The last night we spent in Metis sur Mer, I drove into Mont Joli to get diesel. I was hoping the haze would give me a nice sunset as well, but it was only so-so. Still, I stopped at a local “halte” which are the numerous picnic spots found along route 132. Most of them won’t accommodate large vehicles, so we can’t use them as rest stops when towing. But this one was right on the water and certainly fit Rory. Even though this is still considered the St. Lawrence River, there are seashells on the beaches.
Sadly, we woke up to hazier conditions due to the wildfire smoke that so many have experienced. It would not leave us during our time in the area, so many of the photos are quite poor. Visibility was certainly not great.
Following Jerry and Wendy, wishing it was less hazy. View to my left was still amazing despite the haze.Ran into construction multiple times. Thought this was a cool statue. It reminds me of a seal with a ball on it’s nose. The metal sphere spun with the wind.
We had a stop marked in the book that mentioned a waterfall. It said the pull over would only fit about 5 rigs, but we made it work with more.
Rory at restA lot of Open Range products representedWaterfall was pretty
Sadly, the smoke and visibility seemed even worse when we arrived at our campground. Baie de Gaspe is, of course, pretty easy to translate: Bay of Gaspe. It was not near stores or towns; Gaspe itself was about 30 minutes south. But there was a nice plage, or beach, near it. And it had a water overlook, if only we could have seen it better.
There were a lot of seasonals up the hill from us; we were all down in back in spots. My power pedestal literally had a padlock on the 50 amp circuit, so I had to use the 30 amp. Which most of these campgrounds have been limited to, so no big deal. Still, I’ve never seen a circuit padlocked before.
View from my site to the left.View looking out to the back of my site.
We had a free day to explore Forillon National Park, the first national park located in Quebec. It was thought to have been named for a flowerpot seastack that’s since collapsed into the sea.
The park was created in 1970 after a subcontracting firm hired by the government bullied and harassed the 225 families living on the land to sell out at low fees. This expropriation eventually led to an official government apology in 2011.
We were closest to the south entrance for the park. There’s a road that runs along the sea cliffs until it ends in a walking trail; if you walk a few Km there’s a lighthouse at the end. I met Jerry, Wendy, Charlie, and Rae for a picnic lunch at the trail head. However, given the smoke, none of us wanted to hike the trail. Apparently, the end near the lighthouse is quite steep.
I really didn’t take any pictures; it didn’t seem worth it. However, not all is lost. Our next stop, in Perce, was only 60 some miles down 132. We would have a free day there, and I spent it driving back to Forillon as the day was beautiful, smoke free, and I wanted to see the park in all it’s glory. The other motive was to go to the IGA and Canadian Tire stores as they were closed when we were in Gaspe due to a national holiday (St. John the Baptists day). So you’ll see them in the next post.
On a another note, we started to see some very interesting signs on 132. Some of which we could not interpret. Here are some examples.
3 way stop15% down grade. A record at the time for me, it would be exceeded a few days later by a 17% grade into Perce. I have never seen such steep grades on a public road in my life. Alaska had some long grades, but I don’t think they ever exceeded 8-9%. Avalance dangerHigh wave danger for the next 7 km. 14% grade with curves. Not fun. Falling rockThis is the sign no one could figure out. It had no words, not French or otherwise. It wasn’t until we got to PEI that we finally figured it out; they had the same sign but with words beneath it. Any guesses?This was taken the night before we left Gaspe. It’s in the town, at an Irving gas station. Notice diesel is cheaper than gas, which has consistently been the case in Canada.
Next post we go to Perce, take a boat tour, and I fly some of my kites.
We had a completely free day on the fourth day in Quebec City. Jerry, Wendy and some others had talked about going zip lining at the Montmorency Falls. I don’t zip line. I don’t really zip anywhere. What I did instead was a bit boring, but one of those necessary days when you’re traveling constantly: a me day.
I slept in. Which was amazing. Did at least 3, maybe 4 loads of laundry, washed all the dishes, and figured out which of the 3 Costcos in the area was nearest and drove there.
Costco Canada is comfortingly familiar, but also foreign. In Quebec, of course, everything is in French. But the layout and the stuff inside seem normal to this American. One thing I knew ahead of time was that they don’t accept Visa, only Mastercard. Which I don’t possess. But you can digitally buy a Costco shop card with your visa; it’s delivered to you via email and then you use it as a digital gift card. So, I bought one prior to leaving for the store.
I should know by experience in the States that no matter what day of the week or time of day, it’s going to be a zoo. But it was a Monday early afternoon. How busy could it be???? Oh, I’m so naive.
The parking lot was nearly completely full. I parked in the last row nearest the street and hoofed it in.
Looks fairly similar to U.S., right?Until you try to read the signs and realize some you can figure out…like fruits et legumes. And some you have no idea, like volalle
Something that threw me off slightly was they have a self checkout. There was an English option, so it went ok. Until I got to the lady checking receipts who spouted a torrent of French to me. When I said I didn’t speak French you could see the cogs turning in her head as everything shifted, and in perfect English she informed me that today was a great day to buy gas as it’s only $158/L today (which is a good price for gas–mostly it’s been $178/L). However, I already knew they didn’t carry diesel (which ironically has consistently been less expensive than gas here).
