As you may remember from our last post, Irene and I took Friday "off" trying to just stay home and relax. So, having done that, Saturday was a time to get out and take a look around. The first video below tries to show you where our route took us:
No matter where we go in the Trekker we know one fact for certain, there is beauty and awesomeness in what is in THAT location and nowhere else in the world. The area of Quebec province around the Saguenay River is in the midst of the Laurentian (or Laurentide) Mountains which are (essentially) the Southernmost portion of the Appalachian Mountains IN Canada (they continue up through Newfoundland). The Appalachian mountains are made up of many different sections: The Smokey or Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia; The Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania; the Catskills and Adirondack Mountains of New York; the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Well, the section in Quebec Province of Canada are referred to as the Laurentian (Laurentide) Mountains.
Here is a video of a lovely small lake we saw Saturday. The video doesn't do justice to the actual view (and never can).
Much to our surprise we saw a covered bridge on our trek. It was just off the road as it now is laid out. One wonders though if at one point this wasn't the route of the original road. The video below is our driving across the bridge.
On the north shore of the Saguenay River where it empties into the Saint Lawrence (Saint Laurent - French) is the tiny town of Tadoussac. It is largely a tourist based economy in town. Where the Saguenay River empties into the Saint Lawrence is a favored breeding ground for beluga whales (NO, we didn't see any). So, tourists in the area stream to this small town.
Irene and I stopped for lunch there. The picture below shows the name of the restaurant we ate at.
Since we are in Quebec, E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G is in French. In the the rest of Canada, virtually every sign is in both English and French because they are both official languages in Canada. However, in Quebec Province very little is in English and it seems to be purposeful. Here's the menu we had to order from:
In every country I've ever done mission work in the adults can barely speak English in. It is the younger generation that has watched TV with the show in subtitled in the native language and listened to American Music in English and desired to learn English. That's what has been the case in Malta, Romania, Albania, Mexico, South Africa and Namibia. Here in Quebec Province though that is NOT the case. Even the young don't know English. When you want to order a coffee at the local Tim Horton's, you'd better be able to muddle your way through in French. MAYBE the barista will be able to find another of the staff that knows enough English to help you. At Tadoussac it was the same way. Our initial waitress realized we weren't "parlaying" "en Francais" so she disappeared and soon another waitress, Lydia, came to serve us. She is a college student majoring in Business Administration hoping to one day have her own tourist oriented business in Tadoussac (it is her hometown). She was kind enough to take our picture:
As I metioned, Tadoussac is on the north bank of the Saguenay River. Just 1/2 mile across the mouth of the river is its southern bank, BUT, how to get here? There isn't a bridge. AHHH, a Ferry! Yep, they have a ferry. A FREE Ferry. I've never been on or heard of a Ferry that you didn't have to pay to ride, but this one is. Here's a (poor) video showing part of our ride:
And another of the end of the passage:
As we came back into Saguenay we had dinner at the Aki Sushi House. We love sushi. This one had about 6 rooms made up like Tea Houses. We got to sit in one of those. Comfortable AFTER you are sitting in them but a form of Oriental torture to get to that position. Get down on your knees on a hard wooden bench and TRY to get your legs under a table that is TOO low and TOO close to get under. So you pretzel yourself until you "git 'er dun!" The sushi was excellent though. Definitely worth the torture.
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