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Forillion National Park is a hiking park with very few interior roads.  Highway 132 bisects thee park on the east side and from there there are two smaller roads that will take you into the park a couple of miles at which point there is a parking lot and several trail heads.  From what we have heard from other people there are moose and black bear in the park along a diverse variety of smaller animals.  We have only seen birds and seals – we hope to see whales and dolphins at some of our other stops however the ultimate for me would be to see one or two moose.  I will also do some fishing.

 

While at Cap-Bon-Ami we walked down the stairs to the beach and were right at the waters edge.  June Yvonne relaxed a little on the beach while I explored down the beach a ways.  I had seen another man walk down the beach and he disappeared behind a large rock so I though I would check it out.  When I got to where I had last seen him the tide had come in and the waves, in my view, were a little risky so after trying to make a dash in between the waves I soon realized that I wasn’t fast enough and was going to get very wet if I made the attempt.

I like to watch the waves rolling into the shore or crashing against a rock face.  I watched a small rock rolling up the shore pushed by a wave and then suck back down the shore by another wave.  Do this thousands of times and the little rock soon erodes away and becomes sand.  I watched the waves crash up against a solid rock face and notice where the waves could reach they had undercut the rock.  It reminded me of an old Buddha quote I heard a long time ago; “In the confrontation between the water and the rock the water always wins, not through strength but through persistence.”

 

Our neighbors, Andy and Joanne, are very sociable and invited us to join them for a late night campfire.  They are from Whitby Ontario which is between Toronto and Ottawa. We had great conversation about Quebec and Ontario and about French versus English. They told us when we go to Halifax stop at Pier 31 and if you can figure out the approximate date your grandparents immigrated from England to Canada they can probably get the immigration papers for you and if your lucky maybe a photograph.  They have traveled a lot and are very knowledgeable about a lot of places.  They frequent Phoenix so we hope they look us up the next time we are there.   PRC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We woke up really early yesterday and took showers and wondered, “what will we do today?”  What we do is often determined by the weather.  Yesterday was the only day where sunny weather was the prediction.  We decided that if we were going to Bonaventure Island now was the time to do it.  We called our new friends Rose and Jim and they had decided the same thing.  So we agreed to meet in Percé and do it together.  We met and had breakfast then boarded our tour boat which took us around Percé Rock on the trip to Bonaventure Island.  Percé rock has one of the world’s largest natural arches located in water and is considered a geologically and historically rich natural icon of Quebec.  It is a major attraction in the Gaspesie region.  There used to be three arches but two have collapsed with the last one collapsing in 1845.

After cruising around Percé Rock the tour boat went around to the back of Bonaventure Island where there are 200,000 nesting seabirds including 110,000 Northern Gannets.  Thousands of small birds perch on the narrow ledges high up on the rock face and with many more thousands perched in the under cut portions at the case of the rock face. Below all these perching places the walls of the rock are stained white after centuries of bird dropping deposits.

In the many years this island has been studied by naturalists and bird watchers they have identified and recorded over 297 species of birds that stop on this island for long and short resting periods during their migration.  Many stay for the entire breeding season but none in greater numbers than the Northern Gannets.

Once we got to the island we had a 45 minute hike to the opposite side of the island where the Norther Gannets were nesting.  It was a fairly easy walk with plenty of rest stations along the way.  When we got there we saw thousands and thousands of birds. PRC

When preparing for our trip, I read about Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island.  I decided then and there that I wanted to see these places.

Peter suggested yesterday morning that we take the boat ride to these places as the day’s forecast was bright and sunny.  We contacted our new friends, Rose and Jim who we met in St. Flavie.  We had an enjoyable day together.  Afterwards we took the boat out to Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island.  Once the boat landed on the island we took a short hike to a portion of the island where the birds hang out and nest.  They are called Northern Gannets.  Check out the video on the blog.  It’s quite something to see thousands of these birds in one place.  It’s very noisy as you will hear in the video.

What you won’t know from the video is that  all those Gannets in one place is pretty smelly.

After returning from Bonaventure Island we had dinner with Rose and Jim whose company we enjoy immensely.

