Canada - Mont Tremblant

Our last full day in Canada.  Today we headed to Mont Tremblant - a ski resort, which is supposed to be pretty and quite active for trails etc during the summer.  We got up early today as we figured with only one night there, we would want to do something today and the earlier we get there the better.  So we were up at 7am, had breakfast (bagel, cream cheese and boiled egg for me, the boys had cereal and muffins).  By 8am we were on our way, we decided to take the back route through agricultural land and then trees and lakes.  It was interesting watching the scenery pass by, some huge property, not many animals although plenty of fromageries?  One thing Canada isn't short on is space and wood to build property so property is that much bigger than at home and maybe there were plenty of cows - we just couldn't see them from the road.  We did see a Road Runner from the road though (alive) so that was a bonus.

My Beaver's Tail

We got to Mont Tremblant around 11.30, perfect (any only one route barrée).  Our hotel room was ready so we went to dump our bags - as predicted this hotel is the nicest of the lot - shame we are only staying one night!  We have a proper kitchenette and a huge amount of room.  We went in search of lunch and came across a Queue de Castor (Beaver's tails) a fast food restaurant where they deep fry donut batter into beaver tail shape and then add toppings.  M & T went for hot dog, but I went sweet which is more traditional - apple and caramel sauce - it was delicious but probably about 1000 calories!

We then walked up the main shopping street - they have a pedestrian village here which is great - especially as it is right outside our hotel.  We headed for the gondola which goes up the mountain (Mt Tremblant).  We wanted to get a one way ticket up and then walk one of the trails down, no can do you have to walk up the mountain and then you can get a one way ticket down!  Oh hum, we looked at the trails on offer - we decided on the one that took you straight up the mountain via a ski route - called "Le Grand Prix de Couleurs" it was steep, really really steep, and it was hot, really hot...we all dug in and we did it - they suggested it would take 60 to 90 minutes - I did it in 92 minutes and was very proud of myself.  It was 2 miles long and took us up 611 meters.  I'm guessing my knee is pretty much recovered now as it didn't get sore - very pleased we did that hike up the fjord the other day as that probably prepared us quite well.  

View from the top of the mountain

 when we got to the top the view wasn't the best as it was quite hazy, however, we all felt a great sense of achievement.  We walked to the observation post right at the top just to say we had gone right to the top and then got the gondola back down.  

We bought some tickets from a lady who we had a great conversation with regarding accents and understanding French French vs Canadian French.  For example when we bought the tickets from her - I said 'merci beaucoup' and she said what sounded like 'durron' I looked blank and she said it is what you say if some says thank you it was 'de rien' but pronounced very differently.  She said that yes the Canadian accent is very different to the French accent and also they use lots of different words.  She said that the French get confused when they come across and often don't understand what is being said either.  The other day for example we didn't understand when the waitress asked us if we wanted to order drinks and if we wanted the bill - simple things that we can understand and do in France but have trouble with here.  Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to bring Tom here after all - none of us have been able to progress our French really because we really can't catch what is being said to us and also as soon as we open our mouths people revert to English.  However, being surrounded by French for two weeks should hopefully have helped.  Tom should know all the baseball terms in French now eg "Grand chelem" is grand slam, 'prise' is strike, 'balle' ball, 'retirée' is out etc - not sure if that will help at all?!

The FREE stand up chair lift 

Anyway we got the Gondola down, and were amazed at how long it took, we really did choose ourselves a hard activity for the day!  Once down we saw a stand up chair lift which we noticed before.  We noticed no ticket barriers and wondered if it was maybe free - it was, so we got it down to our hotel - what a bonus!  We all had showers and flopped for a couple of hours.

Canada - Trois Riviéres and Baseball

We left Malbaie and spent most of the day driving to Trois Riviéres which is located between Montreal and Quebec. It wasn't the most scenic of drives - Matt did half of it and I the other half.  

