Québec City

New France.  A 400 year old city with a complex history that includes changing hands several times between the French and the British.  Québec CIty (aka Québec), once the capital of the Dominion of Canada is now the capital of the province of Québec.

Québec, the 11th largest city in Canada, is also the only fortified city north of Mexico.  The walls of the city were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

We stayed in Lévis, a town across the St. Lawrence River which is fairly narrow at this point.  This location was close to a 15-minute ferry ride over to Québec.  A great option, as driving and parking in the city can be challenging.

There were more weather changes while here, including a couple of rainy days.  And now the weather was starting to get a bit chilly.  Fall was in the air.

Crossing over on the ferry with the locals was really fun, after a few days it became our “commute”.  We spent most of our time in the old city, la vielle ville, our favorite section.  It’s reminiscent of a European city with cobblestone streets, stone buildings, old churches, parks and gardens and of course, the walls surrounding the city.  And VERY French.

The city also has many cafes, shops and, of course, the Chateau Frontenac, the most photographed hotel in the world.  It’s a beautiful structure and an outstanding landmark.

The first day we arrived, we just happened upon the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, an elite cycling event that’s part of an effort to bring international sports events to the city.  We saw the lead racers go by as they made one of the final turns of the race.  Then the peloton and the team cars came zooming by.  SO cool.

On Saturday, we spent the entire morning at the Marché du Vieux-Port de Québec, the farmers market, a permanent structure that’s open daily, and has additional vendors on Saturdays.  This was one of our “top” farmers markets in Canada.

Lots of produce, cheeses, sausage, meats, fresh seafood, jellies, beautiful pies and other baked goods, fresh pasta, sauces and much more.  They also offer breakfast and lunch options.  And we discovered one more new local dish – meat pie – delicious.

 

We also visited the Citadel, a very impressive structure, to see the changing of the guard only to find that they’d stopped it a week earlier (contrary to what the tourist office told us) – the guard changes only during the peak tourist season.  They did offer a tour, and I opted out since I’ve seen so many forts lately and wasn’t up for another full blown fort tour just yet.  So instead we walked around the beautiful park on the Plains of Abraham right outside the Citadel, which also happens to be where the British defeated the French in 1758.

We made it a point to go see the Joan of Arc statue, donated by an anonymous American.  Then, as we walked in one of the parks we happened upon a mommy’s exercise group. With the trainer holding one of the babies.  Cute.

Canadian Sugar Maple

The Quebec Parliament building was pretty impressive.  With some very animated statuary!

Visiting the shops was also fun.  There are really nice ones, offering beautiful clothes, accessories, leather goods and various forms of art.  And there are also the requisite tourist schlock shops.

Another fun activity for us was people watching.   There were musicians playing in the street, people sitting out in the cafes, tourists from different countries and people just going about their day.

hmmm …

And of course we just had to visit the Chateau Frontenac, so we went to the bar one evening and had a couple of drinks.  Great martinis!  Followed by a lovely evening stroll.

Samuel de Champlain .

Last, but not least, there was the food.  The French of course can do food.  And the Québécois are no different.

At times, we felt like we were back in France.  Although the locals here were more able and willing to speak English than other places we visited in Québec, the French ambiance still remained.  In fact Hector more than once started a sentence with “here in France” before catching himself.

Ketchup Lays Potato Chips – available only in Canada!

Québec offers something for everyone; history, romance, interesting architecture, great food, beautiful art, music, elegant shopping, boating on the St. Lawrence, bicycling, parks, trails and of course, everything French.

A perfect ending to our Canadian adventure.  Next we are headed back to the USA for leaf season in Vermont (derived from the French for “green mountains”).

~ Brenda

The Road to Québec City

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I would share more information about our Wi-Fi situation at Les Bergeronnes,  Well, this  was one of the campgrounds that didn’t have Wi-Fi.  And back when we entered Canada, we turned the data settings on our iPhones and our iPad (which we normally use as a hot spot when we don’t have access to Wi-Fi) off because data is very expensive for us outside of the U.S.  This meant that when we had no access to Wi-Fi, we had no other options.

The good news was that there was one place in the Les Bergeronnes that offered Wi-Fi.  It was kind of a snack/gift shop in one of the interpretive centers.  And one day we did get to use their Wi-Fi while we had some coffee there but unfortunately, the place shut down every day at 6 p.m. and most days we were out and about until after that time.

