Historic Annapolis Royal

Annapolis Royal holds the title of The Most Livable Small Community in the world. It's certainly small, only 444 people, and those we have seen are very friendly, interested in their gardens and their history. There's lots of history, having been settled since 1605 and changed hands between the French and the British 7 times. The Acadians were French in origin, only wanting to drain the land and farm - and were on good terms with the local Indians, the Mic Macs.

We started the day with a walk along the main street to two private gardens and learned that the local white-tailed deer make gardening difficult with their love of delicacies like hostas and rosebuds.

The Heritage Garden (Stop and Smell the Roses) has had to fence the deer out and the result is an exquisite 30 acres divided into different areas: the rose garden has 237 varieties though mostly over, an Acadian cottage with thatched roof and garden, a drained marshland surrounded by a dyke, a pine garden where David hovered, a knot garden and a magnificent red garden.

The horticulturalist, Trish, is a dedicated manager always searching for funds as Government support is no longer there. She made an interesting guide as people of passion always do.

Morning tea was next door in the German Bakery with another interesting woman, Heidi, an immigrant master baker from East Germany, who proudly told us she chose her husband Dietrich from a newspaper advert. He is a baker also and gave us a demonstration of making strudel which we ate with gusto. Lunch later was delicious.


Durline rejoined us for a drive around Annapolis Royal, then across the river and down to The Habitation which is a re-creation of how the French men and boys lived in beaver-trapping days - beautifully done and seeming lived-in with people there carrying out old-time jobs like turning wood. Durline is a real character and had us all lined up for a group photo against the silvery grey background of the wooden buildings - it was like herding cats but you do what Durline tells you. She tells the story amidst great gusts of laughter how she first saw her husband Alan when she was leading a tour to this place and he was the guide. She fell instantly in love and 30 minutes later asked him if he would consider marrying a girl from Texas - 9 months later they were married and 19 years on here she is a powerful force in the community.

We met him, dressed in the uniform of a British Army officer, at Fort Anne where he took us on a tour of the graveyard and showed us a stunning tapestry of the local history worked by local volunteers with 3.2 million stitches - even Queen Elizabeth did a bit when she was visiting. Alan is a fine figure of a man with a dynamic presence and you can see how romance blossomed. He is a designated Canadian Living Treasure, of which Durline is very proud.

Durline arranged a concert for us in the church hall after dinner with a talk by Judy, a charming First Nation lady who excelled herself by getting David up to dance with her. He shook off his jet lag and finally relaxed enough to smile - I have it on video and will be happy to show it when we get home (unless otherwise bribed ...)

There was a lovely fiddle player and Durline's dancers showed us the Scotia Shuffle , sort of a barn dance. Everyone was so friendly and pleased to meet this bus load of Australians: I think they really appreciate that we are here for 3 nights, especially as the US tourists have decreased with the economic downturn.