View over the harbour in Quebec city

Le chateau Frontenac

In Quebec city we explored good food and took a look at the main attractions such as the Citadel, the Market at the port. the Chateau Frontenac and we strolled down the cobblestoned streets. As Christmas is only about a month away, the streets and stores are starting to become decorated with lights, christmas trees and festive decorations and it all added to the feeling of winter and holiday.

The old part of Quebec

The citadel in Quebec city

Robert playing at the Citadel

It soon became evident that our focus after all wasn't perhaps the old buildings and the beautiful scenery but on FOOD! We planned our days around where to eat next and we experienced some wonderful french food from onion soup to rabbit! After being on the road for so long, and after having stopped at most Tim Hortons restaurants along the way between Vancouver and Quebec, REAL french onion soup (not Timmy's version!) tasted soooo good!!!

Our plan leaving Quebec city was to drive around the Gaspesie penninsula which follows the south side of the St Lawrence river and wraps around the river mouth down to the Maritime province of New Brunswick. The region was rated on of the 50 places to see in a lifetime by National Geographic, so we jumped on the opportunity to take a look!

Victoria and the sea

As we already had learned, but which became even more evident during this part of the trip is that we are not travelling during tourist season which has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that there is never any problem to find a hotel or motel that has room available and we rarely book ahead unless we are going to a bigger city. The other side of the coin is that while the hotels might have space, it is dependent on if they are OPEN! In the Gaspesie, we experienced, more than anywhere else, that while there were really nice places to stay, cute roadside cafes and restaurants and interesting shops, they are often closed for the season! More than once did we plan on having lunch at a nice little fish restaurant and ended up yet again at... Tim Hortons because everything was closed. Thank goodness for Tim Hortons!!!

On of our stops in the Gaspesie was Gaspe which is a small but year round open (!!!) town right on the Atlantic sea. The town celebrated its 475th anniversary in 2009 since it was 475 years ago that French explorer Jacques Cartier came ashore and 'claimed' the land by putting a big white cross in the ground.

Victoria and a fishing boat

The journey continued from Gaspesie and soon enough we entered into New Brunswick. Perhaps it was the weather, perhaps the time of the year. New Brunnswick might be a lovely place in the summer, but in mid November with pouring rain, it is not! We only spent one night in the small, industrial town of Dalhousie (reminded Victoria about the industrial area of Eskilstuna) before heading off towards Moncton and the Confederation bridge which connects Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick.

We reached the bridge when it was already dark so unfortunately we didn't see much of it. It is 13 kilometer long and is apparently the "world's longest bridge over icy water".
Once on the island we drove to Charlottetown which is the capital and the major city in this island province.

We found a very nice inn and decided to stay a few nights. P.I island is know for its seafood and especially mussels and clams so we planned on getting a taste of that. The town also (to Robert's delight) has a number of pubs and microbreweries. We also realized most of the downtown area has one way streets. We discovered that by driving down the street and Robert was complaining that everytime he came to an intersection he wasn't sure if he had to stop because he couldn't see any stop signs. It turned out that it would be unnecessary to put the stop signs facing the opposite direction on a one way street. It was quite surprising that 1. we didn't get into an accident. 2. nobody (not even the cars we met on the street) honked or yelled at us for being silly west coast drivers driving against traffic on one way streets! Well, lesson learned and nobody was harmed!

The plan is to go for a small drive around the island today before heading off P.E.I and into Nova Scotia. There is a 190 km loop around the island that is recommended in our tour book that goes through the area where the author of famous books about Anne from Green Gables lived. It could be worth a visit!

P.S Photos will come shortly!!!!! Please check back soon.

written by  Victoria & Robert on November 23, 2009 from Charlottetown, Canada
from the travel blog: Across Canada
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Onion soup and rabbit that's real French plain food!
Best regards,
Maud and Gunnar

written by  Maud Naess on November 25, 2009

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