Acadian culture doesn't stop at the Canadian border.

From the window of his house in Madawaska, Maine, Norman Cyr looks across the St. John River to Edmundston, NB. Like most members of his community, Cyr is a French-speaking Acadian whose ancestors travelled that river in the mid-1780s, after leaving their homes in Nova Scotia and PEI to avoid conflict with English Loyalists.

A few kilometres up-river from Cyr's home sits a large marble cross. One of the most emotionally evocative symbols for Acadians who visit the area, this 14-foot marble cross marks the landing site of the first Acadians to arrive in the upper St. John Valley in 1785. This cross was recently erected by the Madawaska Historical Society to replace a commemorative wooden cross that had been placed there in 1922.

Acadian tradition comes alive throughout this region in what's known as the Acadian Trail: museums, churches, and interpretive sites stretch about 70 kilometres from Van Buren to Fort Kent. 

To begin your tour from Moncton, take the Trans-Canada Highway north to Saint Leonard and follow the signs to the US border crossing.

Once across, you'll find yourself in Van Buren, home to the Acadian Village-a collection of historic buildings on a site overlooking the St. John River. The village reflects the culture and traditions of the hardy Acadians who settled in the St. John Valley. Architecture buffs will appreciate the significance of nautical architectural features like the "ship's knees" that are used as supports in some of the village's houses and barns.

A bit off the trail, but a short three kilometres southwest from Van Buren, sits the community of Cyr Plantation, where you'll find the historic Governor Brann School-a thoroughly restored 1934 schoolhouse.

Returning to Van Buren, follow Route 1 west for 18 kilometres to Lille's Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, one of the most architecturally interesting wooden Catholic churches remaining in the St. John River Valley. Built in 1909, the church has twin Baroque-style belfries adorned with trumpet-blowing archangels, an elaborately fenestrated façade and interior columns that were marbleized by hand. No longer used as a place of worship, the church is now being restored as a museum and performing arts centre.

Continuing west on Route 1 you'll pass a small, gated marker that identifies the site of the area's original Acadian church, and soon after that, you'll come to St. David Catholic Church,  built in 1911, and one of the few churches on the US side of the river to hold services in French.

After leaving St. David, the Tante Blanche Museum is approximately eight kilometres west on Route 1 in Madawaska. A monument to Acadian culture, the museum complex includes a one-room schoolhouse built around 1870, the Georgian-styled Albert House with its collection of Acadian artifacts and a reproduction log building named in honour of one of Norman Cyr's early Madawaska ancestors, Marguerite Blanche Thibodeau, whose heroism during a devastating famine in 1797 earned her the nickname Tante Blanche.

The Madawaska area is the centre of Acadian culture in Maine. The area's annual Acadian Festival draws thousands of visitors from the US and Canada. In 2011, the festival will run from August 11-15, coinciding with an annual reunion that, this year, honours the Cyr family.

Fort Kent is the last stop on the Acadia Trail, and the last major town on the way to the North Maine Woods. At the confluence of the Fish River and the St. John you will see the Fort Kent Blockhouse, a two-storey log fortification built in the 19th century to protect Maine's interests in land disputes with nearby New Brunswick.

There's a wealth of culture to experience on the Acadian Trail.