Grandchamp Property

These buildings were the retirement plan and insurance policy of Julien Auger dit Grandchamp (1666-1741). He brought his family to Louisbourg when he came as a soldier, and the inn he started here employed him after he left the service in the 1720s. Following his death, his widow, Marie Thérèse Petit, continued owning and operating this inn. Two slaves had to help run the busy tavern. Asar, a black slave, was a young boy when he was purchased, and Louis, a panis, was 14 years old.

Grandchamp’s early clients may have been his former troopmates. Many Louisbourg taverns were tiny; sometimes just a kitchen where the family of a sergeant or master artisan entertained men who had few other places to gather. With its busy quayside location, Grandchamp’s home grew into a larger business, but a 1741 inventory confirms that it was furnished much like any private home. Playing cards, drink, and a stock of clay pipes were adequate to equip a tavern like this one.

You can dine in the style of the common people of Louisbourg in the first of Grandchamp’s buildings. In the smaller tavern you may meet a soldier or fisherman who has stopped to share a song or story over a glass.