Blogs from Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, Canada, North America

During our drive to the campground located on Ile d'Orleans, we passed through Kamouraska. This place has some family history to it. Much of the family history will be found in the next blog with Ile d'Orleans, but this little town played a big part of it for one side of my family. If you clicked on that link for Kamouraska, you will see someone named Charles-Alfred Roy dit Desjardins. He's a relative of ours! He is my third cousin, five times removed....lol. He was a cousin to my third great-grandfather, Pierre Roy dit Desjardins. It was Pierre who was one of the many Desjardins who made the decision to leave their farms and livelihoods in Kamouraska to venture west to begin a new life for he and his family. He went as far as Manitoba ... read more

Entre Montmagny et Trois-Pistoles s'étend un décor pictural, un éventail de couleurs et de textures qui deviennent très vite essentielles à la zénitude recherchée. Dès qu'on laisse la région Chaudière-Appalaches, on entre dans celle du Bas Saint-Laurent, accueillis par la simplicité et la majestuosité du fleuve (image paradoxale mais tout à fait réaliste) qui s'élargit jusqu'à 23 kilomètres à la hauteur de Rivière-du-Loup. On suit la Route des Navigateurs sans jamais cesser de longer le fleuve. Dès qu'on arrive à Rivière-Ouelle, s'ensuit une enfilade de petits villages pittoresques où trône au cœur de chacun d'eux une petite église caractéristique des bords de mer. Les maisons d'allure victorienne toutes tournées vers le fleuve, l'odeur de l'air salin, les tissages de couleurs changeantes au gré des champs forment ensemble un tableau parfait. Entre L'Isle Verte et Trois-Pistoles... read more

September 3, 2013 Guitta, our hostess at the Maison Historique James Thompson B&B, fixed a wonderful breakfast for the eight of us staying at her beautiful home in Old Quebec City. Omelets, French toast, croissants, bacon, big bowls of seven different fruits, chocolate muffins, juice, and coffee gave us a good start for another busy day. Guitta is a good person, very hard working and kind. We enjoyed talking with a nice family of four (two adult children) from Paris. We thought it was interesting that the Parisians said that they had difficulty understanding the Canadian French, that it is very "Americanized" with a heavy Canadian accent. They said that when films made in Quebec are shown in France, they often include French subtitles. I can relate...I have had trouble understanding the English language in Belize ... read more

(Photos courtesy of Michael Weinstein and John Carson: Many thanks) I sure wish I had been able to keep up better with this blog during the trip. It's so much easier to remember things that happened within a day or two rather than a week later. But our days were so long and I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I couldn't get to it. I would need all the sleep I could get before tackling another day on the trail. During dinner the night before, we all talked about getting an earlier start riding since we had somewhere near 200 miles to get back to Riviere du Loup from Matane. For a change, we had no mechanical issues to deal with and the trails should be well groomed. We started out ... read more

The french culture in Quebec is very evident in Riviere where english is little spoken. We had a most enjoyable stay with Carl et Lorraine who recommended a lovely french restaurant to us, overlooking the river which is 23km wide at this point. The next day we visited a Christmas museum that included nativity scenes from 24 countries and the biggest Xmas store in Canada. Then we drove along the river, enjoying several small villages including the town of Saint Jean Paul Joli, where there was a red roofed church dating back to 1779 and the Musee de Ancien Canadians, a museum dedicated to many skilled wood carvers located in the district. A fog or long white cloud was present over the river for the entire day.... read more