Blogs from Portneuf, Quebec, Canada, North America - page 2

Friday, July 1st Canada Day and home to St. Raymond After 2900 km in two weeks of travel, We returned back to Saint Raymond right after lunch on Canada Day. We had to be back in Montreal by the next afternoon, so we had a very busy afternoon and evening of packing up all the stuff that is to go back to Robert’s place. We had borrowed several large pieces of furniture that had been his dad’s stuff and was being stored in their airplane hangar. We had rented a large cube van to bring it to S. Raymond, so when we assembled it all on the driveway it didn’t look like our little trailer would handle it all. Amazingly, Claude managed to fit it all in. The first step of going home has started. To ... read more

We had been excitedly awaiting the visit for Easter by Karen, Laurel and boys. They were to fly in Wednesday night and fly out Tuesday after Easter. Unfortunately we had a huge spring snow storm in the Quebec City area on Wednesday and they got stuck in Toronto overnight. Our boys were very disappointed but at least they were put up in an nice hotel by Westjet and brought in on a special flight Thursday morning. Poor Eric ended up sick that evening in Toronto so probably best he didn't have to fly again that evening. The storm dropped almost a foot and half of snow on us, so it certainly wasn't very spring like when they arrived. As the weekend progressed we got quite a bit of rain on Saturday and warm on the other ... read more

Wow the first day of spring actually felt like it here. In talking to Karen back home I guess it was another winter snow storm there. P had his last day of snow board lessons this morning. We had been really worried that he wouldn't get in the lessons yesterday and today as we had downpouring rain all night on Thursday and on friday the hill looked completely saturated. But they worked the hill and it got below zero friday and saturday nights so the hill was actually in pretty good spring skiing conditions. He has really done well with the lessons and was proud of himself today as he was able to turn back and forth on the last part of the run down the hill. If by chance the hill is still open next ... read more

Ice Fishing at Ste. Anne de la Perade We have just finished the most amazing day. It was our coldest day yet this winter (-22C) all day, but it was beautifully sunny and we headed off for a day of ice fishing at Ste-Anne-de-la-Perade (why do Quebec towns have such huge names??). We arrived at about 11 am. It is supposed to be one of the largest ice fishing areas in the world and I believe it. Claude said he even remembers hearing about it as a kid, but never got to come. The brochure said that there are over 600 rental cabins on the river accomodating up to 4000 people each day and each night! The fish that you fish for is called Poulamon or "petits poissons des chenaux" or Tommycod. We booked a little ... read more

I determined this weekend that Quebeckers (not sure how to spell that!) do winter better than anyone else I know. I think it is because they normally get so much snow but at the same time have relatively mild winter temperatures (as opposed to back home in Alberta). It has typically been about -5 to -10 degrees C this winter, so great weather for being outside. Unfortunately after a good start of snow in late November, we have had basically none since mid December. Ironic that the winter we are away and wishing for snow Edmonton has the most snow it has seen since 1985! Anyways, with no snow we went looking for other winter activities. In the local paper this week they showed two places nearby with networks of skating trails. We decided to check ... read more