Fortunately, Hector and I discovered that we could still access the Wi-Fi after 6 from the marina  parking lot adjacent to the snack shop.  And there was also a pretty view.  So we parked there on a couple of evenings with our laptops to use the Wi-Fi (our little secret, okay?).

Well, on the evening before we left, we’d gone there to try to catch up on the blog, look up weather and check e-mail.  As we worked on our laptops, the sun started to go down and we decided to head home.   But the car wouldn’t start.

After a couple of tries, we realized that the battery had gone dead.  We’re still not sure what caused the battery to die so quickly.

In any case, now the sun had gone down and it was pitch black and foggy on the road back to town.  And it was over a mile to the one establishment we thought might be open; the grocery store.  But before Hector got on his bike to ride up a steep hill in the dark, I decided to call the office at our campground.

When I explained that our car was dead – the girl at the office immediately said “let me make a few calls and see what I can do”.  I didn’t even have to ask her.  And she didn’t even ask what we were doing at the marina in the middle of nowhere at this hour.

About fifteen minutes after our conversation, we’d not heard back from her so Hector took off on his bike.  Then a few minutes later a gentleman arrived – Hector saw him drive by and turned back.   The gentleman apologized for not speaking very good English, jump started our car, and after some polite but limited conversation, left.  The girl from the office sent him, she’d tried to call me back but our minimal cell signal had fizzled out.

VERY nice.  Yet another example of the kindness of Canadians.

Well, we did get to check weather, and the forecast was for fog to continue.  I was concerned.  During that night, I woke up a couple of times and heard the foghorn sounding, so the fog had actually gotten thicker.  In a strange way, I find that the sound of a foghorn can be calming, but it wasn’t relaxing for me that night.

That next morning there was indeed fog.  Hector said he would drive very slowly and pull over if the conditions didn’t feel right.  So off we headed out of Les Bergeronnes.

Island Girl was about to take her third ferry.  It was a short free ferry across from Tadoussac that crosses the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord.  The ferry runs every 20 minutes and is basically considered part of the highway.

So we didn’t plan to get there at any particular time.  Luckily, right as we drove up, we were boarded and took off within minutes.

Remember those steep inclines we avoided when we changed our plans leaving the Gaspé Peninsula?  Well, we found them on the way to Québec City.  So now we had fog AND very steep roads.  The fog was variable, though, and would thin out at points, and those clear patches were helpful.  But the roads were steep alright.  Up and down we went.  With 10 and 11% grades common.  But at least they were not too curvy.

So Hector continued to take it really easy but he had to downshift and use the engine brake continually.  Island Girl isn’t exactly a great climber and at some points we were doing 20 miles per hour in second gear.

The foggy conditions also continued throughout the drive, sometimes as a thick fog, others as just a mist.

Absolutely no idea what the sign on the right means! Car going to be airborne??

Moving slowly as we did, the drive took a couple of hours longer than the GPS estimate.  But we still pulled into our campground outside Québec City at a reasonable hour, since we left very early.  We were both pretty exhausted from a stressful drive though.

Looking across to QuébecCity, we could barely see it.  So we just settled in at our campground, had some Thai takeout dinner and called it a night.

Québec would be there in the morning.

~ Brenda

Les Baleines Du Saint-Laurent

“Il faut aller voir” (We must go and see).

The motto of Jacques Cousteau’s famous exploration ship Calypso.

Hector and I both learned to love marine life by watching Jacques Cousteau documentaries when we were kids.  And we think that whales are one of the most interesting animals found in the oceans.  That’s why we visited the St. Lawrence River.

So why are there so many whales in this area?  The waters of the Saguenay River, the St. Lawrence River and the deep Laurentian Trench (which funnels cold, saline ocean water westward) converge at the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord and are violently forced upwards by the abrupt end of the trench.  This is called upwelling, and brings the nutrient-rich waters from the deep up to the surface, triggering an explosion of life forms that are the base of the food chain.  A total of 13 species of whales may be found here at different times of the year.

This area has been protected and designated the Saguenay – St Lawrence Marine Park,  The park encompasses the area near where the Saguenay fjord enters the St Lawrence River.

In fact, the road east of Tadoussac is called the Route des Baleines – the Whale Route.  The route stretches for 560 miles along the remote north shore of the Flueve St-Laurent and over many rocky headllands that whales sometimes swim by.  So the road has many overlooks where people can whale watch from the shore.  

