Shortly after leaving St. Andrews we began our drive east along the shore of the Bay of Fundy. St. John was the first stop. Once again, the local history involves Samuel de Champlain, who named it in 1604, and American loyalists at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, who settled in significant numbers and saw to the incorporation of the city in 1783. Champlain, of course, claimed the whole area as part of New France. But as a result of the British victory in the Seven Years War in the 1760s (in North America, the French and Indian War), the English forcibly exiled most of the French, or Acadian, population. Those who ended up in the French colony of Louisiana became known as Cajuns; we hope to look into that area next month as we head for the Southwest. Some Acadian families were able to eventually return to the Maritimes and the fact that now all signs and notices are in French as well as English must be sweet revenge.

From St. John, we took a scenic byway called the Fundy Drive to St. Martins, which affords breathtaking views of cliffs and sea, and access to huge beaches. Julia is beginning to learn about igneous and sedimentary rocks. The beaches here are made up of both granite (igneous) and various sandstone and basalt (sedimentary) boulders and pebbles in the most amazing range of colors—white, yellow, blue, purple, red, green, grey, and black. What sand there is lies above the high tide mark and is reddish brown (essentially ground up granite and other rocks). Since we do a lot of beach combing we have had to impose a rule about not bringing more rocks and sea glass back to the car.