The next day (Saturday) was an unscheduled day as rain was forecast. It did rain some but not as much as expected. We went to the grocery store and hardware store.  We plan to buy a couple of fresh lobster so we had to buy “Lobster Eating Tools.”  Now all we need is a couple of lobsters.  They of course are a lot less expensive than restaurant lobsters.

Our site is on the water however different than the RV Park in St. Flavie.  In St. Flavie we were literally 40 feet from the water at high tide and 50 yards at low tide.  Here at Camping Griffin, we are on a cliff (160 ft) overlooking the water.  The view is gorgeous.  There are steps going down to the beach which we haven’t found yet…        JY

 

 

The birds in the video below is the first colony we saw after we crossed the island.   Jim and Peter took the longer route back to the dock and came across another nesting colony that was larger than the first one we saw.

 

 

Yesterday was a full day and very interesting.  We went into Rimouski to tour the submarine and the memorial museum for the Empress of Ireland – it sank in the St.  The Port-u-Père lighthouse was closed for repairs and getting it ready for July 1st which is Canada Day and Canada’s 150th anniversary.  The lighthouse is the second tallest in eastern Canada at 108 feet.

The submarine is the only one open to the public here in Canada – tourists are guided through the sub with a phone like devise that is programmed in several languages.  There were 24 stations that are explained in the audio presentation.  We were amazed at how narrow the passage way through the sub was – there were 70 crew on board and quarters were cramped  with little privacy as you can see three narrow bunks in the left picture.

There were 3 cooks on board and they really went over the top to prepare real quality food.  The galley was open 24/7 – the military went out of there way to  each man is allowed a 20 second shower each day and they could not accumulate time.  The rest of the military which has a strict dress code, allows the sub crew to wear cut-offs and T-shirts or whatever else they wanted.

The bow or forward part of the sub is where the torpedo room is and the sub had the capacity for 18 torpedoes – 16 in the front and 2 at the stern to launch if under attack from behind.  The forward torpedo room was the largest and coolest place on the sub so when space was available crew members would move their bunk into this area as it was also not as much noise.  The operational part of the ship was lit by red lights at night so the crew had a sense of night and day – it was also used so that if the sub had to surface during the night the eyes of the crew members who exited the ship would adjust quicker to the dark.

The other exhibit we walked through was a museum/memorial for the Empress of Ireland – while leaving the St. Lawrence for Liverpool it was hit by a coal freighter and sunk around 1:00 am in a fog bank – of the 1,472 passengers and crew aboard 1,012 perished.  After the ship was hit it only took 14 minutes to completely sink beneath the waves.  The museum had a movie presentation of the facts surrounding the history of the Empress – like a Ken Burns PBS special.  This presentation had sounds, cold air, heat when they showed the boiler room, etc.  It was very well done – so well I half expected them to fill the theater with water for the final effect – but they did not.  The disaster with the Empress of Ireland is often referred to as Canada’s Titanic.

We’ve were driving down the road to a little village for coffee and pastry or something like that and I look of to my right and there is a herd of buffalo – we stopped and took a picture – would not have expected buffalo in Quebec.  Of course the herd belongs to a local rancher who imported them from someplace but it was an odd site nevertheless.  I was sitting at our table and looked out the window and a couple were riding down the beach on horses.

A squall blew through the RV Park the other night – the wind went from 0 to 60 in about 5 seconds and lasted about 15 minutes.  Our neighbors left their awning out and the wind caught it and ripped most of it off their small RV.  They were inside and when they realized what was happening they opened the door and lost control of the it.  The door slammed against the side of their RV and shattered the glass window.  They had to scramble to keep everything inside the RV under control – one of them said it was like a tornado inside.   PRC

What did I do on my birthday yesterday?  Well, this trip is my birthday present. And Peter’s also has his birthday is at the end of this month.  Nonetheless, I did have a good day.

We went to the submarine museum an audio visual presentation and all the artifacts explained everything in great detail.  You might have noticed that the crew were referred to as “he.”  It was a male crew at the time of this submarine.  The Onondaga was commissioned in 1967 during the Cold War.  I had to check and apparently two female sailors in 2012 were qualified for US submarines.  The crew had very cramped quarters to live in.  I’ve never been in a sub before and probably never will again so it was a fascinating experience.