We stopped at a Tim Horton's for lunch - mainly because none of us had been to one before and wanted to know what all the fuss was about.  The lunches we got were pretty average, however, we got ourselves a box of Tim Bits which are mini donuts with lots of different fillings which were pretty good and very cheap!  Little bit naughty though!

It was a hot hot hot day, we arrived at our hotel in Trois Rivierés around 3pm, checked in, had a bit of down time before deciding to do some exploring.  Our hotel is out in the suburbs, so we had to get back in the car. First stop was Parc Laviolette from which we could see the rather nice Pont Laviolette stretch across the river.  There were loads of people in the park with bbqs having rather nice meals - we were a little bit jealous, but also it was hot, hot, hot too hot to man a bbq!

We carried on into down town - guess what 'Rue Barrée' so we went around in circles for a bit until we found ourselves a car park - which turned out to be right in the middle of downtown so it worked out!  We went for a walk down to the river, then into old town.  Did I mention it was hot, hot, hot?  We began wilting, but I spotted a bar in the old town with a rather lovely outside area, so we headed in.  It was called 'The Buck' and it was proper posh - we had our own waiter who went through the menu with us - I only wanted a alcohol free beer (I was on driving duty) and Matt wanted an IPA, but our waiter took it very seriously and explained each one in depth and came back to us again and again to fill up our water and check we were ok.

We looked at the menu - it was posh - steak was the second cheapest thing on it!!!!  We looked around, we were the only tourists around (Matt was in his elephant shirt, Tom in his pink Rajasthan Royals cricket shirt), all other clientele were looking chic, with designer clothes and dripping in jewellery.  We were bringing the place down, however, it gave us a much needed rest and shade from the sun).

We then had a stroll around down town, until we started to get hungry.  We had noticed a restaurant that served sausages - we have seen Toulouse sausages in all the supermarkets we have been in, but hadn't found them being served anywhere until now, so we headed back.  Tom got a Toulouse sausage pizza (and chips) and Matt got 3 sausages with chips and hot sour kraut.  I got chicken and vegetables (and chips - of course - you can't have anything without chips!)  We were all quite hungry by the time it came, so we gobbled it up, had another look at the river before heading back to the hotel.  Matt had been drinking, so it was up to me to get us home, and I managed it even with a dodgy junction with no signals - very proud of myself!

Sunday, I had found that Trois Riviéres has a lower league baseball team and they were playing during the day today.

Tickets were cheap, so we thought we would go.  We tried to book online, but it seemed really complicated so hoped there would be tickets on the gate - we needn't have worried, there were plenty of seats free.  It was hot, hot, hot, again, but we had plenty of cold drinks and we spread ourselves out, hoping no-one else would come near to us (we were lucky, they didn't!)

This player was 6ft 8inches tall!

The Trois Riviéres team is called Les Aigles and have a great eagle as their logo and mascot.  Tom got himself a shirt, Matt got himself a shirt.  We met the mascot who came for hugs.  It was a good atmosphere.  Shame they didn't put on a good show for us!  They had won easily on Saturday but today was not their day.  The other team (Tri City Valley Cats from New York) out classed them, in all areas, and ended up beating them 11-2.  Oh hum, it was a good experience, I enjoyed it and don't really know baseball that well.

Just as the game finished a thunder storm arrived.  Rain was pelting down on the way home, the main road came to a halt, so we weaved our way back to the hotel.  The swimming pool which had been full to bursting with kids since we arrived was empty, so we donned our togs and went for a dunk - it wasn't really a swimming pool - really just a curly whirly slide, which was quite vicious, good fun though and it was nice to have a dunk after being so hot all day.

Canada - Malbaie

We didn't set any alarms and woke naturally this morning.  Well, when I say we, I mean Matt and I.  We had to wake Tom!  

