Wander around with the Environmental Wanderer
Add the eco slant to your travels.
London, England
Quebec, Where is that?
Get yourself to Toronto, Canada. Then train it to Montreal in Quebec. It is a very scenic journey of approximately five hours and a train is a very eco way to travel. Montreal showed itself to be a wonderful city full of pretty girls. A city of great architecture – big and grand and imposing, and the residential streets are really pretty. There is lots to do and lots to see. There is the modern business section and the old port area which is beautiful and historic and completely lived in – not a museum at all. It is all French speaking which makes you feel as if you are in a foreign land – which indeed you are. Signs in Quebec are in French too. The people of Quebec are fiercely supportive of their language and culture so brush up on your French phrases before you go. Nowadays however most people do speak some English but it is courteous to try and speak in French first. Let them laugh at your poor attempt and then they will respond in English. merci! thankyou!
Quebec City is much, much smaller than Montreal but the old city is stunning in its picturesque qualities. Again the architecture is magnificent giving the city a medieval castle atmosphere. This is where you will find top quality croissants; light and buttery like a good French croissant should be. A city of castles and croissants.
Checked in at the Hotel Le Germain who have a black decor throughout. They do the eco program of only replacing towels left in the bathtub but not those hung upon hooks after use, to save resources. Both the bedroom and bathroom were really big and spacious with great views. Breakfast here is chopped fresh fruit and good croissants. Very nice front desk people here too. Merci.
Drive along the North shore of the Saint Laurent River. This mesmerizing body of silver slides by just to the right hand of the car window. It is so wide that it is hardly ever out of view and its primeval force seemingly pulls the car along in its wake. A river so big that you can’t even see the other side. My eco companion said it is a major seaway and indeed you do see big ships keeping to the seaway. You can actually see the strong current and feel its force. It is awe inspiring.
At the Saguenay River as it floods down its fjord to join the mighty Saint Laurent River, the Canadians decided not to build a bridge for the cars and trucks but to convey them across via ferry. The ferry runs almost non stop and the trip takes just five minutes. Just enough time to be on the water on a ferry, and see the fjord. Most of the little towns have a tiny church. This tiny church has been dedicated to ecological projects and they have moved the pews aside and now a few carefully selected saplings are given a safe place to thrive. That the church is standing with the ecological movement is a good fit so let us hope this continues.
Drive on to Tadoussac. Stay at the Tadoussac Hotel which is a Victorian era vast pile of a hotel whose front lobby/lounge is vast with sofas all over and good quality art on the walls, and a grand dining room so large that a small child can get lost in it. We did not think the restaurant would be too busy for dinner as it is a small town but the place was packed and chattering. The tablecloths were thick and white, and dinner was cooked really well and presented well too. We had local fish of course. The service was quiet and professional and it was enlivening to eat in a restaurant that was buzzing it was so full of people. The walls are covered by a huge mural on all four walls of soldiers and horses in battle and ships in battle mode and horses and wagons – so interesting and different and impressive.
Afternoons can be spent sitting in the authentic old wooden Adirondack chairs on the big lawn that slopes dreamily down to the bay. And when the tide rolls in you can see the meniscus of the water as it curves inward around the sandbank. Sometimes you can see whales far out in the river. There are two lovely walks that we took. One goes up a lot of steps and then up over rocks reaching a lookout point where you can see the fjord. An easier walk is a hidden pathway from the town down to the beach. It passes through trees and beside a clear babbling brook the sound of which is so magical that we just stopped for a while and stood and listened to it. When asked if the hotel uses eco friendly cleaning products we were told “Not for everything we admit that but we are aware and we do what we can” and I liked their honest answer and that they are trying.
