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Quebec

My status as a Boston Bruins fan notwithstanding, I'm quite an admirer of Quebec! On the several trips I've taken there, I've found the people to extremly friendly and helpful. Even in areas where no English is spoken, we've always found that the residents try to work it out whether by gestures, hand signals, etc. The bottom line is that in our experience, the French English thing has never been an issue!

Boston to Tadoussac

Day 1 of this trip spanned the drive between Hanson, Ma and Tadoussac Quebec. We left at approx 6:00 AM EST, drove north through New Hampshire on Route 93 and continued on up through Vermont, eventually crossing into Canada at Standstead Quebec. From there we continued north until we joined Quebec Route 20 at Drummondville. Now on a major east west route, we continued on to Quebec City where we quickly got quite lost. Even the trusty GPS was of no use here, the streets, highways, and exits bore no resemblance whatsoever to the maps we were looking at. Eventually we hit our intended target, Rte 138 east, which would then take us along the northern coast of the Gulf of St Lawrence.

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East of Quebec City, Rte 138 passes through many small and fairly unremarkable towns. But as you approach the area known as Charlevoix, everything began to change. Beautiful hills now dominate your view and for us, the temperature began to drop. At one point, when the temperature at home was hovering at 100 F, we were at 56 F.

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Further east we eventually came to the Saguenay river which is often refered to as a Fjord. Extremely deep and wide, we crossed the Saguenay via ferry and arrived at Tadoussac. Our B&B, was on the left just up the hill from the ferry dock. Auberge maison Gagnè would be our home for two nights. This B&B was a great find, the staff was extremely friendly, the rooms were spotless, and the breakfast was delicious. We'd go back here without hesitation.

Day 2 was spent hiking the beaches and hills around Tadoussac and then heading out at 5:00 PM for a whale watch on a Zodiac. Quite a few different cruise companies (we used AML) offer these trips on Zodiacs as well as the more typical large viewing vessels. On this perfectly calm summer evening, we saw Finbacks, Minkes, and Belugas.

The next morning we headed out of Tadoussac and unbeknownst to us headed into 350 miles of spectacular beauty.

Tadoussac to Godbout

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Continuing east on Rte 138, we left Tadoussac heading for Godbout and a 2:30 PM reservation on the ferry. Again, the road winds through very scenic hills that extend right to the edge of the Gulf of St Lawrence. Also, along this part of the drive are several locations for viewing whales right from the shore. Called the Whale Route, it is a collection of viewing sites where you can quite often see whales right along the shore. We pulled into one of these viewing spots and within 5 minutes saw another white Beluga just off the beach.

Eventually we reached Godbout and boarded the M.V Camille-Marcoux (Sociètè Des Traversiers Du Quèbec) for the trip across the gulf to Matane. There was one crossing that day from Godbout and it departed at 2:30 PM arriving in Matane at approx 4:30 PM.

Matane to Forillon National Park

Our plan was to then make the trip from Matane to Forillon National Park that evening and this was a big mistake! It was late, the weather was deteriorating, and the road was slow. Eventually, we we lucky enough to find a hotel approx half way to Forillon and put up for the night.

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More to follow......