First destination 21 September

We arrived in Quebec City on Sunday pm without too much hassle, having flown standby for the first time. Our auberge was right in the middle of the old city.
Bit of trivia: QC is the only North American walled city north of Mexico City. Overall impression: a prosperous city with substantial looking buildings some with bright red or green painted roofs some made of attractive copper, vibrant floral displays everywhere, people very courteous but all determinedly French speaking.
A very worthwhile visit to a museum brought home to me the diversity of the history of the French speaking people of North America. I hadn’t really thought about the French origins of New Orleans. The early French explorers and, subsequently, the Acadian settlers who were expelled by the English, sailed up the St Lawrence River from Quebec, across the Great Lakes then made their way down the Mississippi.

On the road Tues 22 Sept

Driving along beside the St Lawrence River through a fairly uninteresting agricultural area with a thin strip of housing running almost continuously along both side of the road, we picked a motel randomly, quite late in the evening. Next morning, we found it was across the road from a lighthouse. Nearby was the wreck of The Empress of Ireland - this was the the second worst maritime disaster in history, after the Titanic, with the loss of 1200 lives.

Gaspé Peninsula, Wed Sept 23rd

Next day there was hardly any traffic and the road was good apart from several patches of major roadworks. As we neared the head of the peninsula the terrain became more rugged and forested and as a result the scenery became more colourful.
Wildlife seen: chipmunks, a groundhog, a deer (on the back of a truck!), a fox, and a whale just glimpsed not far off shore as we were waiting at some roadworks.
We stayed in a hostel on the edge of the Forillon Forest Park. It was virtually empty so it was very peaceful.
Local dish sampled (and survived) by P: poutine, which is Quebec's fast food masterpiece(!) consisting of French fries with cheese curds coated in gravy!!

Gaspé Peninsula Thurs 24th Sept

We did a couple of walks in the forest park: one to a tower with fantastic views. The trees blanketing the hills were a lovely mixture of greens, yellows, golds and some reds. The other was to the lighthouse at the very end of the Gaspe peninsula. No black bears seen though we were warned they were around in the park, but we did come across 3 porcupines (on three separate occasions). One taught us something new - porcupines climb and eat in trees.

It's turning a bit chilly. Overcast for some of the day, but by late afternoon the sky was completely clear, which was nice for our evening guided visit to a beaver lake. The beavers became active as dusk approached, and it was a magical end to the day.

Going east

Fri 25th Sept

A long drive through New Brunswick, nearly into Nova Scotia. Attractive colourful forest scenery. No moose seen despite numerous warning signs!





Sat 26th Sept

The northern coastline of Nova Scotia is quite attractive, with more varied use of land than in the parts of Quebec and New Brunswick which we drove through - agriculture, housing, forests, shoreline.

Found a lovely park by the shore, with a view across to Prince Edward Island, in which to have a picnic lunch, watching a variety of birds feeding along the red shoreline.

There is clear evidence in the place names of the settlement at various times of Scots, Irish, French and the First Nation (Indian) people, the Mi'kmak. In some places it seem more Scottish than much of Scotland with the street names given in Gaelic and English. We stayed the night just out of the small university town of Antigonish at an excellent farm B & B.

The Nova Scotians appear to take their Scottish heritage very seriously, though whether largely for tourists is unclear.

Local dish sampled (C) and enjoyed: locally caught and smoked salmon, with eggs, for breakfast.

Heading west again

Thurs 1st Oct
Low cloud or rain most of day. Stopped twice to look at places off the main road:at Grand Falls at waterfall/hydro scheme; at Hartland, at the longest covered road bridge in the world.






As always little traffic, lots and lots of road works. Stayed at a well-appointed, pleasant gite in Kamouraska, beside St Lawrence. The owners were Quebecois and spoke limited English, but were very friendly and provided a delicious breakfast of ham crepes , then bread with four jams/jellies including physalis (cape gooseberry) jam, gooseberry jelly, maple syrup and creme fraiche spread.