Included in our tickets was a tour and documentary of the Empress of Ireland.  The Empress of Ireland sank two years and 44 days after the infamous sinking of the Titanic. It was an ocean liner that sunk in the St. Lawrence River after colliding with the Norwegian coal ship the SS Storstad in the early morning hours of May 29, 1914.  The ship had barely started their North Atlantic Route between Rimouski, Canada and Liverpool , England.  Apparently many improvements had been made since the Titanic two years earlier.  The downfall for the Empress was the heavy fog of the St. Lawrence River.

We had dinner again at Restaurant Capitaine Homard.  This time we did not have lobster.  I had Linguine de le mer and Peter had Fish and Chips.  Both were good choices along with Escargot Provence for an appetizer.  The problem with the lobster the other night was that we were given a female lobster with her eggs.  It was not the most appetizing specimen, especially at $20 per pound. I learned that we can specifically order a male lobster. I wish I had known that before.  There was a table next to us with ten people who all ordered four pound lobsters.  Do the math on that dinner bill…

My birthday dinner was particularly special as we were joined by a very nice couple from the US we had met the day before.  Not only was it great to speak English, they were an engaging and interesting pair. They are full time RVer’s.

And, the day wasn’t over yet.  Peter built a bonfire on the beach.  Rose and Jim joined us and we continued our most enjoyable conversation.  We finally had to retire to the “Buen Camino”, our travel trailer because of the wind and cold.  A most wonderful birthday indeed.

EVENING CAMPFIRE ON THE BEACH – SAINTE FLAVIE, QUEBEC

Today has been a good day also. We went to the most charming little village, St. Luce.  We walked along the boardwalk and stopped for a bowl of café (vs a cup) and split a “gateau aux pommes avec sauce au rhum” (apple cake with rum sauce) at L’Anse Aux Coques.  It was delicieux.

We were very excited to hear from a French Canadian couple we met in Quebec City on our blog. We were able to translate their message in French on the translation app on our phone.  And of course, send a reply in French to them.     JY

After breakfast we drove into Rimouski, which is a bigger town than St. Flavie – our intent was to drive around and see what we could find.  We found a couple of things.  We finally found the submarine we saw billboards for but that’s a trip for another day.  We ended up at a farmers market and found people who we could talk with and enjoyed many samples at the different booths.

On the drive to the market we stumbled upon the public library (bibliotheque publique) and decided to check out and see if we could get a temporary library card and check out some movies to watch in our trailer on a rainy day (tomorrow).  Well there were two problems with that plan – we don’t speak French – and – we’d have to come back into town to return the movies.  We did find a very large coffee table book with 100 years of the best photographs from National Geographic – fortunately all the pictures were in English but the description for each picture was in French – we used the translation app on our phones to read the description for the photographs we were interested in.  It’s a cool app – you place the phone over the French words and it translates them to English.

After we left the library we stopped at a Tim Horton’s and split a sandwich and had a coffee and soda.  Tim Horton’s is like a Starbucks with one just about on every corner. From there we came upon the kite surfers.  WOW was that something else to watch.  It is a really athletic sport – I talked to one of the guys as he was coming out of the water and asked him how long it would take to do what everyone out there was doing.  He said maybe 2 years if you practiced a lot.  He said most people start out learning on the snow which is easier because there are no waves.  Just harder landings and you can get dragged a little bit if you’re not careful.

After watching we headed back to St. Flavie and thought we’d stop in at a local winery and do some tasting.  This winery specializes in wine made with honey which is really “meade.” Meade is a drink from Old England – it is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops.    They have their own vineyard, orchards and their own bees.  And in their tasting room they have 15 to 20 different products other than their award winning wine.  We didn’t taste anything that we couldn’t live without but we enjoyed the experience.   PRC

Another beautiful sunset… And it looks like we will be seeing many more after this RV Park.