We decided on an easy day after yesterday and a day off the car.  We are a bit out of the way of Malbaie here, but we are in a pleasant hotel looking over the St Lawrence River, the hotel has a free spa and there are some restaurants nearby.  We had our breakfast (hotels don't include breakfast so ours comes from the shop - granola and yoghurt for me and some sort of pastries for the boys) and headed out for a little explore.  We walked down some stairs to the the riverside where there was a jetty, we could see cormorants going about their daily business, and there was a seal sat on a rock.  There was also a train station. We scouted out the restaurants and shops and then at 12.15 the only train due today arrived, from Quebec - a tourist only service (think it was $280 per person!).  

We had a very pleasant lunch at Café de Chantal - another poutine each for the boys and a guédille for me (Quebcoise speciality - split hot dog bun, toasted and filled with a selection of fillings - the most authentic being lobster - but I went for egg being a bit thrifty!).  We then ambled back to the hotel and went for a spa - this place has a huge spa which is free to guests.  We had it to ourselves which was just lovely - it had a huge waterfall, jacuzzi pool, hot pool, infra red sauna and a huge barrel sauna - we used them all.  As we left lots of people arrived, we had timed it to perfection.

The boys spent the afternoon playing pool - I joined them and lost every match!  We then went back down to the jetty for the evening and had a meal at Café de Gare - moules for me tonight which was lovely.

Canada - Tadoussac - Animal Day

Today we were having a long day - taking in (hopefully) whales and bears.  We had found out that there was a wild black bear viewing platform near Tadoussac (on the north shore of the fjord) and then we found that Tadoussac is also a great place from where to see whales.  So, we got ourselves booked on both.  

It was 130km from Saguenay to Tadoussac, we left our hotel early so we could take it easy, take in viewpoints, etc etc.  Matt got us out of the city and then I drove the rest of the way (cities confuse me - I don't understand the whole traffic light thing - what is the difference between a square red light and a round red light and the whole filter thing on a red light - too scary for me!) Anyway, I drove without incident - of course we came across lots of roadworks, but no rue barrée which was a nice change! (There was no other route!)  We saw a sign for a covered bridge along the way - so we stopped, it was very pretty but more exciting we saw a small creature playing on the rocks by the river, initially we thought it was otter (Castor in French) but on asking a man out fishing we discovered it was a Marmot - he was a cute little thing.

We carried on and got to Tadoussac - the first place where we have found it hard to park and had to pay to park ($20!) We went to the whale place to pick up our tickets, but just as we got there the computers went down so we got a hastily scribbled receipt instead.  We then went to the intermarché to pick up some lunch and sat eating it on the rocks overlooking the Saguenay River.  

The boat picked us up at 12.30 and we went into the St Lawrence (17 miles wide at this point) hunting some whales to photo.  The morning trip had come across some Belugas, so we were hopeful.  It was very very windy on the boat and quite cold, but we were prepared and had all of our warm clothes with us.  We saw quite a few seals, but we were wanting whales.  We followed all the speed boats that had overtaken us and were rewarded with lots of 'blows' of air and then a tail in the distance - it was a humpback whale called Jesper.  Yay, we slowed down and got nearish to him and saw him blow and stick his tail in the air about 6 times - we were very happy with that. The time went very quickly, before we knew it we were heading back to shore, just as we were close, a Minkie whale swam with us - the icing on the cake. 

We walked back into town to the ticket place to pick up tickets for the bears (computers worked this time) and then went in search of some food - we found a cheap pizza place overlooking the rivers and munched happily into them whilst watching waves of rain coming across the river.  After looking in a number of souvenir shops (disappointed as no patches here!) we drove to the black bear place.  With the rain came bugs so we went total British and tucked our trousers into our socks, and wore our coats with velcro tightly strapped round our wrists and doused ourselves in insect repellant  in an attempt to keep them out (the bugs are much bigger here than we are used to and they seem to love poor Tom who currently has 13 bites on his legs and hands!).  

