Popular Acadian tourist site reopens months after devastating fire
The summer season kicked off a bit late this year at Le Pays de la Sagouine, but the fact that the doors opened at all is a feat considering the fire that devastated part of the iconic tourist attraction last year.
About $4 million in damages were caused in October when a fire tore through the restaurant and theatre of the popular Acadian tourist attraction in the small southeastern New Brunswick community of Bouctouche.
Marie-France Doucet, the site's general manager, is crediting Bouctouche, the province and the federal government for working together to get the facility open again so quickly after the fire.
"We've come a long way. It's been a long few months to be able to be open just for next week," Doucet said.
"Thank God for the people from the area that worked really hard on rebuilding the restaurant.… We needed people from the area committed to opening the restaurant for next week."
Although tourists started returning to Le Pays de la Sagouine on Sunday, next Thursday the new restaurant and theatre will be in full swing hosting an Acadian brunch.
The fire at the tourist venue was one of a number of suspicious blazes around Bouctouche last fall. The RCMP made a series of arrests following the fires.
Improvements made to restaurant, theatre
Rebuilding after the devastating fire has brought some improvements to the restaurant and theatre, such as better acoustics and lighting equipment.
The federal and provincial governments invested $1.7 million in funding for the new building.
Keith Ashfield, the minister of state for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, said he's impressed with the results.
"I've been here before and other than the newness of the outside of the structure, you would think that it had been here for a long time," Ashfield said.
Another modern addition to the village will be surveillance cameras around the attraction.
Doucet said they cannot afford any more setbacks, especially with the events planned around the fourth Acadian World Congress that is set to take place in the Acadian peninsula in August.
Le Pays de la Sagouine was built 16 years ago and is based on the novel La Sagouine, the story of an Acadian cleaning woman written by Acadian literary giant Antonine Maillet.
Its restaurant has held dinners for heads of state and regularly hosts local dinner theatres. The site also boasts a boardwalk to an island where Maillet's story is staged for tourists in both English and French.
Statistics from the Department of Tourism and Parks show in 2007 that 60,961 people visited the park, down from 78,413 in 2005.