Continuing along the Saint Lawrence

Hi everyone

We are really enjoying ourselves here in Québec and along the Saint Lawrence River. The area is so beautiful and the people so nice. As soon as we speak (André) or at least try to do so (I) in French, they open up and start asking us questions and giving us tips. After our stay at "Chez Denise" we took a detour to Lac Saint-Jean where we spent 4 nights on a campground located on the premises of a Jesuit monastery. It was very tranquil and the ringing of the church bells reminded me of the times I spent at my grand-parents as a kid every summer. We explored the area around the lake and one day took a cruise on the Fjord of Saguenay. There is a tall statue of the Virgin Mary on a rock on the west bank of the fiord where, as a tradition, passing ships will stop or slow down and play the “Ave Maria” to thank her for a save passage. Very impressing, especially when you’re on one of those ships while they do so. Then we drove back to the Saint Lawrence by way of Saguenay from where we drove east bound once again to Tadoussac and Essipit. Yesterday we kept following the river to Baie-Comeau, a short drive only but here we want to spend a couple of days before conquering the real big adventure: the next roughly 1100 km will lead us north to Labrador City from where we will continue to Churchill Falls and finally Happy Valleye - Gose Bay in Labrador. The thing is that most of those 1100 km will be on gravel roads with narrow passages and turns. This should be very interesting to say the least. The reason we are telling you about our plans for the next few days is that Internet reception is kind of spotty where we are now and somehow we have the feeling it will not get better until we reach a bigger city. So if there aren’t any updates for a few days, this might be the reason. At least you know where we’re headed and we will tell you all about the drive when we get a chance to write a new blog.

Anyhow, the region around Lac Saint-Jean and the Fjord of Saguenay are gorgeous. We drove around the lake and found one spot nicer than the last and we can only recommend this area. It was worth the detour for sure. And the landscape continued to take our breath away as we drove towards Tadoussac and along the Saint Lawrence River to Baie-Comeau. We also had our first experience on a ferry in Tadoussac, turning a corner and thinking we would find a rest stop but ending up right on the ship. Nature had called for André and the short trip (only 7 minutes) due to a line in front of the restrooms was just long enough to answer the call.

 André and Sue

Somewhere on the road in Canada

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