We were given a talk on the black bears - we were to ride on a school bus to the outpost and then we must walk and sit in silence and hope they come - they are wild, they put food out for them at dusk every night but they don't always show up.  The school bus was really very basic and very rickety.  Think Tom has a much nicer experience on his school coach everyday!

We got there and everyone was compliant and sat in silence hoping they would come...we waited half an hour, no bears, but we saw a beaver which was a bonus.  Tom suddenly moved and whispered that he had seen one, true to form he was right and a skinny bear turned up (apparently 3 years old) - he had a light coloured nose and a light marking on his chest that looked like a bowtie!  He came, ate some food, left, came back, ate some more, left, came back ate some more and so on...

A second slightly bigger bear then arrived and the smaller one ran away...then the smaller one came back, got braver and braver to the point that both of them were munching away.  Not 100% sure what they were eating, but when they took the lid off the feeding station nearest to us - it really did pong! I think we probably watched them for about an hour. It was a joy, we were very happy.  However, they left, and it was getting dark and the guide asked if we were happy to leave and everyone said yes.  We had quite a journey ahead of us - we had to get a ferry across the river and then 90km to our next hotel. 

We were very lucky in that when we arrived at the ferry they were just boarding, so we scooted on.  This is a free car ferry - only took about 10 minutes to get across.  Apparently the river is too deep at this point to build a regular bridge across and they reckon a suspension bridge would be $billions so they have a 20 minute free 24 hour car ferry instead. We got to the other side where Matt drove.  It was a difficult drive, in that the car behind us decided to have his full beam on and completely blinded us.  It was pitch black so finding somewhere to pull over was difficult, took a while but he managed it in the end.  We found the hotel with no problem, but then couldn't find the car park and then had a bit of a comedy situation where I checked in, but then couldn't find the boys who had parked in the wrong car park.  They had unpacked the car and got the suitcases to our hotel room, but I was still walking around in the dark trying to find them in the car park.  I was calling them - they weren't picking up, they were calling me, I wasn't getting their calls.  I then couldn't find a way into the hotel from the car park and had to walk all the way round - things are so much more difficult in the dark.  Anyway, we eventually found each other, I then had to drive the car to the right car park.  It was midnight before we got to bed.  A long day but it was worth it for the bears and whales (and marmot)

Canada - Saguenay

On Tuesday we got up and walked our suitcases over to the Hilton to get our hire car - a Chrysler 300 and head out into the Boonies.  It didn't take long - in fact within 5 minutes we were on a huge wide highway and seemed to be the only car around!  Now this is good driving territory.  Matt and I shared the driving up to Saguenay - it wasn't that far, there were a few Belvederes to stop at (we had to look that up - view points) which we did, but they really weren't all that scenic.  

We stopped at a service station - picked up some lunch (I found some crudités and was very very happy - we haven't had many vegetables this trip - always difficult when staying in hotels and eating out!) and took it to the next Belvedere to eat.  We arrived in Saguenay around 2pm, the hotel is massive, has an indoor pool, and outdoor pool, sauna, pool table etc etc.  On enquiry regarding laundry - we discovered they had a laundry room and it would cost us just the $2 to do a load - couldn't quite believe our luck - so we spent the afternoon in and around the hotel, sorting laundry, went to the supermarket opposite to buy some breakfast, beer and snacks, went for a swim in the pool and just generally had some nice down time. In the evening we went across the road to a restaurant for burgers - very nice they were too - especially as they were on special offer $15 each so approx £8.  We are still finding the cost of everything here quite reasonable - wondering if they have suffered from inflation as much as we have?

The evening was spent playing SkyJo and watching baseball (of course!)

Wednesday we headed to the Fjord de Saguenay National Park Centre.  Saguenay is on the river Saguenay - a tributary of the St Lawrence River, just to the east of us is a fjord, so we decided to explore the south side as we are going to the northern side tomorrow.  We found the national park centre from where there were plenty of trails.  We thought we would go up high to a famous statue at the top - we got there to find that the route is ferme at the top due to travaux (I tell you the WHOLE of Canada is dug up / under travaux at the moment - one new expression I have learnt "Rue Barré"!)  We decided to walk it as far as we could, as there was a view point on the way.  

