JULY 5

Spent a leisurely day at Fortress Louisbourg . The Fort was build by the French in 1713 with solid limestone walls and high parapet with over 300 cannons facing the ocean. There were over 10,000 people living in and around the fort by the 1740's.
In 1745 the English with some help of New Englanders attached the fort from the undefended land side and quickly defeated the French and send them back to France. The English soon abandoned the area and the French returned and rebuild. The English attached again from the land side (guess the french didn't learn from the first attack) This time they burned everything burnable and tore down the walls and the stones were used in other buildings.
The place lay dormant for over 200 years until the Canadian government funded the reconstruction, it took over 20 years of archaeological digging and research before the building phase began.
The fort today is, as near as possible, a exact recreation of the original. It is the third largest reconstruction site in the world yet still covers only 20% of the original site.