Part 2: Quebec and PEI

May 15: Well, the day has come; we are leaving the Domaine des Chutes for Gaspe. It is 4.9°C, it seems our summer weather has vanished. Had lunch at Ste-Angele des Lacs; there will be a lot of French town names, as we are travelling through the province of Quebec. We crossed the St. Lawrence River at Trois-Rivieres, and camped just outside Levis. It is called Le Camping de la Martiniere – very interesting. There is a memorial to the soldiers of the two world wars, and there was a fort here at one time.

May 16: Pretty cool this morning, 3.4°C. We are travelling the south side of the St. Lawrence; it is very scenic. We make many stops today to visit artisans and antiques shops, especially in St-Jean-Port-Joli. Tonight, we are staying in Rimouski, just outside the village.

May 17: Left at 7:30 a.m. this morning, did good time, and arrived in Perce around 10 a.m. A lot to see here in handwork and lots of fishing. I bought a beautiful tablecloth made on a loom. 11.9°C.

May 18: More fishing villages and more artisans and antiques, also woodwork. We are staying in Maria tonight, a small village in Gaspe. It has been raining since two o’clock, and is 14°C tonight.

May 19: Left Maria this morning, in the sunshine, 6.2°C. Crossing into New Brunswick, we want to see the Acadian Village, not far from Caraquet, again it was closed. It does not open until June. We will have to come back this way. We mostly travel today.

May 20: It is sunny and 2°C this morning as we travel Route 11. We are following the water and passing all kinds of fishing villages. It seems that everything here pertains to fishing. We stopped at a Scottish gift shop, not much in it; I think that it was very new. Crossing on the Confederation Bridge into PEI is just awesome, but do not do like we did – miss the parking at the entrance. As we will come back on the ferry, we missed the picture taking. We will spend a few days here, in an RV park in Harrington PEI.

May 21: Very cold this morning, the water is frozen in the pipes. It is supposed to warm up to 20°C later in the day; we hope so. On Sunday everything is closed, so we decided to do some sightseeing around the island. It is beautiful, and very warm this afternoon. Then for dinner Jean took us to Lobster on the Wharf Restaurant, excellent food right on the water.

May 22: A relaxing day, laundry day, house cleaning and more touring. Tonight, preparing for the crossing to the Isles de la Madeleine archipelago tomorrow.

May 23: We leave PEI in overcast skies, and board the Madeleine ferry in the town of Souris for a five-hour crossing. The islands are north of PEI in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Quebec. The sea is pretty rough, and Jean is seasick. We arrived at Cap aux Meules, Isles de la Madeleine, in a little sunshine, but not for long. We have reservations at Camping les Sillons, in Havre aux Maisons, a beautiful park on the ocean. There is water everywhere. "The sea and the wind dominate the earth," – I can believe it!

Isles de la Madeleine archipelago

Everyone is in bed by nine o’clock, tired. This trek was not in our original plans, it all came about because one of my sisters had been here before, and was very impressed. So are we. There is a great difference in the weather; it is much milder.

May 24: Cool this morning, 7°C. We are observing the ocean breakers at the breakfast table; it is awesome. We will sightsee today, although not everything is open here, either. We are too early for travelling in eastern Canada. However, we saw a sand arts making shop – intriguing work.

The population of the Islands is around 11,000. The vegetation is well worth seeing; they have mushrooms, all kinds of berries, flowers galore and some of it grows right in the dunes.

May 25: Pouring rain this morning and 5.5°C, so we will relax and go out this afternoon. We went to Grosse Ile Island where there is a salt mine. You cannot tour it, but they have all sorts of information on it. It was closed for a while because of flooding, but is back in operation now. It is warming up, 15.5°C, and we go walking on the beach.

May 26: It is still wet, and 5.6°C, oh well, we will make the best of it. This afternoon, we will go to the villages of L’Etang du Nord and Fatima. Jean wants a rake for gathering native mussels at low tide – there is lots of gravel in them and you have to clean them well. There are also mussel farms here. Beautiful sunshine tonight, it seems like it every night.

May 27: It is a beautiful morning. We have to replenish our food, so we head to the bakery Manon for delicious bread – Quebec is known for good bread. In the afternoon we go to L’Echouerie, a park by the sea. We also visit the dunes to the north, then to the wharf to see the fisherman coming with their catch. This is lobster season and it is a great experience. Finally, we visit the Fromagerie du Pied du Vent, where they make only one kind of cheese: soft and creamy.

May 28: Quite warm this morning; we are going to Havre-Aubert, a town with 300 years of history. It is a very, very old small village, with old buildings – a lot of them abandoned. Some of the buildings have been used for craft shops etc. There are many idle fishing boats, some hills and lots of sand dunes. We took a walk in the sand.

May 29: This is our last day on the islands, 6.5°C. We did a little more exploring. Tonight we will spend the night at the ferry terminal as we are leaving early.

Next issue: PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland