Blogs from Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada, North America

The pandemic is still lingering..... :-( There are options to go to some countries, because you had your covid-19 vaccine shots, or your wear a mask, or both, but resurgence of cases in Europe and in the USA, makes that a possible risky business... Let's hope, things would be better at end of this year! :-) Meanwhile, I continue to explore my region, going to places I never thought to go before, and found little jewels. First went to a nature's park, on the shores of Saint-Pierre's lake, (an enlargement of Saint-Lawrence river), a region of great importance for its abundance of wetlands. Place is called "Reserve naturelle de pointe Yamachiche". Although the entrance does not look that great, there are very long trails on boardwalks, overlooking at seasonally flooded forest and marshland, with excellent viewpoints. ... read more

The settlers who colonized the harsh land of New France took strength and inspiration from their Roman Catholic religion. The best known and most significant of the shrines they built have grown over the centuries into the basilicas of Notre-Dame du Cap at Trois Rivières, and Sainte Anne de Beaupré east of Quebec City. They are both renowned pilgrimage sites that are visited every year by millions from around the world, often pilgrims in search of a miraculous healing. Here are some photos I took during recent visits. Notre-Dame du Cap (Our Lady of the Cape): Trois Rivières was settled in 1634, and Jesuit missionaries built a small chapel on a nearby piece of land in 1659. In 1720 it was replaced by a stone chapel, the “Small Shrine”, which is still in use. The present ... read more

Today we hike. There are many hikes at many levels of difficulty in the park. We chose intermediate and 5.5 kms. I made us wear our packs to get an idea of how we might do in Peru. It was great. The path is well marked, rises really quickly and makes your heart pound but maybe not as much as the vistas that open up as you walk. Jacob acted like a mountain goat, this is his forte. Each thing that we do here reinforces how much I love being out in this camp world. Our last night here,sweetly sad to leave. Good night and sweet dreams .... read more

As we mentioned in the last post, we had full kitchen facilities in our room, so after dinner on Sunday night we stopped at a grocery store to buy some food. Knowing that we would spend two nights there gave us the ability to buy some things that we haven't really had a chance to get yet. For example, we bought a dozen eggs, which we hadn't been able to do before - half a dozen eggs each over two days is pretty easy at this point. When we got up on Monday morning, we had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs before heading out for the day. Eric has some blisters on (the top of) his feet from walking around Montreal - to save on weight, the only non-biking shoes we brought were flip-flops, and ... read more