Our campground was east of Tadoussac in the town of Les Bergeronnes.  We had read that this area, the Lower Estuary of the Saguenay National Marine Park, was especially productive for whale watching.   And a couple that was tent camping by the river at our campground spotted whales from their camp one morning.

But both of us also enjoy being out on the water and were very excited about going out in a zodiac again.  As Jacques Cousteau once said, “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever”.

We also knew we wanted to go out in a small boat because the larger whale watching boats, including one that accomodates 600 passengers, just don’t provide the same close up experience.

After interviewing a couple of our top choices, we chose the Croisières-Neptune whale watching company because we got a good vibe from the staff and also because they had both open and covered boats.  Since the weather was iffy and pretty cool, that was a good option to have.

We also knew we wanted to go out twice, so Hector negotiated a special rate right off the bat.  We went out in the covered boat the first morning, a rather chilly morning.

Fin Whale

After being out a while, we got a brief look at a Fin Whale, the second largest animal on the planet, so that was pretty exciting as well as a first for us.

Fin whales have an asymmetrical color scheme, one side of their face is black, the other gray.  They are also the fastest of all whales.

Fin Whale /Rorqual Comun

There is an interesting system of communication about whale sightings to all the captains of whale watching boats.  That’s how our captain heard about a Humpback Whale sighting and then headed over to where the Humpback Whales had been spotted.

Even though Humpback Whales aren’t endangered, there is still a restriction on how close boats can get to them, and to any whale – about 100 yards.  But, if your boat is stopped and the whales change course and come to you, that is acceptable.

Rorqual Bosse in French

Humpbacks also put on quite a show as they almost always show their tail flukes when they dive.

We were fortunate to get a pretty close look at the Humpbacks, but not as close as a zodiac directly in front of us, who got to see the fluke up close and personal as one of the Humpbacks dove right in front of it.

The weather was supposed to get colder and rainy, so we’d planned to return the next morning, but when we ended our initial cruise it actually looked pretty nice, so we got suited up in our thermal safety suits and turned right around and went out in the open Zodiac.

And it’s a good thing we went back out just then, because on that tour we spotted a Blue Whale, the largest animal ever in the history of the planet.  The Blue Whale is an endangered species; the North Atlantic population only numbers 250 to 300 individuals of reproductive age and a few calves.  Ten or so individuals visit the St. Lawrence Estuary, and they leave between September and October.

Blue whales in the Northern Hemisphere grow to about 98 feet and reach a maximum weight of about 200 tons (!!!).  Because it’s an endangered species, boats have the same restrictions as for the Beluga Whales, they must not get closer than 400 yards.

But we could tell this was a massive animal.  We got a good look (through binoculars and long lens) at the blowholes at the front, then a long look at it’s back as it cruised along, and finally the dorsal fin (tiny on Blue Whales) near the tail.  We knew we were really fortunate to see one but didn’t realize until later just how lucky.

Blue whale head and blowhole.  The blow can be 30 feet high!

Blowhole with “splashguard”

Blue whale back

More back of the “Rorqual Blue”

yet more back … wait for it …

Near the back of the whale

Blue whale dorsal fin.  AMAZING!

This was an outstanding whale watching day.  You could look out in the distance and see multiple blows, some of which you could hear as well.  Whales were everywhere.

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The pectoral fin of the Humpback is the longest appendage in the animal kingdom

There were also a few rain showers in the area.  We got caught in one towards the end of our outing and things got a bit interesting for a few minutes.

Well, after all that excitement we decided to go out again in a couple of days.  We enjoyed the open boat more and with the thermal suits and some layers underneath we stayed pretty warm.  Also, the smaller boat was much quieter with a four stroke outboard so you can really hear the whale’s blow even at quite a distance.

So Hector once again negotiated a nice rate for us, and we returned.  The weather was beautiful.  That morning we saw two Humpback Whales, one of which swam right alongside of us.  We got a really close look at the head, the blowholes (two of them … like nostrils),  like a prehistoric monster coming towards us.  Unbelievable.

We also spotted a Minke Whale.

Minke Whale / Petit Rorqual

And when we returned after that tour we decided to go out again.  By now the tour operator was pretty amused at our high appetite for whale watching.

Like Hector said “I just don’t get tired of seeing them”.  Whales are so majestic and mysterious and there is still so much we don’t understand about them, I don’t get tired of them either.  So we turned right around and went back out.

On the way out, we spotted some Beluga Whales, so bright white!

We also saw another humpback lazily feeding and followed her around a while.  While watching the Humpback, we spotted some Harbor Porpoises, which are also Cetaceans and included in the 13 species of whales that visit this area.