On the road again to Baie Comeau on route 138 to catch the ferry that takes you across the vast Saint Laurent River. A beautiful trip along the coast road passing rivers and coves and we stopped at several beauty spots just to drink in the unspoiled view and fresh air. We bought lovely sandwiches and salads at a little cafe called Manoir Du Cafe to eat for our supper on the ferry. This ferry is a real and big ferry taking multiple cars and trucks and loaded carefully by several people onto several decks. A ferry is so eco as it conveys lots of trucks and cars a great distance on one fuel supply. It is fun to be on a ferry. The trip takes two hours and ten minutes – to cross a river! That is how huge the mighty Saint Lawrence River is. It really is awe inspiring it is so huge. Being by water is just so soothing for the soul somehow. We embarked at sunset and the trip was very smooth. Disembarked at Matane on the south shore at dusk. Then a shadowy evening drive through the gloaming over empty hills via twisty roads passing by fields and a few farms to Saint Anne Des Monts. Stay at the Auberge Chateau Lamontagne which is an old family house that belonged to a rich merchant and built long ago far out on a tall bluff atop the bay. It was refreshed in 2005 with new bathrooms and upgrades. The inhouse restaurant is a catchment spot for food lovers from all over the area. The host so personable and the food so fragrant and delicious – we had local fish of course!
The area is called Gaspesie and is beautiful and great for hiking. A drive of only a few miles on route 299 takes you into Parc National de la Gaspesie and the Reserve Faunique. All the maps we got are in French – so Reserve Ecologique. Wild flowers are exuberant and abundant in mats of color. Crops looking healthy. We hiked up different mountains on several different trails with lakes, flowers, woods, streams, creeks and views at every turn. Caribou live in this reserve and some areas are sometimes closed to protect them. We ended up at a high elevation and a deserted lake and stunning beauty. The highest mountain here is Mont Albert and one of the hikes takes 7 – 8 hours. After our nature eco walks we treated ourselves to a fabulous patisserie from the Boulangerie Marie 4 Poches in the river town of Saint Anne Des Monts. Merci.
Next day we continued our drive on 132 heading east for Gaspe at the tip of the peninsula. The name comes from the First Nation word gespeg which means lands end. The Frenchman Jacques Cartier landed here in 1534 so that was when the name changed to the French. This route takes you by the Reserve Faunique Des Chic Chocs which are a continuation of the Appalachian mountains. The First Nation tribe of the Gaspesie peninsula are the Mi’Kmaqs who live in the Chic Chocs. So empty here, just a few hamlets. Just drive off the road to be in nature, and stop for short walks. Flowers and tall grasses everywhere; all of us striving for our place in the sun and so happy when we find it. Je suis content ici.
Drive on to Perce – Pierced Rock. Perce is actually the beauty spot and not Gaspe. The roads are a drivers dream as they twist and turn and go up steeply and then plunge downward again, all the while the vertical cliff face is only a few feet from the car window as it shows off its strata in huge folds and ridges of a deep red color having been placed that way millions of years ago. If you are a geologist you will love the rocks here.
And then of course there is the famous pierced rock from which Perce gets its name. A vast rectangular chunk of golden sandstone sits alone just off the shore and has a perfect archway right through it where over the millennia the sea has ground the hole right through the rock. By the name Pierced Rock or Land’s End (gespeg) it is a great sight.
It is at Gaspe that the Saint Lawrence River flows into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the largest estuary in the world. The water here is a beautiful blue.
Stay at Nordet Motel where all the rooms overlook the bay and as it is located between villages it stands quite alone giving you a feeling of freedom and space as you look out over the water. Rooms are clean with wood floors and beams and wood tables and even wood countertops which makes it eco friendly. And they have eco packaging on the bar of soap that they give you so a plus mark for that. And the front desk girls are helpful – Merci.
We took the boat trip to the tiny Island of Bonaventure which was inhabited by only 150 people for a very long time. Then that population dwindled and when in 1962 the government realized that no-one lived there any longer the island was made into a nesting sanctuary for the seabirds called gannets, and there are now over 100,000 gannets who call the tiny island home. They nest in crowded quarters all along the steep rocky ledges on the far side of the island which is a vertical cliff face, and wheel overhead the boat in the hundreds making a “heavenly” show. They mate for life and only have one egg per year. We also saw seals in these waters. On the gentle grassy side of the island is a small house where the main family lived which is kept just as they did with dining room kitchen and bedrooms on show for you to see how they lived in those days when life was far more eco friendly than it is today. My eco companion told me that the people of the area used to lay out the cod fish to dry on the pebble beaches as fishing for cod was the primary industry in the days when cod were huge. Cod have now been overfished and are much, much smaller in size. There are numerous reports from the 1800s of cod weighing over 150 pounds, today it is rare to see one over 30 pounds. A little time before we catch the boat back to the shore, so we sit in the sun in the garden in front of the little house and look out at the bay, the water, the shore, Perce Rock all looking so beautiful and we are surrounded by peace and silence. Dinner that night was at La Maison Du Pecheur – top notch food and service – just excellent. We had local fish of course!