Whale watching

Tues 29th Sept
Did two walks in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Beautiful weather. Promises of moose, bear and whale sightings, but none seen, though some moose tracks evident. Only wildlife seen was an eagle by the coast + a few small birds. A lot of dead trees and much recent regeneration of forest after trees devastated by parasite in 1970s. Later to "Whale Interpretive Centre" near hostel.


Wed 30th Sept
Went whale watching from Pleasant Bay. Skipper was a French Canadian from the nearby Acadian settlement, Chéticamp. Saw a large pod of pilot whales including some calves swimming in between two females. They were swimming right alongside and under our stern. Lunch beside jetty in Cheticamp,then we began heading back west. Attractive countryside on drive across Nova Scotia; lots of brilliant autumn colours along motorways in New Brunswick.

Cape Breton

Sun 27th Sept
The reconstructed fortress of Louisburg was windswept but interesting. Actors in period costume, stationed in many of the buildings interacted with the visitors. (Back in the mid 1700s Louisburg was a big and important harbour to the French because of the cod fishing).
Local food sampled: Seafood chowder (C) and hot beef sandwich with mashed pots and gravy (P). The Canadians do seem to like their carbohydrates!

Mon 28th Sept
Excellent museum at Baddeck where Alexander Graham Bell lived in the latter part of his life, had exhibits covering some of his many interests and inventions. Bell initially worked as a teacher of the deaf - married Mabel who was one of his pupils - using an alphabet system called Visible Speech based on how the sounds are produced by the vocal organs. Apart from inventing the telephone, he co-founded the National Geographic Society, was co-designer of the plane that made the first powered flight in Canada, was co-designer of the hydrofoil boat that set the world marine speed record in 1919, and did research on increasing multiple births in sheep, amongst other things!!.

Cape Breton (pronounced 'capbreTAN' by the natives) has a very indented coastline as well as a large sea loch in its middle (which almost cuts the island into two), so there are lots of pretty views out over water. The hillsides in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park are turning colour and would have been very pretty if we had had sun instead of heavy rain on the drive north.

Family time

Fri 2nd Oct
We drove down to Kingston, encountering yet more roadworks and horrendous traffic in Montreal. No fun!

We spent the weekend catching up with nephew Rob and getting to know Leila his new wife, Marnie his lovely 3 year old daughter and Oban his newly acquired 3 year old dog. At various times we did our share of child minding and dog sitting!


Sat 3rd Oct
We had a look around Kingston downtown and took a trip to Fort Henry (closed) to get a great view of the city and the St Lawrence River. Kingston is an attractive, well-heeled city with a lovely location beside the St Lawrence river.


Mon 5th Oct
Pleasant drive Kingston to Ottawa through pretty scenery beside Rideau canal/river/lake system. It was good to see David and Barbara again.

Tues 6th Oct
Went with D&B to Lee Valley store (full of gadgets and hobby equipment for retirees!), then to small village of Wakefield on Quebec side in time to see a steam train arrive, then the engine being turned on the turntable.

From there to Mackenzie King property in Gatineau Park for very pleasant walk in woods (with follies). M-K (a former Prime Minister) was slightly mad -talked to dead mother and dog for inspiration - but created and bequeathed beautiful park to the nation. Culinary highlight: BBQ salmon cooked on cedar board.

Ottawa

Wed 7th Oct
Museums!
Ottawa has some magnificent buildings - some like Parliament with its copper roof

but also many new, not too tall bildings of interesting glass and steel construction e.g the National Art Gallery. Particualrly liked the exhibitions of Inuit art, early colonial paintings, and work by the Group of Seven. We could have done with much more time in The Museum of Civilisation (another magnificent building) - excellent recreation of colonial Canadian development to 1970s + even better installations and displays of aboriginal culture.


In evening Barbara managed to get us tickets to the Diefenbunker a decomissioned Cold War bunker (built to house the PM and top govt officials) that has been made into a museum by the locals in Carp. A chilling reminder of a period of history that could so easily be repeated.