Sep 10, 2018 - St.-Jean-Port-Joli

September 10, 2018 Awoke to sunshine again. This camp really caters to family fun yet is spacious enough so that everyone has privacy. There is miniature golf, Petanque, a huge bouncing gym under a tent, swings, pool and friterie! Hardly anyone in camp though so little activity. (We are far from all of that so we are not bothered by the commercialism! We are spending the day in St.-Jean-Port-Joli. This is a charming, very small (pop 3,300) town known for its wood and ice sculpture artists. It really is worth a day trip if you are in Quebec...

Sep 9, 2018 - Quebec City to St. Jean Port Jolie

September 9, 2018 Another glorious crisp fall morning with projected temps to be in the 50’s all day. Our first stop was Chute Monmorency which was only 10 minutes away on Hwy 40 east. The GPS messed up but we eventually found it. The claim to fame is that the falls are 99 feet hgher than Niagara Falls. There is a cable car to the top where you walk across the falls on a suspension bridge. OR you could climb 487 steps along the side of the falls. We took a picture!!! We met a Swiss couple recently retired from south of Zurich. They had the...

Sep 8, 2018 - Quebec City

September 8, 2018 Another gorgeous crisp (50’s) fall day. We got on the camp shuttle for a 15 minute ride into town where we were dropped off at the Chateau Frontenac which is celebrating its 125th anniversary. As with many other famous Canadian hotels, it was inspired by devotees and beneficiaries of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. We were not being picked up by the shuttle until 6:30 and had a 2 ½ hour walking tour scheduled at 1:30 so we had lots of time to wander. We have been to Quebec City twice before (when freezing cold) but realized...

Sep 7, 2018 - Montreal to Quebec City, Quebec

September 7, 2018 Another lovely, cool day in Montreal with nice weather for driving to Quebec City which is a little more than a 2 hour drive. We drove Hwy 20 which was quite crowded with trucks going both directions and lots of construction. The roads in Quebec are terrible in comparison to those in Ontario. Not much scenery other than sprawling farms and silos. At Levis we turned north to cross the St. Lawrence into greater Quebec City which is sprawling. We are camped at Camping de Jolie north of the city near Charlesbourg where we...

Sep 6, 2018 - Montreal

September 6, 2018 First, smoked meat is corned beef and not pastrami as I originally reported! Not sure what I was thinking! Montreal is very proud of their bagels as well and proudly compete against NY. Montreal bagels are hand-made (not machine) and water with honey boiled (not steamed). We would love to find an open shop to buy some! We previously have had poutine (french fries, gravy and cheese curds) but without the Montreal treatment of foie gras, carmelized onions, salsa, guacamole etc. BTW, the way to pronounce poutine is “putin”...

Sep 5, 2018 - Arrive au Canada et projet futur

Bonjour à Tous, Familles zé Amis, Juste une petite entrée pour mettre à jour la carte. Je suis bien revenu au Qc. Rencontrer mon chum Alain à St Jean sur Richelieu, prit qq bières pour fêter sa retraite!!! ensuite filer vers Qc où ma blonde m’attendait en vélo. Très belle rencontre !!! Cependant, qq sem plus tard juste avant notre voyage en Gaspésie elle chutais en vélo. Grosse déchirure des ligaments de l´Épaule, 5 sem d’immobilité en attelle. Donc, Gaspésie pas encore... Durant ce temps de repos pour elle, je roule, grimpe, nage et...

Sep 5, 2018 - Ottawa to Montreal

September 5, 2018 Ate dinner on the front porch which was delightful. Nice breeze. Alan stopped by to chat on the way back from buying water to. Turns out he is a financial broker with lots to say about the economy e.g. it can’t continue to grow! He also said we could leave the rig while we went to the National Gallery. Another nice but warm and humid day. We agreed to meet Alan at 10:45 to check out so did some research on Montreal and repacked the rig. Alan said not to put any dishes away as he sanitizes them all! He is a character! We...

Aug 29, 2018 - Quebec City

August 28, Tuesday We visited Quebec City and parked next to the Ferry Terminal $18 for all day was cheaper than 4 of us taking the Ferry from Levis’. We had never taken the cable car or “Funicular” so we did that to quickly go to the Information Center across from the beautiful Hotel Chateau Frontenac. While walking on the promenade we not only saw the beautiful “old city” and the St. Lawrence Seaway but the winter carnival toboggan “chute” which has been there for over 100 years and is still enjoyed by locals and visitors each winter. We...

Aug 27, 2018 - Quebec

August 26, Sunday Edmundston, N.B. We grabbed our passports and some US cash and headed out to Madawaska, Maine just a few miles across the river. Destination-Orchids Restaurant for brunch. The border crossing was easy and we had time so we headed to Four Corners Park for pictures. We have been to Key West for the most southern corner, and now the most northern corner of the US. Brunch was enjoyable and reasonable just as our campground hosts promised. We went back into Canada to head out for Quebec City. Only about 190 miles to travel and...

Aug 27, 2018 - Percé around town

We checked out Percé today. It’s just about the right size, has gift shops and lots of historic buildings as well as some great scenery. We looked at historic building in the town including ones from the historic Robin fishing company that was the first commercial business. Many of the fishermen were seasonal and there was large market for fish in Europe as the Catholic Church discouraged eating of meat much of the year. We drove to the base of Mont Sainte-Anne that is the red rock prominent over the town. One can reach the top on a hiking...

Aug 26, 2018 - Gaspe and Mont Joli

Today we drove to Gaspe - retracing our drive to Perce but with a real twist. The Eagle GPS put us on a route around town that was through farms and flat. This route on 132 is steep - 17% grades - and curved and very scenic. So glad we didn’t take it in the Eagle. We went to the southern visitor center for Forillon Park and looked at the WW 2 bunker remains of a military installation from 1942. The German U Boats were in Gaspe Bay and had sunk 20 ships including 2 warships from the adjoining Fort Ramsay. So an installation was put in place...

Aug 25, 2018 - L’ile-Bonaventure-Êt-Du-Rocher-Perce

I went south to a grocery store and got some items, then went into Perce for gas. This is a really cute town with a boardwalk along the beach going toward Perce Roche. Ray was not interested in the boat cruise and wanted to work on the mud flap so I took the cruise to the rock and island as the weather was good and there may be rain in a couple of days. Going close to the rock was great as we could see it clearly even with haze. The rock is 400 million years old and loses 300 tons of rock each year due to erosion - it is limestone and soft....