This teaching guide will show you the way to the 2014 World Acadian Congress (Congrès mondial acadien). Using the guide, you can follow the road your ancestors traveled, those who developed our corner of the country.

In the guide, you also will find an awful lot of information about what there is in your backyard and the interesting places that will help you know Acadia of the Lands and Forests better. This particular Acadia is quite special, as you likely will conclude by reading this guide. I invite you then to discover for yourself how history explains why people of the region speak French and use the language daily.

There is one person whom I absolutely insist you meet. I am talking your personal guide the pages of this guide: Mercure, the king’s courier, who carries the name of the messenger of the Roman gods¹. Mercure’s name also is inspired by Louis Mercure, the king’s courier, who presented Gov. General Hamilton with a request from 13 Acadian families to settle farmland along the St. John River, south of the mouth of the Madawaska River in Edmundston, New Brunswick

Mercure will appear frequently throughout these pages, as you will see. He will show you the paths to follow in order to improve your knowledge of Acadia of the Lands and Forests and its history. In addition, Mercure will guide you through the games and activities that will mark your way toward obtaining a deeper knowledge of the region and its history.

Finally, it is Louis Mercure, accompanied by his brother Michel, who knew best these fertile lands on which the Acadians and French Canadians from Fredericton (Saint-Anne-des-Pays-Bas), New Brunswick, would scratch out a living farming the long lots facing the St. John River. Who better than a messenger, none other than a courier of the king and a messenger of the gods, to guide your journey along the trails of the Acadia of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Let us follow Mercure.

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