Quebec City, Canada - July 29 - 31, 2007
On July 29th we embarked on our Maritime Provinces tour - but first a three-day visit to Quebec City. About 20 years ago we visited Quebec in late spring and found the city to be incredibly romantic. We are happy to report that it still is. However, we found it much more crowded (and steamy) during the mid-summer height of the tourist season.
We picked Camping Berniéres in St. Nicholas as our brief home. While it was a bit funky, its location just across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec served us well.
We spent our first full day roaming the narrow streets of the old walled city, visiting the Artist Alley, several churches, galleries, the Citadel, and a bistro. At one blessedly cool church we paused to enjoy an organ rehearsal. We tried to locate the B & B at which we stayed on our earlier trip, but could only guess at its location near the Citadel. We briefly wandered outside the city walls, but soon returned to the European flavor and romance of the historic district.
The following day we followed Roelina and Scott's suggestion and visited the Montmorency Falls about seven miles (or 11 kilometers) outside the city. The falls are an impressive 250 feet high, which is about 80 feet higher than Niagara Falls. We walked across a footbridge spanning the falls - a rather dizzying experience for Susan - and felt the power of the raging water.
Interestingly, during July Montmorency Falls serves as a backdrop for a Quebec City fireworks competition much like the one we had just enjoyed with Roelina and Scott in Montreal. We were puzzled as to why the two cities would sponsor concurrent international fireworks competitions. Perhaps a bit of inter-city rivalry, eh?
We continued our journey down the St. Lawrence River to visit the stunning Basilica Sainte Anne de Beaupré. The first church was built at this location in 1658, the fifth and current church was started in 1923 and consecrated in 1976. The gothic exterior reminded us of Notre Dame in Paris. The mosaics, stained glass and art of the interior depict the history of 'New France' including the indigenous people and the various industries such as fishing, farming and building.
After touring the basilica we continued down river to the artist community of Baie-Saint-Paul. The place was hopping with tourist enjoying the art and the warm, sunny weather. We drove out to the harbor and what serves as a beach. The tide was out exposing a wide expanse of chocolate brown mud. It was a gigantic, slimy slip and slide. Never had we observed so many people joyfully playing in the mud - adults and children alike. Dogs too.
It was a long and wonderful day, but was time to return to our rolling palace. The next day we were heading for New Brunswick - a new province and a new adventure.
New Brunswick, Canada - Aug 1 - 4, 2007
On August 1 we drove east through Quebec's beautiful rolling farmlands along the St. Lawrence, then turned south into New Brunswick paralleling the international border. We stopped for the night just north of St. Leonard on the Saint John River. We were just 5 miles from Van Buren, Maine so while Bill did some repairs on the motorhome Susan drove Kermit across the border to fill up on relatively cheap fuel and check out the border crossing. It appeared to be an easy crossing for the motorhome, so the next morning we drove the Beast over to fill up on diesel. The savings was substantial (about $1/gallon and apparently the Canadians frequently cross the border for fuel and dairy products (also quite expensive in Canada).
We continued south to Mactaquac ("Mack-ta-quack"... really!) Provincial Park about 12 miles west of Fredericton, New Brunswick's provincial capitol city. The park and city are situated on the lovely Saint John River that eventually flows into the Bay of Fundy at St. John city. Interestingly, the city may be 'Saint' or 'St.' John, but the river is always 'Saint' John.
Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative during our brief stay in the area. One particularly dark and stormy afternoon Bill accepted an order for a satellite internet pointing device, which we quickly packaged up and headed to Houlton, Maine to deposit in a UPS drop box (they are VERY proud of their postage in Canada - it's expensive!). The driving rain made for a very frightening drive and the border crossing was quite frustrating. I suppose since we had crossed the border five times in three days we were starting to arouse suspicion.
The next day the rain and wind abated for several hours so we headed to Fredericton to visit Boyce Farmer's Market and tour this very British city. We visited the 18th century Officer's Square and Military Compound, strolled along the river and the quiet city streets - then like a couple of hydrophobiacs, scurried home and out of the rain.
Prince Edward Island - Aug. 6th
We visited Prince Edward Island (PEI) during our travel to Nova Scotia. We accessed PEI via the 9-mile Confederation Bridge, which spans the Northumberland Strait. PEI is called the 'Gentle Island', and indeed it is with its red rock beaches, forests, rolling potato farms, dairies, and well-manicured homes.
The reader may know PEI from Lucy Maud Montgomery's fictional series "Anne of Green Gables". An entire tourist industry has developed around all things 'Anne'. The residents must celebrate when the hordes of 'Anne' busses depart at the end of the tourist season. We valiantly tried to avoid any trap hinting of Green Gables.
After a stop at Visitor Information we headed for Summerside for lunch on Bedeque Bay, then toured the central island. This route took us to the warm waters of the St. Lawrence gulf. Surprisingly, the sea really was warm and the beaches were quite crowded with sunbathers. Our route also took us by lovely bays, lighthouses and fishing villages where we purchased several pounds of the famous PEI mussels for later consumption.
We ended our day in Charlottesville, PEI's provincial capitol, for dinner and a little live music. Then it was back across the Confederation Bridge ($42 toll) to Amherst keeping an alert eye out for moose.
Note: After seeing many warning signs along the road about potential encounters with moose throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia we are very sad to report that we saw absolutely no moose. Not even the chocolate variety.
Now on to Nova Scotia!