Well, we’d spotted six different species of whales at this point and were pretty happy.  But the whale watching operator offered us an extra special repeat customer discount to go out a fifth time.  We didn’t commit.  But the next day, we headed over there to check out the conditions.  It was foggy and pretty cold, and the captain said he wasn’t going to go out.

But there was a couple there who only had one chance to see whales, and they asked them to please take them out, they were willing to take a chance on not seeing anything.   So, what the heck, we went as well.

Visibility was terrible but we got a radio notification of a Humpback Whale and headed over there.  The sea had gotten a bit angry, and there were some pretty high swells, but just over the swells, we saw her (I call them all her).  She was not spending a lot of time on top, but diving quite a bit.  And every time they dive, you lose them.  Many times they change direction or travel much further out.

Great view of the blowhole

But this one was sticking around and she came up right behind our boat.  Awesome.  The sound of the “blow” when it comes up right next to the boat is startlingly loud!  Seeing her so close was amazing.  For a foggy day, this was an excellent sighting.

M. La Rouche and Julie

This was our last day, and the weather really wasn’t very nice, so we decided to cap the whale watching at five times :-).  But we had tons of fun with the staff at  Croisières-Neptune.  They were really nice people but they probably thought we were crazy Americans.  As it turns out, five outings by one customer was a record for them.  Crazy Americans indeed!

That afternoon we visited CIMM, the Centre di’Interpretation des Mammiferes Marins.  It’s a wonderfully educational museum, fairly compact, but packed with information.  The museum is an arm of GREMM, a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific research on the marine mammals of the St. Lawrence and education for the conservation of the marine environment.

There are a number of naturalists on site, and they are extremely informative.  The center keeps tabs on the whale population, as they are the central point of communication for whale sightings and in turn communicate them to others.

They’ve individually identified a number of the whales through markings on their flukes, their dorsal fins and their backs.  So we learned the names of two of the Humpbacks we saw.  You know you’ve been out whale watching a lot when you start knowing the whales by name :-).

Siam

Siam is a beautiful lady who has a tail that looks like the eyes of a Siamese cat.

Tic Tac Toe

And Tic Tac Toe has criss cross scars and lines on his tail.  We saw each of these beautiful animals more than once while we were out on the St Lawrence River estuary.

So the captains communicate which specific whales they’ve seen, and that helps CIMM keep tabs on (more or less) what the current population of whales is.  Pretty impressive.

And one of the last things we learned was that there had been confirmed sightings of only two blue whales that week.  Two blue whales in the river and we saw one of them!  The naturalist kept telling us that we hit the jackpot.  So now we knew just how lucky we were!

Will we return and go whale watching again?  I sure hope so.  The Grand Fleuve was just that … grand!

~ Brenda

“We protect what we love”. Jacques Yves Cousteau

The Fjord of the White Whales

I love fjords!  And I have been fortunate to see some in Alaska and Norway, and now have an opportunity to see the largest one in Quebec, the Saguenay Fjord.  It’s one of only 38 of the 2,130 fjords around the world that is at least 60 miles long.  Most of the fjord is protected as part of the National Parc National du Fjord-du-Saguenay.

This awesome place was formed during the fourth and last ice age, which ended about 10,000 years ago.   The sheer weight of ice sheets covering the region sculpted the land and chiseled a U shaped valley.

Hector and I opted for a six-hour boat tour out of Tadoussac, a beautiful village located at the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord and the St. Lawrence Estuary.  Tadoussac is a member of the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages of Quebec and is one of two representatives of Canada in the Most Beautiful Bays in the World Club (there are 100). 

The Most Beautiful Bays in the World are selected not just for their natural beauty but also for their commitment to respecting the way of life and traditions of those that inhabit the area, their commitment to sustainability and to protecting their habitat, and their potential for economic development.

Tadoussac is also the gateway to the Côte-Nord and is located at the heart of the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park.  The Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park was created to protect the environment, wildlife, and natural resources that are a part of the Saguenay Fjord and the St. Lawrence River Estuary.

We boarded our tour boat in Tadoussac in the morning of a day whose weather was predicted to be sunny and windy.  Of course, that morning the weather was cloudy and calm 🙂 but just fine for a boat outing.  

The boat was at about ¼ capacity so there was lots of room to spread out.  Of course most of us inhabited the open part of the boat to experience the fjord in all of its refreshing glory.

