Yellow gate
On the water.
Dennis G. Jarvis — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dennis G. Jarvis — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dennis G. Jarvis — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dennis G. Jarvis — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dennis G. Jarvis — CC BY-SA 2.0
The Fortress of Louisbourg is an 18th-century fortified French town, a quarter of it rebuilt, on the coast of Cape Breton Island. Stone houses with grey roofs and red shutters, grassy ramparts and a yellow gate on the water fill it, and in summer costumed interpreters walk its streets. The town was founded in 1713 as a fishing port and grew into a major trading port and a strong fortress. Its walls went up mainly between 1720 and 1740, it was named after King Louis XIV, and by the mid-1740s it was one of the most extensive and expensive European fortifications in North America. It is now a National Historic Site run by Parks Canada. You enter through the gate and walk the streets past houses, bakeries and storehouses, step into rooms furnished as they were, and watch cannon firings and music in summer. It is about 3.6 km in a straight line southwest of Louisbourg town. It is cold and windy even in summer, so bring a jacket.
On the water.
Inside.
In costume.
Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
June to September for the programmes.
At least half a day.