It was a tough old walk - it went up and up and up, plus it was hot and sticky but we stopped lots of times and were rewarded with a great view.  We continued as far as we could.  It was a pleasant walk, in that it was in the trees.  We could hear lots and lots of birds.  

Pileated Woodpecker

Matt has a bird call app on his phone he recorded:

+ Pileated Woodpecker

+ Downy Woodpecker

+ Hairy Woodpecker

+ American Redstart

+ Swainson's Thrush

+ Nashville Warbler

Song Sparrow

+ Northern Parula

+ Blackburnian Warbler

+ Black Throated Green Warbler

+ White Throated Sparrow

+ Song Sparrow

+ Dark Eyed Junko

+ Veery

+ Tennessee Warbler

+ Red Eyed Vireo

Some of them had the most beautiful calls (White throated sparrow) and the Pileated Woodpecker was MASSIVE - we actually saw this one and it was almost as big as a chicken - we couldn't believe our eyes!!!!!

We had lunch right at the top of the path and then headed down, which was hard work on the old knees - we all had shaky legs when we got back to the bottom.  After a sit down and refreshment we did one more short and level walk alongside the river which was beautiful.  Got some great views and saw some more birds.

We then headed back to the hotel - we were all quite tired, mucky and sweaty - it was a hard day but very rewarding and worth the effort.

Canada - Quebec

Today we got up, had breakfast, packed and then went for a last stroll around Montreal before picking up our luggage and heading to the Gare Centrale for our train to Quebec.  It was a little delayed, but apart from that all was well.  We did a bit of trundling (when meeting a freight train) but the rest of the time we went quite fast.  Scenery wasn't much to write home about, quite flat, but it was nice to sit back and relax and watch everything go past. 

We arrived in Quebec to find the buses weren't running due to strike action (you can take the French out of France...) so we had to walk the mile or so to our hotel - it's a hilly city so it wasn't particularly pleasant, especially as it was quite warm and muggy too, but we got there, and found our hotel easily.  There were loads of police around and loads of people around and when I say loads, I mean thousands, something was obviously going on, but we didn't know what.

We got checked in, had showers, and headed out - we quickly found out it was a music festival - Canada's biggest one, it runs for 10 days, every night there is a headline act but also plenty more.  Rod Stewart was there 2 days ago, today it is Benson Boone (nope - never heard of him!), tomorrow Def Leopard, and plenty of other artists I have heard of.  As a result the street outside our hotel was rammed with people, and the restaurants all full.  

We had the disorientation of being in a new city, not knowing where anything is, and being surrounded by huge crowds of people.  We just wanted something to eat!  We walked against the crowd in the hope to find some places that weren't full, but we ran out of restaurants, so we walked through the concert area - it was buzzing, but there was no food kiosks, and each restaurant had a queue.  We then found ourselves in the old town of the city, but the prices were astronomical!  We headed down the hill hoping to find something, eventually after about 5 attempts we found a cute bistro which had room and wasn't ridiculously expensive.  We settled in and ordered some pizzas. 

The meal took an age to get to us, but luckily there was a lovely American couple sat next to us, so we chatted until it arrived.  When it arrived, Matt and Tom got a lovely fresh Hawaiian pizza each, and I got a piece of cardboard with some goats cheese on it?  I felt perturbed, but there was nothing we could do, so I chewed my way through it, whilst the boys enjoyed there's. 

First impressions are that this place really does seem French - way more French than Montreal - I think we might even get to speak French here, (in Montreal they switched to English as soon as we opened our mouths).  The architecture is very French our hotel feels French - only missing the round pillows!