The confluence of the Saguenay and the St. Lawrence creates a very nutrient rich environment which attracts a large variety of marine mammals.  One of the areas that we sailed through is known for attracting Beluga Whales.  This is the southernmost point in the world where Beluga Whales congregate, as they are typically only found in the Arctic and Subarcttic zones

So we were extremely fortunate to see quite a few “little” belugas swimming around in the fjord. At 13-16 feet long and 1,300-1,500 pounds they’re not really little, but they are in comparison to some of the other whales in the area.

Since the Belugas are a threatened species, boats are not allowed to get closer than 400 yards from them.  This meant we saw only the top of their bright white heads and backs  as they swam along the water.

But it was still a thrill to see them.

If only we could see them up close like this! But this downloaded pic shows how cute they are.

These adorable white whales are a threatened species as their population was decimated by commercial whaling. Although whaling has been banned in most countries, their recovery has been slowed by pollution, disturbance by humans, habitat degradation and occasional entanglement in fishing gear.

Cruising through the fjord, we learned some amazing facts about its size and depth.  It’s 65 miles long and its width varies between just over ½ and 2½ miles wide.   The Saguenay Fjord has an average depth of 690 feet, with the deepest point at 890 feet.

There is a statue called Notre Dame du Saguenay perched high at the top of one of the cliffs.  The statue, sculpted in 1881,  is 30 feet high and commemorates the survival of a traveling salesman who fell into the frozen waters of Lac St Jean, prayed to the Virgin Mary to save him and washed up miraculously on ice.

The cliffs along the fjord have an average height of 490 feet, with the highest one at 1,150 feet. The fjord is at once a sea and a river, as cold salt water from the St. Lawrence estuary runs under warmer fresh water from its tributaries and Lake St. Jean.

Just a stunning place.  As we continued on our cruise, we made a stop at L’Anse St. Jean, located in a beautiful valley on the shores of a natural bay.  After visiting a couple of shops which had very high quality local art, we decided to stop, have a leisurely lunch and enjoy the view.  A little café by the dock served food typical of the Brittany area of France – simple crepes with delicious fillings – fabulous.

The day had finally caught up to the weather report as the sun came out and it became very windy.  But it was still a lovely cruise back to Tadoussac.

It was a perfect day on the water amongst the striking cliff walls of the Saguenay Fjord, watching the little white flashes that were the Belugas.   I couldn’t have wished for more.

~ Brenda

Across the Grand Fleuve

We made another change in our travel plans.  We’d originally planned to continue to drive around the Gaspé Peninsula and check out the north side of the peninsula.

But we learned about an intriguing area on the north side of the St. Lawrence River from Lois and Bev, new Ontario friends we met at a ceilidh in Baddeck, Cape Breton Island.  The Saguenay Region is   an area where the confluence of several bodies of water brings nutrients to the surface that attract many different types of whales.  It’s a whale watching “mecca”.

Avid whale lovers that we are this sounded like just our speed.  Also the drive there was on less challenging roads.  The roads for our original plan around the Gaspé would be extremely challenging for Island Girl, which we confirmed when we drove in our car out to Forillon National Park and encountered quite a few steep inclines.

So we left the Gaspésie en route to the Saguenay / Côte-Nord region of Quebec, the area north of the St. Lawrence River where the whales go to feed.

The drive time was over six hours and included another ferry ride.  Based on the ferry schedule we divided the drive up by spending the night near the ferry departure dock and taking the ferry the next day.  On the way we made a quick stop to walk around a really long and pretty covered bridge.

We experienced every kind of weather on our first driving day.  The day started out very cloudy and a little foggy, then had varying degrees of cloud cover, a light rain shower and ended with blue sky and light clouds.

And we saw a little slice of a pretty sunset over the St. Lawrence River from our overnight campsite.

The next morning we headed out to the ferry dock to cross the St. Lawrence River.  We chose the ferry from Trois Pistoles to Les Ecoumins because it made for the shortest distance to our final destination, the village of Les Bergeronnes, but also because this particular ferry allowed us to make a reservation and others didn’t.

Good thing we had a reservation because the ferry only accommodates a total of 40 cars, so we probably would have had to stand by for more than one ferry in order to get on.

This was Island Girl’s second ferry ride, but I was a bit concerned about boarding a “smaller” ferry, so I was very relieved when I saw a logging truck drive out of the ferry.  Easy Peasy.  Still, although they boarded a medium sized tractor, we were the biggest rig on this particular ferry.

