The King's Bakery

That smell of baking bread is characteristic of the 18th century town. Most people got most of their nutrition from bread, and this colony without farms brought in 500 pounds of flour per colonist every year, mostly from Canada. Crop failures there threatened this supply in the 1740s, and shortages loomed on the eve of war.

Several commercial bakeries competed to serve the townspeople, while this royal one, finished in 1732, supplied the garrison. The four bakers employed here lived upstairs. To the troops they doled out one six-livre loaf per man every four days. A little salt pork and some dried vegetables completed the soldiers’ rations.

The original bakery was destroyed by a fire that also claimed the artillery storehouse in 1756, but the floors have been preserved intact in this reconstruction. Here visitors may buy a loaf of soldiers’ bread, baked daily in these ovens from a dough of 80% whole wheat and 20% rye flour.

The Armoury and Armourer's Forge

On the upper floor of the building housing the bakery, the armoury stored more than 2,000 muskets and small arms for distribution to the troops and militia. In the small forge on the ground floor the armourer undertook repairs and moulded musket shot.

The basic infantry weapon of the compagnies franches de la Marine at Louisbourg was the 1734 flintlock musket made at Tulle in France. Today the troops carry precise reproductions unique to the fortress - ask a soldier to demonstrate the use his weapon, or watch a corporal’s guard at musket drill.

Woodlot

Look about you and count the chimneys. Louisbourg has cold climate, and wood fires were the only source of heat and cooking during most of the town’s existence. As nearby hills and riverbanks were stripped bare, the cost of firewood rose, and Louisbourg’s last years saw a shift to coal-burning stoves.

In the 1740s the barracks, guardhouse and royal properties requisitioned 620 cords of firewood a year, supporting a lively wood trade and keeping this woodlot busy. The high fence limited pilferage; the little log building may have housed a clerk from the royal stores.