Although many Acadians and Frenchman lived in the Arichat region before the Deportation, the first Acadians to settle there permanently did so only around the 1760s. Around that time Anselme Bellefontaine, Olivier Blanchard, René LeBlanc, and René Thériault, together with their families, left Port-Toulouse (St. Peters) Cape Breton and went to settle there. Formerly one of the largest seaports of the Atlantic Provinces, today Arichat is the centre of Richmond County, Nova Scotia. Arichat also has a French school, l'École Beau-Port (kindergarten to Grade 12).