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With a population of just seven hundred, the township of ANNAPOLIS ROYAL , 40km northeast of Digby and 118km northwest of Liverpool, spreads across a podgy promontory tucked between the Annapolis River and its tributary, the Allain River. The long main drag, St George Street, part of Hwy 8, sweeps through the leafy southern outskirts to reach the end of the promontory, where it turns right to run parallel to the waterfront through the commercial heart of town. Here, restaurants and shops have replaced the merchants and shipwrights of yesteryear and there's a tourist-oriented boardwalk near the jetty, but it's all very low-key and the town maintains a relaxed and retiring air that's hard to resist. Edging St George Street just before it swings right are the remains of Fort Anne (open access), whose grass-covered ramparts surround the old parade ground. A few military remains are encased within the ramparts - namely a couple of powder magazines - but the only significant remaining building is the officers' quarters right in the middle of the compound. These quarters were completed by the British during the Napoleonic Wars and, surmounted by three outsize chimney stacks, they now house a small museum (mid-May to mid-Oct daily 9am-6pm; $2.75) comprising a ragbag of military memorabilia, a reconstruction of an Acadian domestic interior and an outline of the fort's development. There's also a contemporaneous copy of the original charter by which James I incorporated "Nova Scotia" in 1621, and a cheerful community tapestry tracing the town's history. The view downriver from Fort Anne is simply delightful and it's a lovely peaceful spot, but it wasn't always so. Both colonial powers, France and England, neglected the fort and its garrison, and when a new military governor arrived at the fort in 1708 he told his superiors in Paris that the officers stationed here were "more in need of a madhouse than a barracks". If you want more of the flavour of early Annapolis Royal, ask at the museum (or your B&B) for details of the candlelight tours of the old graveyard (June to mid-Oct 3 weekly) next to the fort - good fun, and a snip at $4. Five-minutes' walk from the fort - back along St George Street - lie the ten-acre Historic Gardens (daily: June-Aug 8am-dusk; late May, Sept & early Oct 9am-5pm; $5), which feature a string of "theme gardens", from the formality of a Victorian garden to an extensive rose collection in which the different varieties are arranged broadly in chronological order. The whole site slopes gently down towards the Allain River, with a dykewalk offering views of mud flats and salt marshes and also twisting through elephant grass, a reed imported by the Acadians to thatch their cottages.
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