Crystal Fullerton Fine Art

Fortress Louisbourg Turret 4x4 Oil
($65 CDN plus shipping)

If you ever have the good fortune to visit Fortress Loisbourg in Cape Breton Nova Scotia please do so. It is the re creation of a french fort in the 1700's where all the re en-actors wear period correct clothing and stay true to maintaining their character. Unless you have a really ignorant tourist in your group.

David and I decided the kids needed to experience the Fort and so we excitedly told them about everything we could remember from our last trip which had happened over 20 years earlier. One of the highlights for David was the inquisition all visitors to the Fortress had to endure prior to entrance into the fort. They had to be careful NOT to allow any English spies in!

David had been racking his brain trying to think of a good response for this questions all the way up and had finally decided on the response,

"We are Jacobites. I am a descendant of the Stuarts of Bute. And my wife is of french Heugonot blood." All true but still we all agreed this was a great response to the "Are ye English Spys?" question.

The kids giggled as we marched up to the group and just as it became our turn, Dave took a deep breath and at that same instance a rather large rude bleached blonde 21st century tourist bellowed out,
"What are you doing? We are going to miss the Kings Bastion cannon firing. You people don't time this very well. I don't want to miss that event. Is there a bus to get me up there?"

Dave and the kids deflated, the poor entrance guard looked mortified and quickly said "please continue and have a good day" as the party pooper stomped on grumbling about people ruining "HER" vacation.

Dave waited 22 years to make this response. So much for modern civilization.

Other than that unfortunate event the whole day was great. We took lots of photos and of course Connor and I found lots of heritage chickens. Anna and I found some Cotswald Sheep and were inspired to try a long wool breed. Watch out for future paintings on these wondrous beasts. We had some authentic food and this time I didn't get food poisoning from the Spruce beer!

The weather was fantastic which was a bit unusual as there can be great mountains of fog that envelop the area or you could experience the joys of natural rainfall...or deluge depending on your mood!

The trip took the whole day and we were very pleased with how it all turned out. The only major bump in an other wise great day was of the previously mentioned "Death of a Car"!

The above painting is of the small turret on the edge of the front entrance of the Fortress. It is accessible by people and is a neat little novelty item to take kids to! The turret is quite high up but my interest was in the lines of this out cropping and the rough natural facade of the surrounding walls of the fortress.