Oh Canada! May 29th - 31st - West Danville,VT to Baie-Comeau, QC

Day 1 - Tuesday, May 29^th – West Danville, VT to Montmagny, QC

We left camp at 10 am on a grey and rainy day, after a night of pretty continuous thunderstorms with beaucoup lightning.  And so began our 25^th anniversary trip to Quebec, Labrador and Newfoundland.  This is a trip we’ve talked about for years, and delayed till our 26^th year of marriage due to other commitments last year.  So we were pretty psyched to finally be going.

There was no waiting at the border crossing since we were the only car there.  Our drive to Montmagny was overcast, but no rain, which made the trip easier. 

It was exciting getting our first glimpse of the St. Lawrence.  That was in Levis (pronounced Lay-vee by the Quebecois) as we got off Auto 20 and onto Rt. 132 - the road that would take us all the way to Matane and the ferry to Baie Comeau.  Once East of Levis the road became immediately almost free of traffic and gained a coastal feel.  The houses were each unique vs the same-same track houses so common in the US.  The place has a definite appeal to us.

We stayed at the EconoLodge in Montmagny which was, well – econo.  The room was adequate but smelled of stale smoke even though it is a no smoking room.  But hey – only one night.    Our dinner was a bigger hit.  The Restaurant Bel-Air served up a yummy lasagna for John and a wonderful pork tenderloin dinner for Chris.  

Day 2 - Wednesday, May 30^th – Montmagny, Quebec to Rimouski, QC

After breakfast at the EconoLodge - which was actually pretty good – we stopped for a few supplies at the local IGA.  Quebec seems to have lots of IGAs.  It reminded me of when I was a kid, and we shopped at IGAs in Michigan.   I can’t remember the last time I saw one in the states.  

Anyway, we were putting our purchases in the trunk, including a supply of wine, when a fellow pulled up behind us, rolled down the window, and in his best attempt at English let us know that the store next door, SAQ, is a liquor store and a better place to buy spirits than the grocery stores.  A random act of kindness.  You meet nice people everywhere you go.

Our drive to Rimouski was very pleasant and made me think I’d like to come this way again when I have more time to visit the little villages we drove past.  As it was, we didn’t have much time to linger as we needed to get to our next place by 4 pm. 

We were intrigued by an unusual type of ground fog, if that's what it really was, that we were seeing just above the tilled soils.  We wondered if it came from recently fertilized fields?  Maybe moisture rolling in from the St. Lawrence?  We weren't sure, but it was interesting.

One way we planned to save money on food and not eat every meal in restaurants for a month was to have picnic lunches.  So each day we stopped for lunch along the road and had food from the cooler. 

In St. Jean Port Joli we found a very cool lunch spot in a little park filled with all sorts of wood carvings and metal sculpture.  There were also interpretive signs telling us about the river and its wildlife.  The river has maximum tides of 20 feet!  Can you imagine such a thing for a river?  

The signs told us another thing we’d been curious about, and that’s how the fresh/salt water mixes and where the St. Lawrence River becomes the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  The salt water mixes with fresh water starting just East of Ile de Orleans near Quebec City.  It stays mixed fresh/salt until after La Pocatiere – roughly 70k or a little over 40 miles eastward - and then becomes all salt water.  I’m sure there’s more to the scientific story, but that’s a nutshell answer and we were glad to have it.

Picnic park in Saint-Jean-Port-Jolie, above and below.  There were many interesting sculptures in this little roadside park.

The other stop we made, also in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, was to the museum/gallery, Musee des Anciens Canadiens , devoted to wood carving and wood carvers.  What an interesting place!  

This is at the entrance to the Musee

That is a carved and painted wood mural in back of me along the front of the building

Its gallery covers two floors exhibiting a variety of woodcarving techniques and styles from various local artists.  I particularly loved the carved wooden hands they used to hold the ropes where they section off the pieces.  

