Images of Acadie
"Before we photographed it, we didn't know anything about Petit-Cap, although I'm certain we’ve driven through it at least once during all these eight years of owning a cottage in Breau Village."
Some of our photos are just mnemonics, drive-by shots, mostly by Elaine who always rides shotgun, but I've taken a few while behind the wheel. They're just markers in the sequence of photos in lieu of notes, unsatisfying because no thought was put into them. Elaine gets frustrated later when they show up during our review and look as amateurish as the accidental ones of her lap or legs.
A bad photo feels like a missed opportunity even if the intention was merely to show that where you’ve been shooting was on this road or by that store. It doesn't matter, because taking a photo is supposed to be a special event and it is and it doesn't matter how many you take, it should always be a special event. In the past few months we've had countless special events as we've been discovering, or rather rediscovering, our corner of Acadie.
Rediscovering Petit-Cap
Before we photographed it, we didn't know anything about Petit-Cap, although I'm certain we’ve driven through it at least once during all these eight years of owning a cottage in Breau-Village. Since nothing much happens in Petit-Cap, we knew nothing of it. Now, though, we know they smoke fish. Man, they smoke fish. I don't think they were in full production yet when we were there, but my eyes burned the whole time.
Actually, we didn't know they smoked fish there until we stopped to get a shot of those curious ventilation contraptions that run along the peaks of the processing plant roofs. That's when we noticed the ranks upon ranks of firewood split to the size of kitchen stove wood. And that's when we noticed the racks of hanging fish outside some of the buildings. Ah! we thought, now we understand Petit-Cap.
The Bouctouche Dune Canal
And then there is the Bouctouche Dune. How many times have we been there and I never noticed the remains of two separate attempts to make a canal through the Dune, both of which failed because the canal filled in within two storms? The Dune is 12 kilometers long cutting across Bouctouche Bay which made for a long journey for fishermen going out to sea, so they thought a canal might be a good idea. They eventually gave it up but it's a nice little spot for dramatic photos, best caught at high tide. So, now we now know more about the Dune than we did before.
And how did I not notice how wonderful that old wooden boat in Cap-de-Cogagne is with only its shell left, its paint peeling? I've seen it before, but never really saw it. I saw it this time and I'll see it all winter because of the time spent trying to get a bit of the sea into the shot as well as Elaine who was taking her own pictures of it. As a seagoing vessel, its time has passed, but try to convince anyone it does not belong in Acadie.