More Iles de la Madeleine -- the picturesque islands

---

This is from the "Official Tourists' Guide" --

"As far as the eye can see, the islands and the dunes seem to blend, break apart, and then stretch out of sight as if dropped by a whimsical sea. The islands look like tiny landmasses enlivened by brilliant green valleys, spectacular white sandy beaches, deep red cliffs, and the countless shades of blue that the sea and the lagoons reflect from the sky. Here one encounters a nature that is rich and fragile . . ."

As you can see from the map, long thin stretches of sand dunes join the dozen or so islands, usually with lagoons on one side and the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the other. There is one man-made causeway; the rest are natural connections.

The little fishing and lobstering villages are tucked into coves along both sides of the islands and the jewel-colored houses are scattered whimsically throughout the hills and fields and villages.

The true colonization of the Islands began in 1755, when a number of Acadians escaped "The Grand Upheaval" in 1755, at which time most of the Acadian people in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Islands and Maine were deported from their homelands by the British. More and more Acadians moved to the Islands over the following years and, after some unfortunate decades, they became annexed to Quebec in 1774. They now speak a unique form of French, described by the Tourists' Guide as "the melodic intonations of the Acadian accent . . . and archaic words from ancestral France."

One blog yet to come on this lovely place.

Paula

---

Comments

[Lois and Bob]

Have you thought of writing a travelogue for publication? Lois

[Randy Caldwell]

great pictures
Thanks for taking me along,I see the states thru your pictures.