Fort de Chambly

Yesterday we met up with some old friends that were on vacation here from France. We spent the day with them on Wednesday also but they are leaving tonight so we were really happy to be able to see them and their kids again.

We decided to head to the “Fort de Chambly” which is about 50 min away…

The first Fort was built in 1665 as one of the French outposts to protect New France against raids of the Iroquois. It was burned down by the Iroquois in 1703 and then reconstructed soon after. After the war against the Iroquois was over, it was ordered rebuilt in stone to protect again the English. In 1711 it was finished and though it was restored in the 1980’s this is the fort that stands today.

We walked around and watched the Rapids a bit… The fort stands on the Richelieu River which was know at the time as the Iroquois River.

The kids had fun looking for squirrels…

In the courtyard, stones in the ground show where the original buildings were from the earlier structures and wood stump outline the old walls that were made of wood…

Here you see the line in the wall that shows the old wall before the restoration.

The site has been excavated and here we see the original building and the Latrines. These latrines were actually quite luxurious as all the waste went right into the underground natural channels that led to the river. Quite a few artifacts were found in the latrines when they excavated the grounds. The theory is that when the English conquered the fort they threw many of the French items “out with the waste.”

This room was very dungeon like. It was where the gunpowder was kept.

A painting in the Museum shows Montreal in the 1700’s

We went through the museum and at the end there was a place for the kids to try on Costumes and become Soldiers… they got dressed up and played out stories and headed up to the the turret… they would have stayed there for hours if they could…

Xavier said that he was not a soldier but was a captain. He here is looking out on the courtyard…