Saint Somewhere, Quebec

From Quebec, we will have to remain on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, unless we opt for a ferry across (all toll, so with this budget thing, not likely). We headed out and as we were filling up the gas, noticed that the front windshield liner on the outside driver side is coming loose. No chance of getting that fixed today, on the National Holiday! So out with the duct tape, and it's stuck in place for now, until we can get a repair done later in the week. Again, we are avoiding the major highways, and instead stayed on the road along the river, through the towns. You'd think we were in the Caribbean, as almost every town is named Saint Something. It is a nice drive, especially on a bright sunny day like today, with lots of time on our hands, and very little traffic on the roads (the holiday has really reduced the traffic). Both of us remarked how impressed we are with the neat and tidy appearance of the homes, yards, and the towns themselves - even though many of the homes are over 300 years old. They seem to be all freshly painted and well cared for, with very little evidence of neglect anywhere. Each village and town seems to have its own church, with a spire around almost every corner. As we progressed along the river, the other side went from 15 kilometers to over 45 kilometers, with occasional islets dotting the scenery. As we passed Rimouski, I was drawn to the sight of numerous sailboats gliding along the waterfront area. We decided to continue to another one of our genealogical (and place of general tourist interest) goals, and pulled into the National Historic Site at Pointe-au-Pere. This is the location of the 2nd highest lighthouse in Canada (the largest being about a day ahead near Gaspe), as well as the Memorial Centre for the Empress of Ireland. Linda's aunt was lost in the sinking of this great ship when she was struck by a freighter in the fog very near here.



The MemorialExhibit to the Empress of Ireland, which sank in May 1914 with a loss of life of 1012 people, including Linda's aunt.
















The Point-au-Pere Lighthouse, 2nd tallest in Canada at 33 meters (the biggest is 34)











So we looked through the exhibit/memorial/museum, including a 3D film about the incident. Linda found her aunt's name listed in the records, as well. We also toured the lighthouse (in French and in English), which is architecturally very similar to the one at Esperanza, which I'd seen on my sail around Vancouver Island a couple of years ago.







The Big Lens in the LightHouse











As a bonus, the site had also just received a submarine, Onandaga, which is now based here as a maritime exhibit. Having seen the sights, we decided it was time to find a place to camp for the night, so we headed about 10 km. further down the road to Ste. Luce, where we found a pleasant little camping ground.


Sainte-Luce Waterfront






We set up camp, and then walked down along the waterfront, where the holiday-goers were still partying for the Fete. I was tempted to get an order of Poutine from the local bistro, but we were too close to our budget mark for the day. Maybe tomorrow.....I'm told Gaspe Poutine is among the best in Quebec.