Our second day at Perce was the reason for this trip for the eco wanderers; a whale watching boat expedition into the gulf. We had already booked the boat but when we showed up we were told it was cancelled due to a big thunderstorm moving in. So sad! But that’s life! We would have been devastated by this news if we had not already had a “big” encounter. At Les Escoumins on the north shore we had stopped at the little national park for a walkabout. This park is the north eastern point of the Parc Marin du Saguenay Saint Laurent ie a national park for marine wildlife that hugs the north shore stretching east from Port au Saumon and on past Tadoussac. The boulders here are huge and smooth and rounded from the action of the glaciers long ago. They are beautiful too as they are pink granite which is a pretty soft pink color. Granite is an igneous rock composed mainly of quartz and feldspar. The water lapping up to their edges is deep here and an employee stops you and you are “advised not to fall in as getting out unaided is impossible”. We looked out at the river and then we saw two park rangers and we scrambled over the rocks to talk to them. They were working on an eco project of counting the whales and monitoring their habits. What a job! One of the rangers was also working on another eco project of scuba diving to the bottom of the river to document what was down there in the government’s efforts to better understand the river and its ecology. She said they were discovering all kinds of things that they had not known about and was so enthusiastic about her eco work that it was lovely listening to her. And then she said that you sometimes see whales in these waters and right then a whale leaped right out in front of us. So close I could see it’s skin texture in the clean sunlight! Was that it’s eye?! It disappeared as quickly. And then it surfaced again, so close I felt I could almost reach out and touch it! Then it was gone, it swam off. All happened so quickly! A whale sighting! And so close! Our excitement was huge and as I and my eco companion were squeaking with delight the park ranger said in an offhand way “Oh that’s just a minke whale. Some others are much bigger” which made everyone burst out laughing. Then as we all stood there smiling at each other the park ranger called “Look there!” She pointed to a spot in the midst of the vast silvery lake/river/gulf/seaway/ocean in front of us and then she handed her binoculars to my eco companion and we saw a white beluga whale emerge from out of the water. It was so white that as the water slid off its body and the clean sunlight caught it well then it looked silver and white and mysterious. What is the story of this white whale’s history and how far upriver does he live? According to NOAA belugas are known for their white color and range of vocal sounds, earning them the title of “canary of the sea.” They produce many different sounds, including whistles, squeals, moos, chirps, and clicks. They are very social animals, forming groups to hunt, migrate, and interact with each other. They are now protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. We would never have caught that beluga whale sighting if it had not been for that special park ranger. Merci beaucoup.
Drive to the river town of Riviere du Loup which takes several hours. The drive goes through farmland where the lush fields yield a big crop of hay for fodder for the animals in winter. Drove past a quarry and lots of logging and milling facilities that appear through the woods of fir trees. Saw some horses but considering the land is so lush with big fields for horses to be put to the gallop, I was surprised we did not see more. There are so many, literally one after another, rivers to cross as you drive along this route and 95% of them are called Salmon River. The abundance of the rivers and land is apparent. Stay in a cheap little motel and have a great dinner at Le Saint-Patrice on rue Fraser which was so good and so cool. We had local fish of course!
Drive to Montreal. A four hour drive. The old coast road is magical seeing the summer homes both old and new built as close to the water as they can get. How we all love the water. The houses all so inviting. Then onto the main road and a dull drive until Montreal where suddenly you are in a big city environment. So many restaurants to choose from, we recommend La Sauvagine in the old city. So many places to explore; a big and busy city. Then time to leave and go home. Merci Quebec.
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trip to:
LONDON-ENGLAND
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