First settled in Port-Royal in the years 1600, the Savoie left their region as soon as the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713. Confident they will find an area not touched by the Treaty, Germain Savoie and Pierre Thibodeau settled on the coast of Chignectou Bay, south of what is New-Brunswick today. They founded the colony of Chipoudy.

Unfortunately, in 1755, british soldiers pursued the Acadians to the Petitcodiac River. After the fall of Fort Beauséjour, a group of Acadians left the area and went down to the Miramichi River. They stay there all winter. The survivors continue their route to the north of Neguac, Tracadie, Caraquet and Québec. Jean, dit James Savoie, son of Germain was the first to get to Neguac. He settled down in a place called Rivière-des-Caches.

Jean’s son, Joseph, ask for a land in 1795 and got it in 1813, three years after his death. It is then divided between his four sons: Germain, Victor, Edouard et Bonaventure. Bonaventure’s son, Vital, built the house which is now at the Acadian Historical Village. Vital is before anything a farmer. However, he seems to know a lot about woodworking as he made tables and chairs for his house. He is also a trapper trapping beavers, muskrats and hares,and that’s why is nickname is: Vital à Boune le Rat musqué. He’s also a fisherman.

After Vital’s death, his son Thomas inherits the house and passed it to his son Francis. It’s occupied until 1967.

This house was built in two different steps. Dating from 1860, the summer kitchen is the oldest part; it’s a half- timbered vertical structure made with pieces produced in a sawmill. The main body of the house is built four years later, on a structure made of beams squared with an ax. The outside is covered with cedar shingles. The interior of the summer kitchen is reduced to its simple expression while the most recent part shows a certain refinement.

Soon available