Hey it's Lisa here-thought I would do my part and contribute to the blog. I am sure all the thousands of our readers out there will appreciate a different perspective/writing style. We are presently in Quebec approximately ~50 km from the New Brunswick border on hwy 132 in the Matapedia area. We saw a few pull outs off the highway along a beautiful, quiet unpopulated river so we set up camp just metres from it. It is what I consider to be the most ideal camping setting-no people, no rules, no noise (well we can hear the odd truck go by in the distance), no leash for Maya and of course a tranquil location.
We haven't written since we left Toronto island and our exit out of the city proved to be frustrating even though we left around 2 pm to try to beat the Friday long weekend traffic. Well *%^#(*, we did approximately 10 km in an hour due to some "disabled" vehicle that we never saw. Since we weren't overly excited to drive the 401 hwy anyway, we headed north to the less busy, quieter highway 7 and eventually made our way back to the Saint Lawrence river in Brockville. Parking the van overnight and trying to do so discreetly can be a challenge. We didn't have much luck finding anywhere to sleep so we knocked at a motel that had no vacancies and asked if we could park the van (ie sleep) in their parking lot which we did. It was a good thing as we still had close to 100 km to go until reaching Montreal.
We got up early and stopped in Cornwall where we enjoyed bacon and eggs at a local diner and caught some of the Olympics. There were some communication issues as we arrived in Montreal-Mac wanted to put Maya into doggie daycare because of the heat, but when we checked out the facility I wasn't too keen on the setting and opted not to leave her there. We ended up losing an hour and Mac wasn't thrilled to be driving into the city through a construction zone, especially since we first made it into the city with no delays or confusion.
Once we arrived downtown we visited the Mont Royal lookout and then found a shady street to park the van for a few hours in an area that reminded me of a bit of Shaugnessy. From there it was an easy walk to the Metro and we arrived shortly after on St Catherine street. Saint Catherines hasn't really changed since I was there in the '90s. It really is for people who love to shop and Mac and I weren't interested in shopping. It was in the low 30s for sure so cold drinks and twist cones were the only things we bought. We briefly headed over to Chinatown which was unique but not terribly inspiring, and then Notre Dame cathedral where a wedding was happening. After we found a neat restaurant that had an outdoor patio that was located behind the brick frame of an old building.
We headed back to the van to pick up Maya and then drove over to the Jewish district in search of poutine and bagels along Mont Royal street. We ended up walking to a spacious park and then found the poutine restaurant and I ordered us a traditonal for take out and we sat on a park bench and enjoyed it with our corner store bought beers. I think Mac was hoping we would go for some live music but due to a bad sleep the night before, I was exhausted and frankly a bit cranky from the sticky heat so we decided to call it a night and try to find somewhere to park/sleep. We decided to drive to Laval but we took a wrong turn while still in the Mont Royal area and ended up on a quiet street that had no houses on one side so I suggested we park there for the night. Although we did not get "kicked out" of the neighbourhood, it did not prove to be as quiet as I first thought. It had it's share of vehicles for a residential area and we actually parked close to the stop sign so we had people slowing down then speeding up; at times we didn't know if they were slowing down to inspect our vehicle (likely not). Popping our camper van top would have made us look suspicious but because of the heat I opened it part way. At one point about an hour after going to bed Mac whispered "Oh no there is someone parked right behind us". He thought maybe it was the police but about 15 minutes later the engine started up for what seemed like 10 minutes or more (damn idler!) but because of our rear window blind we couldn't see who it was. I managed to look through one of the tiny vent holes in the blind and it ended up being some woman who was putting on makeup and then she drove away! I think I managed to get maybe 4 or 5 hours sleep and by 7 am Mac was driving us back to Mont Royal street (I was still in bed!!) so he could do some work at Starbucks.
August 7,2012
About 4 hours later we walked over to the Tam Tam drumming gathering and also walked over to Swartz's for a sandwich. Mac liked his, but to be honest I found the meat to have too much fat on it and the smoked meat flavour did very little for me. We decided we had seen and done all we wanted in Montreal and that we should start our drive to Quebec city. On our way out we drove past Old Montreal and decided to explore for a bit since we missed a section of it the day before. As soon as we parked it started raining buckets but because it was so warm and humid, the rain felt refreshing and unlike most people we did not duck for cover but rather walked in the middle of the downpour. This was my third visit to Montreal and Mac's first but overall we didn't find people very friendly and the heat was hard to take at times.Hours later we arrived in Quebec city which proved to be spectacular to say the least. It was raining off and on but we managed to walk around in the evening and get a meal after we first visited to the Plains of Abraham lookout in the national park. We also found a quiet spot that we could park for the night out near the yacht club and tennis club.
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The next morning we enjoyed a fresh croissant and allonge (coffee) on Cartier street before heading to the old town. Vieux Quebec is easy to walk around, a bit hilly but good for working off poutine and pastries. We popped into the famous Chateau Frontenac hotel but it didn't meet Maya's high standards so we decided not to stay there. After walking around for a few hours we took a tour of the old governor residence below the boardwalk that dates back to the days of old France. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and funny so our 30 min tour became an hour. The areas that we walked through would have been the cooking and cleaning quarters and it included an old ice room to store food.
We took in some live acts on the boardwalk, similar to what you would expect at Granville island but entertaining just the same. In the evening we found some live music at Les Yeux Blues (fitting since we heard that all day when people approached Maya). In total there was only about 10 of us there (we were the first to arrive!) but the singer was really talented and sang both in English and French. We were impressed when he did an acoustic guitar version of Metallica!
August 8, 2012
Onward to New Brunswick.
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