Moncton N.B.

Tags

Acadians, Ballet Atlantic, British, Brunswick, Canada., genocide, Hanover, history, Maritime, Moncton

Moncton is one of the largest cities in New Brunswick (Neu Braunschweig) pop 149,000. The City is in fact three, Dieppe, Riverview and Moncton with 3 mayors and 3 municipal administrations, talk of overkill in terms of bureaucracy. A large river Petitcodiac or chocolat crosses Moncton and has daily tides or bore on which you can surf the 6 feet waves. What is surprising is the fact that the water surge comes from the Bay of Fundy quite a distance away.

The city is named after British General Robert Monckton, an aristocrat who was a soldier, colonial administrator and politician in Canada and New England and later a Member of Parliament in London. He is considered by historians as a contemptible figures of the colonial era in British North America. He and his commanding officer Governor Charles Lawrence (Nova Scotia and Massachusetts) engineered the ethnic cleansing of Acadians in 1755. His military career appears to have been about putting down rebellions in Europe, Scotland, New England and in Canada, an enforcer in other words. Other war criminals of the time and colleagues of Monckton where General Charles Cornwallis, Earl of Brome and Field Marshal Jefferey, Baron Amherst who served as Governor General of British North America from 1760. All are dubiously honoured with names of streets and towns. Though Cornwallis who founded Halifax had his statue taken down recently after much campaigning by Natives, Acadians and Scots in Nova Scotia.

The Maritime Provinces have lots of places named after towns and Princes from Hanover and Lower Saxony in today’s Germany. The reason being that the Royal Family in the UK where German Princes and King George III was also King of Hanover, a title which will be held until 1917 when King George V decided on the advice of his ministers to change the family name to a more British sounding one and abandon any claims in Germany.

So we went to Moncton on Monday, an easy 2 hours drive from Charlottetown via the Confederation Sea Bridge across the Strait of Northumberland. On the road in New Brunswick as you cross marshland and forests signs warning you to keep a look out for Moose especially at dusk and at night when these giant creatures weighing more than a ton will suddenly cross the highway. A quiet drive, a little boring, the excitement comes as you cross the 12 Km bridge over the sea, in winter it can be quite windy and there can be restrictions due to gale force winds. On the way back the wind was quite strong and I could not drive more than 60Km per hour, the limit at all times is 80 Km. Upon arriving on the Island I noticed the flashing red sign stopping all on coming traffic due to the wind, so we just made it. Usually such restrictions can last a few hours or a few days depending on the weather. It is an experience and a marvel of engineering when you see all the ice below passing under the bridge, the view is spectacular.

Moncton has a city is largely a place of work and study with 2 universities. Lots of shopping malls and a Costco. It also has a large diverse ethnic population and many West Africans live in Moncton. For shopping Moncton offers variety and choice not found in PEI, it is also a bilingual city with its large Acadian population. Acadian French has a different inflection and accent than French spoken in Quebec. I find it more melodious and with clearer pronunciation.

We went to Moncton to see Ballet Atlantic which is the ballet company of Atlantic Canada. The dancers all have a European training and the choreographer is Russian. The company was founded in 2001 and Capitol Theatre is its home.

The Capitol Theatre or Théâtre Capitol in downtown Moncton is an 800-seat, restored 1920s-era vaudeville house on Main Street that serves as the centre for cultural entertainment for the city. Designed by René-Arthur Fréchet in 1920, it was rebuilt by Fréchet in 1926 after it burned. Having been converted to a cinema early in its history, the theatre was purchased by the City of Moncton in 1991, restored to its original look commencing in 1992, and was officially reopened as a performance space in 1993. It hosts the productions of Theatre New Brunswick and The Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada, as well as symphony orchestra.

Moncton has 2 good hotels, the Marriott and the Delta both next to each other. There are lots of good restaurants, that is about it for Moncton and if you want to see art well you will have to come to Charlottetown or go to Fredericton, the Capital of the Province to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery which has a beautiful art collection and a new wing. Sir Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook) began planning the construction of an art gallery in New Brunswick early in the twentieth century.  After considering a number of locations, Lord Beaverbrook settled upon the city of Fredericton.  The Beaverbrook Art Gallery was gifted to the people of New Brunswick by Lord Beaverbrook and officially opened to the public on September 16, 1959.

So this was our 48 hour getaway, we went South-East, LOL! In April we hope to go to Halifax which also has a wonderful art gallery, museums, good restaurants and an IKEA.

 

Cold weather and travels

Tags

Charlottetown, Festivals, Franconia, Germany, lobster, Moncton, Moose, NB, PEI, Petitcodiac, Reykjavik, Travel, wines

I am constantly amazed at the amount of people who simply do not believe anything is wrong with the climate. Winter started in PEI in early November, it was not a snowy Winter, it was mostly ice rain and high winds. April was rain and more rain, May not much better so far with one warm day. The Weather is so out of wack that farmers cannot plant anything the fields are mud, big sticky red mud. Tourists are staying away given the cold around the freezing point and rain weather. Of course the joke is that PEI only has 2 Seasons, Winter and Summer, in Quebec its Winter and Construction.