And I was drawn to one particular artist's work that I took some shots of - alas, I didn't write down the artist's name.  : - (

The museum part was particularly interesting.  My favorite piece was the wooden chain that was carved out of a single piece of wood.  We were told it took many years for the fellow to complete it.  

I definitely recommend a visit to Musee des Anciens Canadiens if you make a trip to this area of Quebec.


http://www.museedesancienscanadiens.com/musee%20A.htm

There were sooo many lilac bushes – lilac trees even – in full bloom along the drive!  And they were more profuse and lush than any I’ve ever seen.  The lilacs must really love this environment.  I just wanted to stop and stick my nose into every one we passed and drink up that wonderful scent. 

Several times throughout the trip we were passed by semis carrying enormously wide and long cylinders.  They had police escorts ahead of and behind them.  We thought perhaps they were parts of silos since there are a lot of farms along this route.  Then we saw a semi pass us – again with the police escorts - and it was carrying the largest propeller blade you’ve ever seen or imagined in your life.  We saw two semis ultimately, each carrying one gigantic blade.  They were blades for wind turbines, and that made us realize the cylinders we saw earlier were for a wind turbine column, not a silo – though they seemed about the same diameter.

Gite du Capitain Bruno, our accommodation for the night, was in the Captain’s room of a beautiful B&B built in 2008 and run by a lovely lady named Louise Dupuis.  It had a king sized bed, granite counter in the bathroom, flat screen TV, bamboo flooring and fully tiled shower.  Oh, and it had a bidet which I still don’t really understand the purpose of, let alone how to use it. 

A good rest after a long day of driving. 

The view of the St. Lawrence from our bedroom

We drove down to the ‘quai’ (pronounced kay, I learned) and walked up and down Rimouski’s marina walkway which was very nice.  There is a place for walkers/runners and a separate lane for bikes.  

Low tide brought many shore birds to feast on the critters left behind

After much searching, we finally settled on an Italian place called Maison de Spagetti which served up decent fare.  And then to bed.

Day 3 – Thursday, May 31^st – Rimouski, Quebec to Baie Comeau, QC

We woke to a very grey drizzly day, and after a wonderful home cooked breakfast - a al Madam Dupuis - we drove to Matane and our 2.5 hour ferry ride to Baie Comeau.  

Along the way we saw this pretty incredible property that we are told is a privately held estate.  The entrance gates say Manoir Dochar.  Somebody with some serious money was living out their fairy tale fantasy here, for sure.

We found a nice little boulangerie in Matane and bought fresh bread and cheese for lunch, then got in line for the ferry.

 

Boy, they really do pack the vehicles in this ferry, I gotta tell you.  It sort of creeped me out walking through those aisles of tightly packed vehicles, including very large tractor-trailers, some taller than my house it seemed.  

As we were pulling out of port, we noticed the end of the piers were buttressed with these things that looked like giant jacks.  Sort of cool.

I wish the day had been sunnier, but as it was, we were able to put our heavy duty outer gear to good use.  We put them on and spent a good hour and a half on deck during the trip across the St. Lawrence.  I believe we were the only people on deck besides staff.  Everyone else was inside biding their time, but we were determined to make the most of the experience and actually had a very good time ‘braving the elements’.

Look at how the wind is blowing John's pant legs.

  

50 Shades of Gray

Self portrait in a port hole.

Our hotel in Baie Comeau, Hotel le Manoir, was very close to the ferry and is really a beautiful place.  It was one of our splurge hotel nights – a treat to ourselves before we headed north into the hinterlands.  The room had a very nice view over the river, which was at low tide when we arrived.

Our room with a view

By the time we finished our dinners, seated at the only table with a full view of the river, it was  high tide, and we enjoyed watching the river slowly rise over a little sand bar inch by inch.  Several gulls were sitting on the ever shrinking little spot of land, and they didn’t fly off till they absolutely had to.  I suspect they were taking advantage of the critters who were being washed up onto the sand by the rising tide.  But who knows. Maybe they were just playing chicken.