I’m really impressed by these ferry operations.  The guys who coordinate embarking and disembarking manage to get you within inches of the other vehicles without damage, and can squeeze in many more vehicles than you think possible.  It all seems to work rather smoothly.

The St Lawrence River (fleuve) is a really wide and large body of water at this point (grand fleuve).  The crossing was about one and a half hours and presented our first opportunity to see whales.  A lucky person  on board spotted a Beluga Whale, but we missed it and there were no other sightings. But it was still quite an enjoyable experience and a very smooth sail.

Hector and I wandered around on the top deck, while Angel rode comfortably inside Island Girl in the driver’s seat enjoying the view.   She’s becoming a seasoned ferry rider, which brings her back to one half of her roots, since Keeshonds were originally Dutch barge dogs.

We arrived at our pretty campsite in Les Bergeronnes with a “vue sur le fleuve” in the early afternoon.

There were a few inconveniences; the water had to be boiled because it had some bacteria due to some construction, and there was no Wi-Fi at our campground nor anywhere but one place in the village :-(.

But we took it in stride, bought some large bottles of water and located the Wi-Fi spot, which was pretty close to us.  More to tell on that Wi-Fi thing soon.

On to more adventures on the Côte-Nord of the Fleuve St-Laurent!

~ Brenda

Land’s End

The drive from Percé out to Forillon National Park on the eastern tip of the Gaspé peninsula is very scenic.  And it’s an exciting drive on a very steep road with multiple 10-15 degree inclines and one 17 degree incline.  They don’t much believe in switchbacks here.

Forillon National Park offers hiking and biking trails and is a Parks Canada National Park – another chance to use our Discovery Passes :-).  It also has several lovely  beaches, so of course we couldn’t resist a walk on one of those beaches on our first visit.

That same afternoon, we rode our bicycles on the trail that leads to the Cap-Gaspé, which is also a walking trail.   The point at the end of this trail is called land’s end and is the easternmost point of the Gaspé Peninsula.  

It’s also the end of the International Appalachian Trail, which runs from Maine to Quebec.  The International Appalachian Trail connects to the Appalachian Trail in Maine and continues to Georgia.  The most common route followed by those that want to hike the entire trail continuously is to begin in Georgia in the spring and head north.  Hector and I spent a little time hiking on a couple of sections on the Georgia end of the Appalachian trail in the 1980s when we lived in Atlanta.  Little did we know then that we’d one day bike on the extreme opposite end of this trail.

The Cap Gaspé trail parallels the shore, and is known for good whale and seal watching.    We didn’t see whales but we did spot and hear some gray seals in the water. 

We also saw quite a few porcupines on land, in fact, this is the most porcupines I’ve ever seen.  Cute little guys from a safe distance.

There’s a great view of the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the top of the trail with a pretty lighthouse.  Another very short and steep walking only trail led us down closer to the edge of the cliff and the water where we were rewarded with yet another gorgeous view.   A great day.We returned to Forillon National Park another day and visited Cap-Des-Rosiers Lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse in Canada, 112 feet, or ten stories high.  There was a guided tour in French about to begin, and since it was the only way to climb the lighthouse, we decided to join in.  Fortunately, there was only one other couple on the tour, and the guide spoke a little English, so he threw in an English word now and then to help us out.

The Cap-Des-Rosiers Lighthouse shone its first light in 1858 and has a fabulous first order Fresnel lens, which was automated in 1981.  The exterior bricks of the lighthouse were rebuilt in white marble in 1984, and the walls are seven feet thick at the bottom and three feet thick at the top.  One of the most impressive lighthouses we’ve seen.  And, of course, it’s perched on a scenic cliff, placing the light 136 feet above sea level.

It was a cool day so we had Angel with us, and stopped at a couple of other beaches.  Angel found a few more crabs and we discovered more spectacular beaches with cliffs overlooking the water.  Then we had a picnic lunch looking out over the beautiful view.

Within Forillon National Park’s  deceivingly compact area, there is tons to see; lighthouses, mountains, forests, cliffs jutting into the water, beaches, waterfalls and more.

So on this last day there, we also hiked to a beautiful waterfall with Angel.

And Forillon National Park is just one of many beautiful spots in the Gaspé Peninsula and sadly the last place we visited in this area.  This remote peninsula is truly a memorable place.

~ Brenda

Quebec, La Belle Province

Oui.  Québec is unquestionably French.  And the Frenchness is palpable in the air as soon as you enter the province.  All signage is now in French, and you almost never hear English spoken, unless it’s by another American.

