En Route to Quebec City – Portneuf

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Our journey to Quebec City down the St. Lawrence continued as  we headed for Portneuf.  It was a long day on the water, but but the weather was good and we were moving with the current which is very important in this part of the river.  

Cathy and Steve seem to be enjoying the trip and we are happy they are able to share this experience with us. 

A few barges passed us which is just a little intimidating.  We moved well out of their way and were relieved to discover that the freighters’ wakes were not bad at all.

We went by the industrial town of St. Joseph de Sorel and passed under the beautiful bridge connecting Becancour to Laviolette. 

The current was very strong as we expected it to be and we felt like we were flying at 16 mph – the fastest we’ve ever traveled on this boat. Imagine!

When we approached Portneuf, we rounded their breakwater and all of a sudden the waters became still as we calmly entered the marina.  This is an example of what is called a port of refuge and it truly felt like one.

The marina is situated in an area where the tide is very extreme. The landscape at low tide was quite dramatic – windswept and rather desolate – but beautiful. 

We walked into the tiny village and along the way we  passed a park with unique knitted blankets hanging from trees.  We’ve found many parks on this trip that have a wide variety of creative artworks on display. 

At the local pub, we had a beer and  tried the typical Quebecois comfort food called poutine.  The traditional version is french fries with gravy and cheese curds but it comes in other variations as well.  We can see why this is comfort food – especially on a cold winter’s night.  But we probably won’t be ordering it again – we prefer our fries extra crispy!

The best choice for dinner was the marina restaurant and there we all enjoyed a good seafood dinner.  The place was packed and we couldn’t quite figure out where the patrons came from because the area seemed so remote and the village itself was quite small.  We guess they must come from miles around!

The next morning we left early for the final long run to Quebec City. 

En Route to Quebec City – St. Antoine and St. Ours

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We couldn’t have had a more beautiful day traveling from Chambly on our way to Quebec City on July 17.  We expected to take two days for this trip so we built in time to visit yet another charming town along the way.

The villages we passed continued to lure us.  Our original plan was to stop mid-way at St. Charles-sur-Richelieu but it didn’t look quite as appealing up close.  So we went a little further to St. Antoine-sur-Richelieu.  Note that this portion of the trip is along the Richelieu River). What a charming village St. Antoine is!  We docked at the town dock and walked along the main road exploring our surroundings. 

One of the first things we fell in love with was a perfectly lovely chateau and B&B composed of several buildings and incredible gardens.

 

The only sound was the singing that wafted from a second story gathering. It sounded like a small chorus or a very talented family celebrating one of their member’s birthday!  

The architecture was quite unique and we saw traces of the gingerbread type trim on other houses throughout the town.

Just down the street we came upon a small art museum in another historic house – this one filled with an exhibit from a local artist.  Very colorful landscapes and portraits of stylized women.

All the houses in town seemed to have been built in the 1800’s and they each outdid the next with their colorful paint jobs, lush flower gardens and creative gingerbread trim.

We found a  charming restaurant that wasn’t open at the time we were there  - too bad!  

We passed the local library and then just a block or two down passed two  book exchange boxes  located on the villagers’ front yards.  Apparently this is a very literate town. 

We reluctantly left St. Antoine bound for our stop for the night – St. Ours.   Here we traversed the last of the locks for this part of our journey.   These were by far the easiest locks we’ve encountered.  All we had to do was tie up to a floating dock so we hardly felt the effect of the lock lowering us to our final descent.  Before we realized it, we were done! 

We traveled just a couple of hundred feet to our dock alongside of the park that surrounded the canal.

We strolled around the grounds and planned to eat dinner on the nearby picnic table. But the flies had other ideas so we ate dinner on board and went to bed early after our late night in Montreal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Montreal, Quebec

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We spent  July 15 in Montreal.  Steve and Cathy had a rental car so we went into Vieux Montreal for the day and explored the old town on foot visiting the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours (Our Lady of Good Help) chapel.  This chapel is often called the Sailors’ Church.  It was built in 1771 over the ruins of an earlier chapel.  Lynn was very taken with the  light fixtures shaped like Spanish galleons, container ships, etc.  We also visited a very cool archeological museum built upon the excavated foundations of the original settlement of Montreal. 

Of course,  we ate lunch at an outdoor café and Lynn had one of her  French favorites - moules frite (mussels and french fries).

We strolled through many different parks and neighborhoods including Chinatown and a great gallery district.

During the summer, Montreal has endless street fairs and we strolled through a couple of them as well as many parks and plazas.

 

 

That evening we met friends of Cathy and Steve’s for dinner where we had another French favorite (steak frite) and topped the  evening off by watching an amazing fireworks display in the harbor.  Montreal goes all out in the summer and there is a general mood of celebration throughout the city. 

The only damper to the day was the endless hassle of returning the rental car to the airport and taking a cab back to the marina. A trip that should have taken about 45 minutes took twice as long because only one bridge was open one way due to construction and the fireworks traffic.  We had had a very long day – it was almost 2 a.m. before we tumbled, exhausted,  into bed! But all in all, we had a fantastic day in marvelous Montreal!