We had a good sleep and were raring to go in the morning.  We had breakfast in bed (bought from a supermarket last night - donuts for Matt, cookies for Tom and a croissant jambon fromage for me).  We then headed down towards the old town dipping into interesting shops as we went.  Plenty of great tacky souvenir shops which we all enjoy, as well as others including chocolate shops, book shop (got a map ready for when we have a car), a patiserrie (which we tried out and enjoyed) and plenty more.  Before we knew it, we had rumbling stomachs so we looked for a reasonably priced cafe and found ourselves in the oldest restaurant in Quebec.  Once again we felt we were in France - the waiters were all male and we discovered that if we said "Nous voudrons parler Français" followed by "plus lentement s'il vous plait!" we are allowed to try to converse in French.  Bingo!

We carried on sight seeing after lunch, we eventually got to Le Chateâu Frontenac - the huge imposing building on a cliff's edge that is pretty much the symbol of Quebec - oh did you know that Quebec is the only walled city in North America.  It certainly is a massive and impressive structure.  It was a very hot afternoon - it had rained whilst we were having lunch so it was really muggy.  We walked down the steps to the river's edge and luckily we found a gellaterie and had the most amazing ice cream (black cherry and chocolate for me which was stuffed full of cherries and chocolate!)

We then walked along the shops until we realised there was no way back up the cliff than the way we came down, so we went back up the stairs and back through all the shops to our hotel to put our feet up.   

We had already decided to head to Poutineville for tea - we all chose different toppings - I went for vegetables as we haven't really had many since arriving, whilst the boys went for more classic versions with meat - infact Tom went for a version called the Hangover cure.  Once again after we asked to speak in French the waiters allowed us.  

Tom thought he would be adventurous and order a drink off the menu which we weren't sure of: clamato juice.  Any ideas...?  It arrived with our beers - it looked suspiciously like tomato juice (his worse nightmare)!!!!!!  Tom tried it and said it tasted a bit like bolognaise sauce and it would be ok and then diligently ignored it and drank water!  Matt googled it to find out what it was exactly...so it is a Quebecois speciality...they take tomato juice and water it down with a clam broth!!!!!  So fishy tomato juice - who in their right mind would think that is ok?  We were all crying with laughter when the waiter came over, he offered to replace it - Tom was very happy!

We then headed home for the night - Def Leppard are playing tonight so we will listen in from the comfort of our hotel room.

Monday was a bad weather day - cold and raining the whole day.  We discovered that Quebec Aquarium has polar bears. so we decided to visit them.  It was a bit of a faff, as there is no public transport and the aquarium is 9km from the city centre, and, of course, the roads are all dug up!  

We got an uber, who had no idea where he was - took best part of 30 mins to get there, in the end we told him we would walk, as we could see it but there was no obvious way to get there.  Turns out that the aquarium is undergoing a huge construction project - of course it is!  

We arrived at 11, just as the polar bears got fed, which was very good timing, we saw all 3 and they were great specimens.  One was in the pool having a great time with his ball and the pool had underwater viewing area so you could see them swimming - it was fab, although we got very wet in the rain watching them. 

We then went into the main part of the aquarium - a section on fresh water, sea water, and a small tunnel, there was an exhibition on the Arctic and some deep water tanks.  Outside were some arctic foxes and seals - but it was so wet and rainy we only saw them for a little time.  

We had a small lunch each and then headed back to the bears - but they were in their house too so we couldn't see them.  We called it a day and headed home - this time we got a driver who knew the way, it only took 10 minutes!

We had some down time and then headed back to the old town as Tom wanted a moose to join his collection.  Then back to the hotel, showers etc and out for tea at the Japanese restaurant opposite the hotel - we figured this may be our last chance for something exotic...

We have enjoyed Quebec - just a shame there was no public transport and the weather today was truly awful, limiting what we could do, but we enjoyed the vibe and the 'Frenchness' of the place.  'Hello, Bonjour',  'Merci, thank you!'.