Windsor

 

A quiet town whose elegant Victorian homes overlook the Avon River, Windsor was the home of Judge Thomas Chandler Haliburton, lawyer, historian, and the author of the Canadian “Sam Slick” stories, which achieved enormous popularity in the mid-1800s.

Haliburton was one of the first widely recognized humorists in North America. His clever, fast-talking character Sam Slick was a Yankee clock peddler who coined idiomatic terms such as “the early bird gets the worm,” and “raining cats and dogs.” His elegant home is now the Haliburton House Provincial Museum. Surrounded by gardens that Haliburton tended and loved, the house is furnished in Victorian period antiques and contains many of his personal possessions, including his writing desk.

 

Attractions:

Haliburton House Provincial Museum

414 Clifton Ave.

(902) 798 2915.

 

Wolfville

The home of the acclaimed Acadia University, Wolfville and the surrounding countryside radiate a truly gracious charm. Here the green and fertile Annapolis Valley meets the shore of the Minas Basin, and keen visitors can follow country roads past lush farmlands, sun-warmed orchards, gentle tidal flats, and wildlife filled salt marshes.

Much of the valley’s rich farmland was created by dikes built by the Acadians in the 1700s. When the Acadians were deported in the Great Expulsion of 1755, the British offered the land to struggling New England villagers on the condition that the entire village would relocate. These hardworking settlers, known as Planters, proved so successful that the towns of the Annapolis Valley flourished. Wolfville is a pretty town of tree-lined streets and inviting shops and restaurants. Nearby, the town’s Visitor Information Center marks the beginning of a beautiful 5-km (3-mile) trail along the Acadian dikes to the graceful church at the Grand Pre National Historic Site.

When the British marched into the Acadian village of Grand Pre in August 1755, it marked the beginning of the Great Uprooting, Le Grand Derangement, which eventually forced thousands of peace-loving Acadians from Nova Scotia.

In 1921 a beautiful stone church modeled after French country churches were built on the site of the old village of Grand Pre as a memorial to this tragedy. Today, visitors tour the church and stroll around the garden grounds where a statue of Evangeline, the heroine of Longfellow’s epic poem about the Acadians, stands waiting for her lover, Gabriel. The site’s information center features exhibits on the Acadians, their deportation and eventual resettlement in the Maritimes. Many families hid locally, but even deportees returned in the 18th century.

 

Attractions:

Grand Pre National Historic Site

Hwy 101, exit 10.

(902) 5423631.