In 1535, French explorer Jacques Cartier landed in what are now Québec City and Montréal, but it was Samuel de Champlain who first recorded the word kebec (an Algonquin word meaning “where the river narrows”) when he founded a settlement at what is now Québec City in 1608.

The region had been fully settled and controlled by various Aboriginal groups, including the Mohawks, the Cree, and the Innu, and the Inuit, formerly referred to as Eskimos, in the remote far north.  And all of these “First Nation” groups are still resident today in the province.

Although originally settled by the French, Québec was held by the British for decades after the final battle for Québec City in 1759.  It became a province in 1867 after Canada’s colonies joined together as a confederation.  But this area has always retained its strong French roots.

After a strong nationalist movement gained momentum in the 1960s, the pro-independence Parti Québécois came to power in 1968.  Since that time two referendums on separating Québec from Canada have been voted down, but the movement remains, with the Parti Québécois currently in power.

But a small victory was won in the 1970 passing of a bill making French the province’s sole official language. So this is a great opportunity for Hector and I to practice our very basic but serviceable French.  And I get to practice adding the accent on the “é” in my post 🙂

Our first stop in Québec was in the Gaspé peninsula (there it is again), where we stayed in the town of Percé.  The Gaspé, known locally as “La Gaspésie” juts out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  Percé is famous for the Rocher Percé (Pierced Rock), one of Canada’s best-known landmarks.

On the first evening in the town of Percé, we couldn’t resist French food and headed out to a nice restaurant for a very cozy and delicious dinner.  Hector was extremely excited about eating escargots, and I snapped a photo of his happiness.

Our campground had a lovely view of Rocher Percé.  We’d planned to kayak to the rock, but the winds were really strong during our stay so we bailed on paddling.

In fact, weather was all over the place; sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy etc.  And more than one of those in the same day.  This was beginning to be very familiar story in Canada.

Anyway, instead of kayaking, we took a boat tour that combined sailing around the rock with a visit to L’Île de Bonaventure National Park across the way.

The capitan looks suspicious

Interestingly, Rocher Percé and L’Île de Bonaventure are part of a “National” Park of Québec, not a National Park of Canada, so our great Parks Canada Discovery Passes don’t cover the entrance fees.   A curious quirk of Québécois nationalism.

Sailing around Rocher Percé rock and L’Île de Bonaventure was exciting.  It’s a massive piece of multihued limestone, 300 feet wide, 289 feet high and 0.66 miles long.  It’s also one of the world’s largest natural arches located in water.  There used to be two holes in it, but one arch fell in the 1800’s.  And several tons of the rock detach from it every year.  Amazing!

The boat continued to L’Île de Bonaventure National Park, which is the best place in the world to observe the Northern Gannet, who come here every spring to breed and raise their young until late summer.

We sailed around the side of the island where they nest, and there are birds flying everywhere.  The narrator tells us to keep our mouth closed when we look up!  Then, we also spotted some gray seals.  And there were some folks scuba diving here, just thinking about that made me feel really cold.

The boat then dropped us off on the opposite side of the island, where there were several choices of hiking paths you can take to cross over to the Northern Gannet viewing area.  But first, we made a brief stop for lunch at the only establishment on the island, a little restaurant/gift shop that offers world famous Fisherman’s Soup, yum!

And since there’s no water on the island, they use dishes that are 100% biodegradable within two to four weeks. The utensils are made of potato starch and the dishes and napkins are made from a material leftover from sugar cane processing.  And they compost them entirely on the island.  I like it.

Our hike took us through the wooded center of the island and as we neared the bird viewing area we heard an incredibly loud sound, kind of like millions of bees swarming.

Then we arrived and words and photographs can only show a little piece of what these nesting grounds look like with over 100,000 gannets, one of the world’s largest colonies.

The gannets return to their same nest every year to reunite with their mate.  When an adult returns to its nest, it places itself directly in front of its partner, both birds extend their necks and cry while rubbing their bills together and slightly opening their wings.  This behavior reinforces the ties that bind the couple and is called fencing.

Each pair has one, and sometimes two eggs which hatch sometime in early June, so the  nestlings are about two months old.  They will get a lot larger than the adults (some already are) to help them survive the trip down to warmer waters that they will each make individually.

The viewing area for the gannet colony is just far enough that they are not stressed by us humans, in fact, they didn’t seem to notice any of us. 

