Day 48 - I had really hoped to spend Canada Day in Ottawa, but to do that we would have to stay another week and loose out on some of the Maritimes, so off we go on Hwy 417E and took the 14 vehicle ferry from Cumberland, ON to Masson, Quebec. Right smack dab into Thurso, Home of Guy Lafleur! From there we ventured into Omega Park in Montebello (thanks Bruce and Sandra for the tip) for a drive through a wildlife preserve with our bag of carrots to feed to the deer as they tried to stick their heads right into your car! Does the name Pavlov ring a bell? Our favourite part of the park was the “One Sky, One Land, 11 Nations” peaceful walk through the forest on a trail of magnificent sculptures and rock carvings telling the legends of those 11 Quebec First Nations who were living here before the arrival of the French. This is why we are travelling this way - certainly wouldn’t have caught this on the Trans Canada!
Plugged into our 1st Quebec EV charging station (Circuit Electrique) in a very pretty park in Namur with washrooms, playground, and lovely wooden swings in a shaded area. Way nicer than the EV stations at a gas station on the side of a highway with nothing to do but check your email or play Sudoku on your phone while parked in the sweltering heat or pouring rain. Then off into the mountains to Mount Tremblant where they were setting up for the 12th Ironman. Very resort-ish. We stayed that night in the rural village of Morin-Heights in the La Vie est Belle B&B, very cosy and a breakfast to die for!
Day 49 & 50- Montreal!
OMG, I couldn’t believe it - it was my day to drive and as we were approaching the city a full sized ocean freighter passed right over us! Just like when a train goes over us on the freeway - we were under the Saint Lawrence Seaway!!! I couldn’t believe it, it blew my mind! Right there above our head - we were driving under the Beauharnois lock! Took a bit for me to settle down after that one.
We had charged up in Oka and taken the ferry over to Hudson. Yes, Oka of the Oka Crisis in 1990 over a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka (lasted 78 days). We stayed with Roger’s cousin Karen for a few days in Beauharnois, which is south west of the city. It’s home of the lock we drove under and also one of the largest hydroelectric generating stations in the world!
Montreal: When Roger was 15 his father died and after a while he went to live with his Uncle Fred (his Dad’s brother), Aunt Lee and cousins Linda, Karen, George and Susan. We stayed with Karen for a few days and a lot of memories and pictures were exchanged. It was wonderful to watch the two of them and to catch up with other family as well. Karen toured us all around - We walked around old Montreal together, viewed the city from Belvedere Summit, visited churches, St. Joseph’s Oratory, had a picnic beside an old stone windmill, took an amazing backroad drive through Souanges Canal (with a park full of anchors recovered from the bottom of the rapids before the locks were in place in the Upper Saint Lawrence as “Drop the Anchor” was hollered as a last hope of avoiding the worst fate in the rapids) and watched fireworks on St. Jean Baptiste Day.
Lots of fond farewells and promises to return. 💕
I have to include this picture because the outside stairs in Montreal apartments I think are beautiful !
It’s extremely smoky from the forest fires (later learned that flights were cancelled and various other events, including the Ironman one).
Day 51 - 9000km 143.32 hours together in the car! According to Google, we could make it home in 4500km, so that’s a lot of backroad driving. Thank goodness we’re not travelling with gas, so far we’re at $500. in EV charging.
Trois Rivieres - the Champion of EV Charging in our books! Right downtown - close to everything - 18 public charging stations, electric vehicle rentals, and a vending machine for pizzas (which we did not try)! It is definitely what every city should set as a model.
Trois Rivieres is on the Saint Lawrence River and there was a huge freighter in the harbour right behind where we had lunch downtown - where I had my 1st Poutine! (Not as good as I had expected). I have put my Indie Bookstore venture on hold for now until we get back to the English dominant towns.
Trois Rivieres is also the birthplace of Lorna Margit Scott, my mother!
Day 51 - 53
Quebec City - We stayed for 3 nights in a B & B A L’Augustine at Rue Richelieu and Cote Sainte-Genevieve, and it was amazing - very quaint in a house built in the 1800’s. Our host Carolyn was very gracious and a tremendous cook. Fellow house guest were from California, Ottawa, Toronto and Mexico. We were walking distance to everything, and boy did we walk! This city is so steeped in history that we’re not even going to try to explain here, so we’ll cover Quebec City with some of the pictures we took. This is our B & B -
Of note though were some of the 109 firefighters from France who came to help with the forest fires in Quebec, bringing with them 14 tonnes of equipment.
Also of note was the Chalmers-Wesley Church - I have no idea if my family is connected at all, but our name also popped up in Portage la Prairie!
We visited Old Quebec City, Plains of Abraham, changing of the Royal 22nd Regiment guards at the Citadelle de Quebec, Plains of Abraham, Museums, restaurants, street vendors, and Chateau Frontenac noting that the Rotary Club of Quebec has been meeting there weekly since 1919.
We’re not quite out of Quebec but we thought we better get this posted so you know we haven’t fallen off the map!
Au revoir 📫
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