The weather here is unpredictable. The weather app on my phone makes predictions but they don’t always come true. Today was supposed to be cloudy with some rain like yesterday, but that was not the case.  The app did not predict the howling wind that lasted most of the night. It was still windy this morning but sunny and a bit chilly. Hardly a cloud in the sky.  It’s supposed to rain tomorrow. We’ll see…

It was another relaxing day. We didn’t sleep in as late as yesterday. After breakfast we drove into Rimouski.  We thought we would look for a library and check their selection of DVD’s. We found one  which happened to be right next to a Farmer’s Market. We sampled some of the products including cheese, olives, smoked salmon and jerky. It was interesting but we were a little nervous to leave as we were probably in a no-parking zone. It was hard to tell as we couldn’t translate the signs.

We did go to the nice municipal library. I began to feel more out of my element. There’s usually someone that can speak a little bit of English but not here. Tourists don’t usually hang out at libraries. We decided not to look for a DVD as we’d have to sign up for a card. I don’t know if they would issue us a card although Peter is a Canadian citizen but not a resident of Rimouski.  Besides we might not find any movies in English.

We then drove around the town of Rimouski, not looking for anything in particular. As usual there were many pretty city parks and the views of the St. Lawrence River were lovely.

Peter spotted some kites over the water so we went to check them out.  At the end of the kites were surfers.  I’d never seen kite surfing before. It was fun to watch. Peter took a video of course.

We stopped at a winery on the way home – Vieux Moulin.  The wine was not made from grapes, but honey like meade. We  sampled several of the honey wines which were pleasant but not enough to purchase a bottle. The pic above in front of the winery is dedicated to my sister Bonnie.

After our meanderings, we returned “home” to our travel trailer, the “Buen Camino.” Peter grilled steaks – we chose to be carnivores tonight.

Our schedule tomorrow will depend on the weather.

Bonne Nuit.   JY

It is difficult to have meaningful, interesting or quality material to write about when you’ve practically nothing all day.  We are in for the night and ready to go to bed.  The wind is howling furiously outside and the trailer is rocking back and forth.  The people here are tough.  The motor home next to us has two couples staying in it and a couple of cars of other couples has joined them.  They are standing outside BBQing, drinking beer and hooping and hollering – I guess they are having a good time as the howling cold wind doesn’t seem to be phasing them at all.     PRC

We woke up to the smell of coffee, the feel of the cool ocean breeze and the sound of the waves. Bliss. No alarm clock, slept in late, no schedule.  Bliss.

We only did three activities to speak of. Our outside activity today was a trip to the grocery store. (We are going to the winery and submarine later in the week.) We are here for a week and do not want to do everything in one day.

Actually we went to two grocery stores because I forgot to buy pickles at the first one. These trips were actually little adventures. The location, packaging, pricing and language were all a fun challenge for us. We were not exactly sure we were getting what we wanted or at a good price due to the differences between pounds vs. kilograms, French vs. English, and the American dollar vs. Canadian dollar.  Who knew if we were getting a good deal? And different products also such as Tartinade  (Spread) Homard (Lobster). I had to have some lobster spread I enjoyed since our disappointing lobster dinner last night.  Thankfully the lobster spread was very tasty.

Drinks seemed to be in order since we had such a busy day. We went to the Restaurant Capitaine Homard for a glass of wine (JY) and a glass of beer (Peter).  No dinner.

After that we watched the sunset until it got too cold. More bliss.

We’ll probably have a similar day tomorrow  …. Bonne nuit.

 

 

 

The drive from Quebec City was very peaceful once we got out of city.  The countryside was beautiful and for many miles we were driving along the St Lawrence.  Up until Quebec City the river was narrow – about 3 – 4 kilometers wide – as we drive north towards the the Gulf of St Lawrence the shores become farther and farther apart.   From where we are now the opposite shore is a thin strip on the horizon.   We are no longer by the St. Lawrence River – we are where the fresh water and saltwater mix – it is brackish water and we are by the Estuary of the St. Lawrence.  There are no whales on our side of the estuary as it is to shallow –  there is a lot of whale activity along the opposite shore and there is even a fjord on that side.  The people we shared a campfire with in Quebec City live on the fjord and see many whales during the whale season which is just starting.