They were still busily in the breeding mode, fencing, fighting over territory, and feeding themselves and their young.  Gannets dive from a distance of about 60 feet, plunging straight down as far as 10 feet under water for their food.  The entire thing was quite a spectacle.  And they are magnificent birds.

It was time to hike back to catch the ferry, and the weather was clouding up, but no rain thank goodness.  Going back on the ferry was uneventful.  But seeing these beautiful birds was an incredible experience that we’ll never forget.

Back on Percé, we took a walk on the beach while enjoying another view of the stunning Rocher Percé.

~ Brenda

Kouchibouguac National Park…Swat!

What’s that buzzing sound?

What can I say about Kouchibouguac National Park (The Koosh).  It’s very pretty, by a lovely river, by some great barrier islands, with long isolated beaches, a few hiking trails and miles of  biking trails.

But, OMG, the mosquitoes!  We can’t say we’d not been warned, but it’s difficult to realize the amount of mosquitoes there until you experience it.

The day we arrived at our campsite and started setting up, we both were attacked by mosquitoes immediately.  Really bad.  But, it was just before sunset which we know is usually the worst time for mosquitoes so there was hope.

Well, basically, they were bad, worse or worst.  And Canadian mosquitoes are big!   We’d encountered them before, but this was a whole other level.  And yes, they were worst at dusk, or after a rain shower, which we had a couple of while there.

As hard to believe as it may be, the mosquitoes were as bad there as in the Everglades National Park in Florida in the summer.  Only the strongest chemical mosquito repellent worked.  And I try to avoid using those really strong chemicals if possible.

As it happened, I’d been feeling a little under the weather, so I took this as a sign and took a couple of down days.  I started some French lessons in anticipation of going to Quebec, worked on the blog and on a couple of other chores.  The good news:  our campsite had a pretty view of the river out the front windows.

Staying in also meant extra snuggle time with Angel.  But Hector was much more brave than I and did some road biking and mountain biking on the mountain bike trail and on the regular biking trail while I stayed in.  Of course he used heavy repellent and it worked pretty well, as long as he was moving.  But the little buggers bit him through the bike shorts – ouch!

Well, after a couple of days, I too braved the exterior, and, after covering myself in mosquito repellent headed out with Hector to go kayaking.  There’s a little tiny barrier island across the way (they call is seal island) where lots of gray seals hang out.  The park offers a guided tour that to the island to to see them, but, since we have our own kayaks, we went on our own.

It was quite windy and the paddle into the wind turned out to be farther than we’d calculated but we made it out there.  Good news was; since it was windy, mosquitoes were down.   The island had a couple of pretty beaches,  and, in fact, a bunch of motorboats had anchored there.  But, alas, no gray seals.  Not a single one.

We checked out the beaches on both sides of the island and headed back.  The next barrier island down has a piping plover colony (it’s protected, so no one is allowed on the island) and we saw a couple of Piping Plovers, very pretty birds.  We also saw a lot of Terns and Cormorants.

While heading back, we bumped into several other kayakers looking for gray seals.  It seems the seals are on the island at specific times, possibly according to the tides but none of us knew when.  Oops.  Well, it was still a beautiful outing and the 8½ mile paddle was a good workout for me after my lazy couple of days.

That day right around dusk I noticed another RV arriving nearby.  The guy got out to set up, and suddenly he started doing the mosquito dance, slapping his face, swatting then covering himself up with repellent.  We know the dance.

The next day, I headed out on the bike trail with Hector.  The park’s bike trail is a fairly level trail covered in very fine gravel, and goes around the river.  In fact, this is where we took Angel for her walks – poor little Angel was surrounded by mosquitoes every time we took her out, but I think her long fur was too much for them to navigate thank goodness.

The bike around the river was very pretty and we spotted some bear poop, but no bears.  This is black bear country also.  And the bike ride wasn’t terrible as far as the mosquitoes.  The trick is to go out when it’s a little breezy.  And wear lots of mosquito repellent, which I did.  And I wore two pairs of shorts, heh, heh.

The day we left, we met another couple who was on their way out at the dump site.  They were from Nova Scotia and said they were leaving a day early because of the mosquitoes.  Seriously they were that bad.

I felt a bit sorry that I didn’t fully experience this park, but I did enjoy a little of it.  And we’re not alone, we bought a shot glass at the gift shop that has giant mosquitoes and two terrified eyes peering out from a tent.   A perfect memento of our time at “the Koosh”.

~ Brenda