The photo featured on all my posts since the beginning of this year’s French Challenge shows the Deportation Cross memorial, located at Horton Landing, 1.5 km from Grand-Pré National Historic Site.

It was erected in 1924 at the very spot from where the Acadians were embarked and afterward deported. The Memorial Church—which has replaced Saint-Charles-des-Mines Church burned down in 1755—was built only two years earlier.

According to the Acadian Memorial website: “A series of commemorative cross monuments were designed and unveiled in Atlantic Canada, the United States, France, England, the Caribbean, and Quebec to mark those sites where Acadians landed after the Deportation.” For example, St. Martinsville, in Louisiana, Moncton, in New Brunswick, and Saint-Jacques, in Quebec, have a replica of the original one.

When I planned my trip to Nova Scotia a couple of years ago, this memorial cross was at the top of my list!