The RV Park where we are camped now is pretty much empty with only 2 other RVs here.   The summer season has not started yet – when it does the park will be full.  The beach, as you can see, is about 10 feet being our RV so when the tide is in we can hear the waves –  which is cool.  There is a constant breeze and you can smell the salt air.  There are plenty of birds perched on larger boulders out past the surf – I think they are cormorants and/or sea gulls.  There are a lot of crows bouncing long the beach checking the tide pools out for things to eat.  This will be our home and backyard for the next week.  PRC

This is something completely different from any place we’ve been so far on our Canadian trip. We are right on the beach, literally between the highway and the ocean. (See the photos.)  And of course next to Capitaine Homard Restaurant. This is the type of setting Peter loves. He would be completely happy sitting outside our trailer looking at the ocean. After we spent some time doing just that we walked over to the restaurant – we have been looking forward this.  It’s about 200 yards from our travel trailer.

We did have lobster bisque and we did have lobster. Sadly, we were disappointed. We had much better bisque in Quebec City. The lobster was way too much work for way too much money. I have probably had lobster four times in my life so maybe I’m not really a connoisseur. We will try another type of seafood next time we go. Tomorrow night we will grill something from our own freezer that we stocked from home.

It will be lovely to fall asleep to the sound of the waves. It’s supposed to rain tonight and it’s already getting cooler. There’s another little bitty issue – little bitty bugs. I don’t know if they are mosquitoes, sand fleas or flies or some combination but it is nothing like what we have had to deal with so far.

There’s not a lot to do here in St. Flavie so we will get a lot of rest and relaxation this week. I did see a sign for a winery that sells wine with honey. Sounds interesting, I’m sure we will check it out. We also heard there is a submarine a few miles from here. We’ll check this out also. We won’t be setting our alarm clock for any of these excursions.

And I had another experience with Canadian hospitality. I just love these Canadians.  After dinner I was sitting by myself at a picnic table. A very nice woman started talking (English) to me. She is from the Montreal area and her first language of course is French. Nevertheless, she was very friendly and we had an interesting conversation.  She has been to Phoenix. It seems like every Canadian we have met has been to AZ and beyond. We met several Canadians who have been to Acapulco Mexico and Central America.  And, in RV’s.

We are still in the province of Quebec on the St. Lawrence.  It opens up into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

So this week we are mostly relaxing…  JY

 

 

This was our last day in Quebec City and we are both wish we could spend another week here as there is so much to do and see.  Today we went to the Museum of Civilization, a tour of the Citadelle and a tour of the Governor Generals private residence.

The Museum of Civilization was very interesting.  We first spent time in the First Nations of Quebec.  This was very informative while very sad – the white man says this has been a country for 450 years but the First Nation people say it’s been a country, their country, for thousands of years.  Just like everywhere else the white man has come into their land and destroyed their religion, their language, their communities and their way of life.  In the interviews we listened to they said their leaders were not from universities they were from the universe – it isn’t a map of villages it is a constellation of villages.  In Canada the First Nation people are fighting to get their land back and are winning.

 

Another part of the museum talked about Quebec -“Then & Now”.  There were artifacts from the time the French owned the colonies to when the British fought and took it way from France and it has since been a British colony.  The battle between the French and the British only lasted 20 minutes – 600 soldiers were killed – the British and French commanding officers both died – and the French never contested British sovereignty again.  Unfortunately in both areas we walked through we were not allowed to take pictures – so no pictures.

The British were always anticipating a French invasion when they suddenly realized it was not the French they should be watching it was the Americans they should be looking out for.  The American Colonies tried twice to take the British Colonies but failed both times.

Another part of the museum was a little more fun than the other parts as you can see.

 

On the way to the museum we stopped at a few of the shops along the way and I made some new friends.  This is a very interesting and colorful place.  We would like to come back again for a longer period of time – maybe a month but we will have to think about it for a while.  there is plenty more to see and do in the maritime provinces.  PRC

First, I am very tired. And we had a marvelous day. We went to two museums, walked and went up and down many  stairs.  We started  out at the Musee de la Civilization. Of  particular  interest  was  the exhibit regarding the First Nation peoples (Indigenous or Native) and the history of French Canada.

