Another Canada

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Another Canada

It has been more than just a little nice to have to decipher the road signs again driving through Canada. We have had to do this many times during the last few years but, since arriving in English speaking countries, it has all changed. Surprisingly, that can be just a little boring. The nice thing about the Canadians is that they put the French up there with English right alongside – so you can sneak a peek I suppose. All good until we hit Quebec. None of your English rubbish on the signs here. All French. That put the pressure on. It has been a while since we were in France and, since then, our French has been badly polluted by Spanish, so it was a little difficult to immediately dredge up the appropriate words. I had confidently expected that, given that Canada has two official languages, there would be bilingual signs all over. Not so. Perhaps Quebec really is separate? Maybe Rene Levesque actually won that referendum?

No doubt there are other cultures that equal the passion of the French for their language and culture but none, I am prepared to punt, who are ahead. We are well aware of this. We also knew that we would need to dust off our very rudimentary French skills for our visit to Quebec. Bilingual signage was something we had become used to, along with the bilingual tourist information and we were prepared for a lot more use of French in Quebec. I have to say, though, that we were unprepared for the extent of the difference. And not just in Quebec. Parts of New Brunswick felt even more French.

The French people often get bad press – although probably mainly in English papers – and it was the same here as we moved towards the more Francophone parts. We heard before we went to Quebec that they were a rather loud lot. Noisy, a little obnoxious and difficult to get along with if you can't speak French. One bloke in Ontario, who had only visited Quebec once in his 70 odd years, told us of his worries about ordering a beer and his surpise that he actually received what he wanted. We had heard similar stories about the French in France before we travelled there. For us it wasn't true of France and neither was it so in Quebec.

Quebec is about as good a city as we have found. In fact, I will put it up there with some of the best cities we have been to in the world. They receive a lot of visitors here and they clearly enjoy having them about. A government web site advises that the province had 26 million visitors in 2009 and that this number of tourists supported nearly 30,000 tourism related businesses. Fortunately, though, tourism is not the major industry and perhaps it is this that saves Quebec City from moving into the theme park realm – where a few other lovely cities have started to stray.

We decided that we would see the city by walking and found some good tours in one of the excellent brochures that are typical products of the Canadian tourism authorities. We figured that the gentle 3 km walk into town from our little hotel would be a nice warm up. It did turn into a bit of a trek though because we decided to walk through a rather nice, but fairly large, park that runs along the St Lawrence Seaway/River. Battlefield Park either covers or is part of the Plains of Abraham. This is where the French and the English sorted out their differences in 1759. Interesting, and a pleasant place for a walk, although there isn't a lot of its history actually on display there. After mucking about in the Park in increasingly heavy rain we eventually found our way to the first parts of the walking tour that we had selected. We then promptly moved off track to have an enjoyable time walking around the area inside the old walls.

Once we started to exercise a little discipline our tour took us to the Citadel, very well sited on a hill commanding a great view of the river, through St George V park, Parc de la Francophone, Parliament Hill, the Saint Louis Gate – all pretty much what you would expect but attractive all the same – around the old city a little then up towards Fauborg Saint-Jean – very chic and comfortable with some nice areas where it would be easy to live – then down into Quartier Saint Roch – which is becoming a nice place to live but still has a touch of edginess. Along the coast line through some interesting shopping districts, picking up a couple of museums and the old Port Market, and back to the lower bit of the old town. Some great whole-of-wall murals, skinny streets, pretty houses and functioning bars and restaurants around and along Notre Dame, Place Royale and into Quartier Petit Champlain. We then climbed the hill, from Lower to Upper Quebec – we could have taken the Funiculaire but that is for wimps after all – and then back into the upper part of the old city. All of this was supposed to take about 4 hours. Our diversions turned that into a day but all enjoyable. A couple of beers in a nice bar and we were even ready to forgo the buses and walk home. A 20km day but there have been too few of them on this trip so far.

The buildings and houses, both in the middle of the city and through the suburbs that we walked and drove through, are distinctly French rather than British or even (what we now identify as) Canadian. French is spoken everywhere by everyone as the default language. Sure, when it is clear that you can't answer questions, most can switch to English but you do have to try. Drivers in Canada are, generally, a bit like those in the US. They follow the rules to the extent that you can amuse yourself by imagining what would happen if I … but you don't because it could be a disaster. Not in Quebec. They have all taken lessons from the French in France. Faster round corners, less respect for pedestrians, a little bit more speed everywhere. And, although our sample was small, the food is good.

It is possibly worth a mention that Hurricane Irene had visited Quebec a day or so before we arrived. It was nice of her to clean the place up a little. It may not have needed the wash but I am sure that some of those trees needed pruning and those rivers probably needed a good flush out. We were surprised at the amount of water in the rivers after we heard the numbers on the rainfall but then there is so much water around in this part of the country already that it possibly doesn't take a lot to kick it up to the levels we saw. We were lucky. The hurricane didn't really affect us.

Driving out of Quebec and into New Brunswick along the St Lawrence River it is hard not to be impressed at the size and majesty of the St Lawrence River/Seaway. The country is very fertile, the villages and towns look busy and prosperous, there is evidence of plenty of industry and it easy to see why the province is rich. It changes a little driving into New Brunswick. A little less affluent here and the country isn't so obviously fertile. Smaller houses but still big acres of lawn.

The New Brunswick Visitors Centre over the border from Quebec is excellent. Probably the best we had come across. They recommend a number of themed trails across the province. We decided to take the Appalachian Trail which took us through some reasonable hills, perhaps mountains – definitely mountains in NT terms – that were good to drive through but, honestly, not that spectacular. We camped at Campbellton on the coast for our first experience of a Canadian Provincial Park. Great campsite, very good facilities and friendly people. A pretty coastline but it is hard to get a good look at it from a road and we didn't really have enough time to hike in anywhere.