So, I had a productive day. And the ziplining apparently was closed on Mondays, so that crew came back and the guys all worked on getting John and Sherry’s trailer wheels remounted (or something).
The next morning it was time to leave for our next destination, near Grand Metis. Much of the route followed the St. Lawrence river. As we exited the Quebec City KOA, I had to get a picture of a tent that had set up the day before. Quite the elaborate tent site!
Tent linked to tent linked to tent? With pic of their 2 dogs on the very front.
It was overcast; this was what a lot of my drive looked like to my left.
Not a bad way to spend a drive. We did leave the divided, 4 lane highway fairly quickly north of Quebec City. Jerry radioed me that it was likely the last we’d see a divided highway and so far he’s not wrong. We also went past the town of Rimouski, QC which I’ve long been passingly familiar with due to someone who once lived here. Bonus points to anyone who knows who I’m talking about, and here’s a bit of a hint:
We drove 220 miles to get to our campground, Camping Annies. The sites were had mature trees but good space between them. Everything was back in, and I had lots of help getting myself into my spot. We were due to spend 2 days there. The campground is technically in Metis su Mer. Off route 132, which runs along the coast line of the St. Lawrence south bank all around the Gaspe peninsula. It’s a route we’d become very familiar with since we were going all the way around!
Up until this point I’d not really tried out my Starlink; it wasn’t until the last day in Quebec City that I opened the box and tried to set it up. I could not get it to work at all; frustrated I spent part of the evening on the phone with Home Depot, who really couldn’t help. I concluded it was a dud and was trying to figure out how to send it back. We’d been told the WiFi at Quebec City was the best we’d be able to expect the entire trip and let me tell you that was not encouraging. So, I was a bit desperate when I got to Camping Annies, which did have a decent view of the northern sky. I decided to give the Starlink another shot and actually was able to figure out the issue. After it was addressed, set up was relatively straightforward and I was very, very pleased with the speed of the connection. It’s truly the difference between being able to share my photos with you and not.
So, prepare yourselves. For we spent the morning the next day at the Redford Gardens, and I took a few (cough hundred cough) pics of the beautiful grounds.
Elsie Redford was born in 1872 in Ontario. Her parents had modest roots but her father worked his way up in his work and there was a marked emphasis on education for their 3 children, which meant that Elsie was sent to finishing schools in Dresden and Paris after completing school in Montreal. She returned to Canada ready to take her place in society; in 1894 she married Robert Redford, the son of a shipping magnate, and Elsie threw herself into various philanthropic endeavors. She was an avid horsewoman, and loved spending time hunting, fishing, and just being outdoors. She taught her 2 sons much of the same and the family often spent their summers at a fishing lodge belonging to her uncle near Grand Metis. When he died, the lodge passed to her.
When she was 53 she had surgery for appendicitis. Her doctor didn’t want her fishing, fearing the strain on her recent surgical site; he suggested gardening instead. As with all her endeavors, she went into it whole-heartedly. The lodge wasn’t an ideal place to garden; it was located for it’s fishing possibilities, not growing flowers. However, Elsie was persistent and traded salmon for better soil and composting materials. By the end of her life she was writing articles for the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society.
The gardens were opened to the public in 1962; Elsie died in 1967. However, her incredible work to transform a spruce forest in Quebec to a beautiful garden remains her gift to this day.
Images at the entrance of the variety which can be found on the grounds. I always have to have a picture of Wendy taking a picture. She was trying to capture a beautiful butterfly.And here’s Jerry walking back to try and find Wendy….I like semi-macro photography, especially of flowers.There’s a beautiful little stream running through the property. Since it’s mid June not everything had bloomed yet. It’s fairly far north. Chris trying to figure out where to go next. Rhododendrons!Johnny checking his camera settings. Rae crouching amongst the flowers.Here’s a little bee looking for pollen. There are lilacs everywhere in QuebecThere was some interesting art as well.One of the few peonies that had bloomed. Most had huge buds but no flowers. Johnny and Caroline enjoying the day.This truck still runs.The lodgeThe Long Walk pathView from the back of the lodge towards the St. LawrenceThe inside of the lodge had an exhibit on clothing styles of Elsie’s time. Rae waving to me from the second floor of the lodgeAs close to the water as we could get. The Long Walk without people…More interesting art.Bonsai!There was also a pond area and plantings around it dedicated to supporting bird life. This little guy was eating up fallen bird seed.
As we tromped around the gardens, many decided we’d like to eat dinner together at a seafood restaurant near the campground called Le Matelot. However, they said they couldn’t accommodate our party for dinner (we asked for 14 seats). So, people made reservations for smaller groups for lunch, after the garden tour. There were plenty of seats available, but I think there was some struggle for them to understand our non-French conversation. I ended up going with Charlie, Rae, Richard and Dana.
Our view. Not bad. Randy, Mary, and Chris were right next to us. I had butterfly shrimp and mandarin shrimp (crevette in French). Outside the restaurant they had a chair shaped into a lobster (homard in French).
After our late lunch, I went to Mont Joli for fuel. We were due to travel the next day from Camping Annies to Gaspe. While we had a beautiful day in Metis sur Mer, the next morning would alter things dramatically…
Travel with Me! 