The First Nation exhibit was heart-breaking. It appears that Canada is more interested in making reparations than the U.S is with Native-Americans.

French Canadian history was  about   the wars between Great Britain and France. I learned that the U.S. attacked Quebec twice and lost. The first time the US attacked was in a blizzard and did not have a chance. They didn’t the second time either even though the weather was more pleasant.

Another interesting point was a video interviewing French Canadians  about  the Quebecois Identity. One gentleman from Quebec said that when he is in Quebec he doesn’t feel Canadian, but when he is in France he definitely does not feel French.

There was a  fun  exhibit  showing  different  perspectives. We enjoyed taking photos there, some of which are included in the blog.

The city of Quebec is quite lovely so we took more photos as she is very photogenic.

We also went on a tour of the Citadelle. Again, we learned more of French Canadian history and were reminded that Canada is a constitutional monarchy. The old city is located inside a fortress and is in a very strategic location on the St. Lawrence River.  The  Governor  General  and  family  are  located in the Citadelle. The governor general represents the Queen. Queen Elizabeth has stayed at the Citadelle twice.

Prior to today we took two days off from sightseeing. Monday we did laundry and I signed up for a free online French class which has been a lot of fun. Tuesday we did some errands as the shower is leaking again. We went to Canadian Tire, Home Depot and COSTCO.  It’s so interesting to see the cultural differences between Canada and the US, especially French Canada. We ate at COSTCO. They had the usual hot dogs, pizza and Caesar Salad. However, they also had French fries, chicken with French fries, ice cream cones and poutine. (I did not have poutine.)  Canadians love their Poutine. They did NOT have churros. You would think that maybe they would substitute them with crepes or croissants…

Tomorrow we are off to St. Flavie also in Quebec province.  We could easily stay another week in Quebec City as there is so much to do and it is so pretty. The name of the RV park in St. Flavie is “Camping  Capitaine  Homard.”  Homard  is French for lobster. There is a seafood  restaurant  in the RV park.  Enough said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonjour! (Although this literally means good morning, it is used throughout the day.)

We did not leave for our excursion to the Montmorency Falls Park until the afternoon.  Peter spent at least an hour fixing the shower this morning. We have not had problems with it since it started leaking at the end of our Southwest RV trip last summer. We also spent time working on the blog regarding the Island of Orleans.  And we said au revoir to Pierre and Isabelle who we spent some time with last night. We exchanged addresses and gave her the address to the blog. There is a pic of them when we were talking around the campfire.

So we drove to the falls and had a pleasant, relaxing time taking photos, walking in the park and having lunch. We ate on the terrace of the restaurant where we had a perfect view of the bridge that took us to Orleans yesterday. Each Canadian city has many pretty parks perfect for picnicking on a nice day. Speaking of the weather, here in Quebec, it is sporadic. Just because it rains the night before, it might be sunny in the morning, then cloudy/rainy again in the afternoon. That’s what it was like today.

It was shorts weather earlier, now there is a cool breeze. It’s supposed to rain tonight and stay rainy for a few days. I’m no longer complaining about the rain. I think it’s part of the charm of Quebec. The mosquitoes   are not as bad here as they were in Ontario by the way.

As previously indicated we ate lunch on a terrace overlooking the falls and the bridge to Orleans. Peter asked the couple next to us if they liked chocolate and told them about the chocolate factories on the island. The gentleman replied that they were from Switzerland, a “Chocolate Country.” Consequently, they were not too impressed…

Speaking of food, I have a confession. The first day we entered Canada I had to have the iconic French Canadian dish – Poutine. I vowed I would not order it again unless it came with lobster. I broke that vow today. Although it did not come with lobster, it had bacon which is not bad. Ok, no more poutine for a while.

Oh, another confession – I haven’t been able to stop teasing Peter about his use of the word “besmirch” which he used in his blog about Quebec City. I don’t remember ever having seen it used in a sentence until then. Have you?

