The old town of Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was originally Mi’kmaq territory that was later settled by the Acadians and finally by the British. It was a major port centre and the home of the Bluenose I and II.
It’s a pretty town, but we much prefer the natural sites. We were going to declare this the least interesting heritage site, but then we learned about nearby Grand Pre. Grand Pre was an Acadian town before expulsion of the Acadians. Then the British shipped off the residents and burnt it to the ground. As a result no one knows where it was. But almost 100 years later the epic poem Evangeline was written and set in Grand Pre. (Kerri downloaded the audiobook. We made it over halfway through before Matt vetoed continuing.) Then some fan took a guess at where Grand Pre might have been and built a church. And a statue of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the author, and Evangeline, the fictional character.
The story is of course far more interesting than any story we found about Lunenburg. But at least at Lunenburg there is some heritage to preserve. You cannot preserve things that have been burnt to the ground. Protecting things so that they don’t get completely annihilated is kind of the whole point of the UNESCO budget. And if we’re going to start making the homes of imaginary characters world heritage sites you may as well go with Anne of Green Gables. Or Hogwarts.
So we didn’t go to Grand Pre. We went to Lunenburg.
Thus Lunenburg remains the least interesting world heritage site we have visited. Especially since the Bluenose II was in drydock for the winter already. Matt found a distillery and got some rum and the food was excellent, so all was not lost.
