3 Best Sights in Shippagan, The Acadian Coast

This wonderful aquarium has a serious side and a fun side, with labs that are the backbone of marine research in the province and more than 1,000 specimens to see in more than 31 indoor exhibition areas, outdoor touch tanks, and the harbor seal pool. Feeding time for the seals (at 11 and 4) is always popular, as are the touch tanks, containing such species as sea stars, clams, sea cucumbers, and rare blue lobsters. Another exhibit illustrates the underwater world of the Acadian Peninsula and how fishing is carried out there, and there are various educational activities and a documentary film to see.

Accessible by bridge from Île Lamèque, Miscou, on the northeastern tip of New Brunswick between the Bay of Chaleurs and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, has white sandy beaches, and the dunes and lagoons are good places to see migrating bird species.

Across a causeway from Shippagan is Île Lamèque and Ste-Cécile Church. Although the church is plain on the outside, every inch of its interior is decorated with folk art, painted in the late 1960s by the priest and two students. Each July, the International Festival of Baroque Music takes place here.