Shippagan (Canada)

Shippagan is basically a peninsula and its bay is extremely protected. We went down the main street where you will find the university and lots of businesses. We walked in front of a wooden church and arrived at the very active port. There were lots of boats coming and going with their cargoes of crabs. We spent some time watching them and then went to visit the aquarium. We saw a lot of marine species including seals, which is unusual.

We walked past fields of peat and chatted with a local who was selling "bleuets" (blueberries) on the side of the road. He explained that a lot of blueberries are grown in the area and a bit more to the north they are harvested by tractor in immense fields.

This is part of the Acadian Peninsula and the people around here speak French.

It's very picturesque speaking to them in French (even though they are often bilingual), because they use lots of Old French in their speech or, if you are used to speaking French French, words that you won't recognise, like "parcage" for "le parking" and "magasinage" for "le shopping"! We were surprised at how important it was for them to say they were Acadian and how attached they were to France.