Tonight is the first time that Peter is barbecuing (chicken). We may actually eat outside if it doesn’t get too cold. The RV Park is awfully quiet as many of the weekenders have left…

With a good chance of rain tonight and tomorrow morning, we probably will do laundry and other chores around the trailer. But you never know what adventure await us…

Until the next blog post…     JY

Went to the falls and it was a site to see.  Higher than Niagara Falls but not as wide.  There is a suspension bridge right over the crest of the falls which is cool.  What was really cool was the zip line that crossed in front of the falls about a quarter of the way down.  That attraction isn’t open for the season until next Saturday so we are a week early.  If it had been open today I would have done it without even thinking twice.

Everywhere you go there are monuments with placards explain the historical significance of the place or the person or a particular moment in time.  The monument I read today was the location where the British Major General James Wolf had a camp at the height of the falls where he could see everything the French troops were doing to prepare for battle.  Wolfe had 49 ship of which 23 were battle ships, 8,500 soldiers and 13,500 sailors – all primed and ready for battle.  In the battle between the French and English on thee Plains of Abraham the British won and sealed the fate of the French colonies.  From that point on everything was ruled by Great Britain.

We are going to take tomorrow off and do some chores and other business that need to be finished.  Then on Tuesday our plan is to spend the day at the Museum of Civilization and the Wednesday a tour of the Citadel and Thursday pack up and head to the Gaspé peninsula.   PRC

We slept in today, made breakfast and chatted with our neighbors. This is the family I wrote about last night. I thought it was an adult couple and parents or in-laws however it appears that the two couples are about the same age. They are in town for a big international rodeo.

Since we did not have anything scheduled today, Peter put up the outside lights on the trailer. He also put up the “hot air balloon” we purchased in Albuquerque last summer.

Then we decided to go somewhere after all. We heard about Ile D’ Orleans and decided to take a drive there since it is not far. It was a dream! I was bewitched by its beauty and peacefulness. “Agritourism, landscapes and history come together on a 21 miles long and 4 miles wide isle on the St. Lawrence River.  We crossed a long bridge to get to this haven which seemed like a world apart. Crops seem to consist of mainly strawberries, potatoes and apples. Oh, and vineyards. There were also two chocolate factories and stores/restaurants.  It’s a perfect place for walking and biking and plenty of people were doing this in spite of the rain. The rain was sporadic during the day. There are a just a few restaurants with locally sourced food of course.

June Yvonne on the tower

We stopped at one of the chocolatiers and ran into neighbors that camped at our RV Park. They were also at the RV Park when we were in Cumberland outside of Ottawa. They are from Vernon, British Columbia in the Okanagan Valley. By the way, in the past we have considered retiring there.

However, Ile D’ Orleans beats out the Okanagan. We fantasized about living on this island and took pictures of some of the houses. We quickly came to the realization that we would not want to live there in the long, cold winter.  We did find an RV park on the island but you could only stay for 3 weeks.

As you can see I was enchanted by this island as it seemed so idyllic at least in the summer.

Tonight our neighbors to the right invited us to sit and talk by the campfire. Many French Canadians know some English such as this couple because they are required to learn it in school. So between the English they know and some French words that sound like Spanish we managed to have a good conversation. Of course they wanted to know about US politics so we asked about their prime minister. They said he is a rock star. And that his father Pierre Trudeau at least had a vision for Canada, but his son lacks experience. They said that at university, Justin Trudeau studied acting. (So, he looks good and knows how to act.)

Tomorrow we plan to visit Chute Montmorency. These falls are actually higher than Niagara Falls, just not as wide.

Until the next blog.  Bonne Nuit.       JY

Slept in this morning and finally got out around noon.  Decided to go the Île d’Orléans – an island in the middle of the Saint Lawrence River.  There is a 2.75 mile bridge from the mainland to the island.  Our first stop was at a chocolate factory where we meet a couple that we met at the last RV Park in Ottawa, Ontario.  I had a ice cream cone dipped in chocolate and JY had a coffee.