Perhaps we didn't see the best of New Brunswick but, while it was beautiful in places, we were just as interested in the history of the place. This was one the provinces which originally made up 'Acadie'. The British took the area in 1710 and seem to have left them pretty much alone, but then expelled the Acadians during 1750 or so on to prevent them giving assistance to the French. They clearly didn't all go or perhaps came back. The villages were interesting but there was little information easily available. Houses smaller than we had been noticing in other parts but still on very large blocks. Many, in some villages most, of the houses sported large golden stars and/or flew the Acadian flag, the Tricolour with a single star in the top left hand corner.

Unfortunately most of the information on New Brunswick was about the adventures you can have. If I was marketing this place I would include information about where you might pick up a bit more of the history.

Nova Scotia boasts what is said to be one of the great roads of North America. Other travellers were quick to recommend it as we moved through Canada. The Cabot Trail is on Cape Breton island which is linked to the mainland, and the rest of Nova Scotia, by the Canso Causeway. We whetted our appetite with the Ceidlih Trail. You really can't escape the Scots here and there are clearly still many about, although we were told that a lot of the Scots left for more amenable places and it was really the Yorkshiremen who stuck it out. We were a little surprised that there was still a strong Acadian presence here though and it was at a supermarket in one town along the Cabot Trail that we struck a lady who apparently spoke no English at all.

The Cabot Trail deserves its billing. It is a quality scenic road. Interpretive signage along the way is good, as soon as you get into the National Park, and there is plenty of information about the place, its history, plant and animals. We took our time driving through, camping a couple of nights. It would be possible to get through fairly easily in a day but it was a nice place to be. It looked like there were some good hikes around but some of those hills were starting to have some serious size and you might need to pick out the ones that suit.

Our great big tent distinguished itself one night by collapsing in what seemed to be a gentle breeze. The back 2 posts folded in and it was difficult to get them back into order at 3.00am. Luckily, it wasn't raining but the wind blew most of the night. The next night we were very careful about how we set up and there have been no more problems. Of course there hasn't been much wind either.

At the moment we are getting close to the time when we need to be in New York to collect Sarah so we are having to time our travels to put us there at the right time. Leaving your baby daughter standing at one of the biggest airports in the world is not good parenting. So we decided to scuttle on a bit and aimed for the Canso Causeway to get ourselves within striking distance of New York. But Louisbourg sounded interesting. Louisbourg's billing in the material we had collected talked about people in period costumes and reconstructed buildings. Sadly, places billed that way can turn out to be more theme parks than anything else. Which is good, of course, if that is what you want. We didn't and it took just a little cajolery to get us there and to buy tickets.

It was excellent. The visitors centre did a reasonable job of selling it. Almost too good because what else would we gain by getting on a bus to the site. It was not a theme park. There were some people in costumes but they were people who could talk intelligently about life here in the 1740's. Fisherman, soldiers, boat builders etc. A very good place to visit and we should have planned a longer time there.

After our good experience with the Louisbourg Fort we decided to follow up with a visit to Sherbrooke Village. This is a sort of Living Museum that has been going for 41 years. Again there was a little disquiet in the camp – by no means over her theme park worries and concerned that it would be a place where all they do is try to get you to buy the same old souvenirs. Again we were lucky. It is run by Nova Scotia Parks. Well set up without being spectacular. If you are looking for information about the way Canadians used to live in the late part of the 19th century it will suit you down to the ground.

And now we really did have get moving. To keep us focused the rain set in. We spent a wet time in the tent near Halifax and in a great motel room at Pocologan and then it was across the border, where we successfully negotiated some extra time in the USA, down through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Now ready for a quick skip into New York tomorrow. We intend to revisit this area, and particularly some of the by-ways of Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts with Sarah in the next few weeks as well as looking over Philadelphia, Virginia, Niagara and the bits in between.

Canada was again a very enjoyable place to visit. We did find it more expensive than we have been used to but that will probably just prepare us for our return to Australia. We had thought it possible that the relative strength of the US and Canadian dollars might mean things could be a little cheaper in Canada. It also took us a little time to get a handle on the way they sell their liquor. We now know that most of Canada controls liquor by selling it through government stores. You can often get beer in a supermarket but the official store is the best bet, when you can find them. We are too used to being able to duck into any shop anywhere and pick up the necessary. It was a nuisance. The other nuisance was the one it shares with its southern neighbour – sales taxes that are different in each province and not included in the price. I am so pleased that, when their was a move in Australia to quote prices without inclusion of the goods and sales tax, there was a very negative reaction.

So we will hit New York on the day before the 10th anniversary of 911. And we will leave the next day, heading south for Philadelphia and Washington DC before moving on to Virginia and taking a loop back up inland vaguely to Niagara and eventually ending up in New York again later this month for a week.

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Photos

Gentrification in progress
La Roch area

Bay of Fundy
enormous tides here

Bright spot
Old Quebec

Nova Scotia beach
Aspy Bay, Cape Breton

Big salmon
at Campbellton

Aerial farm
New Brunswick

Arret
Guard at Louisbourg ready to explain what the French soldiers did

Not a sandy beach
Cap Breton National Park

Flower boxes
Petit Champlain

In case you have to wait for the lift
Basse Ville, looking from Haute Ville

Lotsa hay
New Brunswick

Comments

[cabochick]

Trilingual Australians?
Enjoyed the Australian take on my crazy country. Love the blog. Thanks/Merci.

[Home and Away]

Canada
I just posted our own trip to the Canadian Maritime provinces six hours before you did. My Mom was Canadian, from Toronto, and I will always take pride in that heritage. Have a great trip around the Northeast and New England. Let me know when you are coming our way to Colorado.