La grande traversée (long voyage) is a television documentary which enabled adventure enthusiasts from different areas of Canada to relive the voyage made by settlers who populated la Nouvelle-France (New France). Like the settlers, they left the port of La Rochelle, France to cross the Atlantic to the city of Quebec. The 10-part documentary will air, in French, in 2017 to mark Canada’s 150th anniversary.
The three-masted tall ship they used for the voyage was renamed L’Espérance for television purposes. It was built in 1928 as a Swansea fishing trawler and underwent a two-million-dollar refit in 1996 to become a square-rigged barque.
As part of their trip, L’Espérance dropped anchor in Bas-Caraquet, New Brunswick for 3 days in July. Living on the Acadian coastline, I am used to seeing fishing boats and sailboats from my living room window but nothing like this. Since it was docked in front of my house, I enjoyed seeing and photographing the ship as it raised and lowered sails, depending on wind. I missed it when it left.
Beautiful photos Vivie! I love how the sun’s reflecting off the sails!