We had only a few km to drive from the campground to Grand Pré National Historic Site. A new Visitor Centre had opened since Jean and |I were here in the 1990s. It houses a large exhibit hall and impressive multimedia theatre where we watched an informative 22 minute movie.
Grand Pré was designated a National Historic Site in 1955 and an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.
We spent two hours at the Visitor Centre and walked the grounds to see the Memorial Church built in 1922 and the Statue of Evangeline, the fictitious character penned by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow in his poem in 1847. Evangeline became a symbol of the deportation and perseverance of the Acadian people.
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| blacksmith shop |
We took a shorter more direct route back from the Minas Basin to Hwy 104, stopped briefly at the Nova Scotia Tourist Information Centre (still no piper) and drove as far as Moncton to Camper's City RV Resort, arriving just before they closed at 5:00. It was only our second Good Sam campground of the trip.. There were lots of sites available, only two other overnighters.
We drove 313 km, another hot cloudless day. It reached 29º, felt like 32º.