So last week I decided to travel off Island to Moncton, New Brunswick which is all of 2 hours away by car and across the Sea bridge of 12 Km. Going was not bad in terms of driving but coming back 2 days later the wind was high so crossing the Sea bridge, you are 350 feet above the Sea, I had both hands gripping the steering wheel and all the big transport trucks 18 wheelers were in convoys. It is a 2 lane bridge and you cannot go any faster than 80km  per hour, but with high winds around 60 miles per hour you do not want to go fast.

Moncton is poorly planned or not planned at all, shopping malls everywhere, a new COSTCO by the highway, a very beautiful river crosses the city with lots of marshland all around, because of the muddy banks it is called the Chocolate river or by its real name Petitcodiac river and it has a very powerful tidal wave coming all the way from Shepody Bay (Bay of Fundy) some 52 Km away. Moncton also has 2 Universities so lots of academic stuff and students. I stayed in Dieppe a suburb of Moncton but you could confuse the two since only a street separates the two cities. Also a large airport serves the area which is handy if you want to fly to other large Canadian cities and cannot do so from Charlottetown PEI.

I saw friends in Moncton and went for lunch to a very nice Café called Tony’s, tonysbistro.ca the food was excellent and they have the most wonderful French pastry shop. I really do not know anymore if COSTCO is all that worth it, I cannot say I saved much money. The real bargain is cheese, for the quantity and price it is unbeatable. Cheese in Canada in general is so expensive that I wonder why they do not have armed guards in supermarkets. After 30 minutes of shopping I had to get out, I was feeling tired by the place.

Chocolate river or Petitcodiac river.

Since I was staying with friends, I brought them Lobsters, now of course you will think don’t they have lobster in New Brunswick, of course they do BUT it is coastal lobster fished in the Strait whereas my lobster is fished in the Gulf on the open sea side of PEI. The taste fishermen tell me is different because of the salt water content. I am not a big lobster eater and will have one per year. However I bought mine at the Water Prince restaurant across the street from my home and Shane and his son Cody sell wonderful seafood. The lobsters were each 2 pounders, the meat was rich and creamy, very good and at $11. per pound well worth it. Now I bought them cooked because I do not know how to cook them in Salt Water and you have to know how to do it. Salt Water in the cooking is very important, many people make the mistake of cooking lobster in unsalted water, big mistake as it changes the taste and the quality of the meat. The best way is to take the water straight from the Sea.

This was my lobster, please note the long antennas which indicates that this lobster was well fed and very fresh. If the antennas are damaged or missing, that is a bad sign, lobster if they are hungry and have no food, will eat their antennas.

Going to Moncton was fun and seeing my friends was a nice brake from the Island. We will be travelling again in June but this time to Ottawa for a week. A first return trip since we left 3 years ago. We are driving 14 hours, but we will need the car in town anyways. I also visited Memramcook (Micmac language meaning Crooked river) which is the birthplace of the first French Language University in the Maritime Provinces, U de Moncton. The Eudistes Fathers opened the university in 1864, the village of Memramcook is ancient, the Micmac indians have lived there since the beginning of time and the French speaking Acadians arrived in 1700. They were deported by British colonial troops coming mostly from the Boston area in 1755. However those who survived the ethnic cleansing returned after 1765. It remains an important historical and cultural site for the Acadians.

Whenever you travel on the highways in N.B. you have to be mindful that the vast forests all around you are full of Moose, you do not want an encounter with one of them, they are very large animals weighing often for a full grown male around one ton or a little more. There is a special number to call if you see one near the road and it is important to remember to stop if the Moose is on the road and stay well away from it. They can charge your car and will injure or kill you in the process if it is mating season.

Monument Lefebvre, first French speaking University in the Maritimes, now known as the Université de Moncton. These buildings are part of the National historical park now, the University moved to Moncton some years ago.

Coming back to Charlottetown, we had tickets to go to the Wine Festival held at this time each year. This year was featuring German Wines, we bought a few bottles mostly of dry Rieslings and met with the owner of a winery in the Franconia region of Germany, Regina ZenZen (from the German word for Licence collector) a very nice lady and in her presentation she paired her wines, in this case a wonderful Silvaner with raw Tuna in a light acidic vinaigrette, the chef was Mitchell from Claddagh Oyster House in Charlottetown, one of my favourite restaurant. Mitchell is a great guy only 28 but talented.

We are also now booking a 7 day cruise with Holland America from Amsterdam to Norway, we will spend some time in Holland, I want to re-visit the Rijks Museum now that the renovations are completed. We will also fly first to Iceland for a few days, there are direct flights from Montreal to Reykjavik on our way to join the cruise in September. Other than that we lead a dull life.

Reykjavik, Iceland