline. UNESCO declared this area a World Heritage Site in 2012 due to the original French farmers who settled the place and developed a complicated system of dykes and drainage - required in this area with some of the highest tides in the world. They also pointed to the history of Le Grand Derangement - and the place being a "place of remembrance for the Acadian diaspora."
Images:
Grand Pre landscape (from whc.unesco.org)
Statue of Evangeline and church at Grand Pre National Historic Site (from novascotia.com)
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