We started driving around the island and were very impressed with the beautiful homes constructed of rocks.  Some were very large but generally small as they were built at least 150 years ago.  The island is known for the preservation of it’s history.  We drove slowly around the island and had to pull over every couple of miles to let cars pass.  We came upon the smallest church I have ever seen

We stopped for a coffee break along the way, checked out an RV Park and at the north end of the island stopped at a park with a tower.  When you climbed up the stairs to the top you were above everything and could see all the way to the Gaspé Peninsula – amazing.

We drove home, prepared dinner and started working on the blog.  I went outside to take a picture of the lights around our trailer and the next door neighbor was standing around a campfire.  I said bonjour, he (Pierre) responded and immediately invited us to sit around the campfire with his wife (Isabelle).  We accepted the offer and he provided beer.  We had a wonderful conversation for about 2 hours.  Wonderful people.  They are French Canadian and speak broken English.    PRC

360 degree view from top of tower – long video – could not get it vertical

We had a wonderful day – there was a 70% chance of rain but we decided to go for it anyway.  We booked the 1 day hop-on hop-off bus tour around the city and this morning took the shuttle from the RV Park into town.  We arrived just in time to catch the first bus tour of the morning.  We stayed on the bus to make a complete around the city trip so we could decide where we wanted to go.  The tour takes 90 minutes.  The weather was beautiful as we drove around on the open air upper deck of the bus.  The weather was cool and windy at times and there was hardly any rain the speak of.

The old city is a city of contrasts.  There is construction everywhere – the refurbishing of the old and the building of the modern – side by side they co-exist in harmony with each other.  You can take a picture of a barracks occupied by the french soldiers in the 1600’s and in the same picture see a steel and glass office building that is 10 years old.  One does not besmirch the relevance of the other.

The city is peppered with churches, statues, monuments and parks with colorful gardens.   At this time of year the city is a beehive of activity with crews planting flowers everywhere in preparation for the summer tourist season.

After our first complete trip around the city we stopped for coffee and a pastry.  Then we walked down one of the narrow streets visiting many of the small shops on each side of the street – not surprisingly a large percentage were very tourist oriented.  We did stop at the historic Notre–Dame de Québec Basilica–Cathedral.  JY lite a candle and looked at the jewelry in the gift shop.  I watched some restoration workers applying gold leaf to one of the columns.

The bus driver for our tour was unbelievable – he drove the bus down these narrow streets and gave a lot of the passengers heart attacks as he went around really tight corners and dodged other cars.  I told him he could drive his bus through the eye of a needle and he said, “no the bus is to big” to which I replied, “maybe so but I think you are that good.” He laughed and gave me a big hug and said, “thank you my friend.”  PRC

It was a marvelous day. We did the on/off tour of beautiful Quebec City. It was cold and rainy a few times during the day but sometimes sunny – altogether a winning combination. The city has several things going for it: 1) Safety – It has one of the lowest crime rates in Canada; 2) Beauty – It’s a lovely city; 3) Cost of living – It has a low unemployment rate.  Consequently, it has attracted lots of younger people especially in the field of software engineering and computer games.

Historically it’s interesting also. Important battles between the French and English went on here. In fact the old city is located in a fortress. It is also a port city. A Holland America cruise ship was docked there today on the St. Lawrence River. Apparently this river is a very difficult one to navigate.

To top of the day we had a Quebecoise (French Canadian) dinner. The restaurant was called aux Anciens Canadiens.  We had the prixe fix (fixed price) menu. This was pea soup, Quebec meat pie and vegetables and maple syrup pie. Peter splurged and had lobster bisque which was delicious.

After dinner we checked out the Château Frontenac, a very expensive hotel perched on a hill with gorgeous views of the St. Lawrence River.  Heard a good quote regarding Canada by a First Nation poet while on our tour today – “My country is not a country; my country is winter.” 

 

                                         We are “home” now working on the blog. Our new neighbors just pulled in. By the way, pulling in can be quite a process. Out jumped the wife who appears to be a bundle of energy directing the truck and trailer.  Looks like the parents or in-laws just pulled in also. And they already have a camp fire started and here comes the beer. This lively French family looks like a lot of fun. I know they will be up a lot later than us…

JY