Fun and games in Chicoutimi

On Sunday night Raymond, Diane, and Jocelyn planned a get-together dinner for all of the Palm Garden people. We had about 15 rigs with friends coming from five hours away to join us for a few days. We are honored that so many of our friends chose to join us.

We had a Lac St. Jean tourtiere which is a traditional northern Quebec meat pie usually served at family gatherings. Originally made with wild game, ours was beef, potatoes, onions, and broth, baked for hours in a pie crust. It was very tasty.

La Geant Motorise, besides offering us free camping, also gave away door prizes. Raymond gave Mitch his prize of $50 to spend at the store.












The next morning it was time for a petanque game. This round was worth six points!!!












Le Geant Motorise also provided us a chauffeured limosine ride, complete with champagne, around the area and into Chicoutimi. HP was in our group and became our guide as he showed us the bridges and buildings he had designed while living in Chicoutimi.

We had a great Happy Hour one afternoon with a bunch of the Quebeqois. Jean Charles had prepared a beautiful smoked salmon. Besides the good eats, we had five minutes of only speaking English, of which their favorite line was "Oh my God", and five minutes of only French, which makes me wish I had paid more attention in my fifth grade French class.


We've also gotten in a couple of days of playing pickleball. We're glad we taught Gilles and Francine how to play at Peace River TT. Boy it feels good to get back at the game!









After a good round of pickleball, one needs to food up again, so off we all went (four cars of us this time) to visit the Boivin Cheese Factory in LaBaie. The factory was done with the days production so we hit the canteen for Pepittes and Poutine.









Poutine--another Quebequois traditional food--French fries with squeaky cheese curds topped with brown gravy. The Pipittes are deep fried cheese curds, a relatively new food trend.

We're watching our diets--Mitch and I split these Poutine and Pepittes!






Off for a drive to visit the area. This is LaBaie Bay on the Sagueny River. We also stopped to see a Bauxite Plant and a salmon ladder.



We needed to get home, though, because we needed to get our dinner made. Six of us were eating at Gilles and Francines.





Besides grilled cheese watermelon sandwiches for appetizers we also had whelks, a first for us. We had found whelk egg cases walking the beaches many years ago, but didn't know what a whelk was. Very rubbery, very salty, and very fishy.










We had a healthy spaghetti meal, but the homemade Sugar Pie that Louise made for dessert was wonderful. Tasted kind of like our pecan pie without the pecans.



We're not done with Chicoutimi yet!

Off to Chicoutimi

We traveled the 135 miles north to Chicoutimi through the Jacques Cartier National Park. The roads were good and the scenery beautiful. Then we hit Chicoutimi and the bridge over the Saguenay River was under construction and it took us about an hour to get across it.

Oh well, what awaited us on the other side were friends from Palm Garden gathered together by Raymond G to camp at the free campground sponsored by Geant Motorise (check it out at www.legeantmotorise.com). We have a few more days of fun planned!!

Our last day in Quebec

We journeyed north to the Jacques Cartier National Park about 45 minutes away and had a delightful walk through the woods. Along the Cascades trail we found mushrooms and then more mushrooms and the walk became a mushroom scavenger hunt. We found some great mushrooms! The rest of the sights and sounds were great too.













We got home in time for Mitch and Gilles to make a pasta with fish sausage that we had purchased on our visit to the Ile de Orleans. Our friends from Florida, Christyane and Roger joined us for dinner. It was great to see them.

All is all our visit to Quebec was all that we could have asked for. The weather was so good that everything we did was more enjoyable. And we found the people of Quebec very willing to speak English and were all as nice as could be. Thanks to Francine and Gilles for a delightfully planned adventure!

Nav Canada

Today Gilles took us to the Quebec Airport where he used to manage the air traffic control department for Nav Canada. We had our own mini-tour and had an opportunity to go to the top of the tower and see and hear the workings of air traffic controllers. Fascinating!!

(I was amazed at how clean all the windows were! Click on the picture to see which windows I'm talking about--they're the black area just above the rail thing.)

The rest of yesterday

I guess the first part of the day just made blogspot so tired it refused to upload the rest of my day's pictures so it could get a rest. However, we did have a very fine evening as the rest of the pictures will attest to.


As dinnertime approached we decided to eat atop the Concorde Hotel, 27 or so floors high in their revolving restaurant L'Astral.















The scenery was amazing and we enjoyed the variety of food we had an opportunity to try.












As the evening progressed from appetizers to dessert the sky darkened. We made a complete revolution every hour and a half and it was great to see the lights of the city appear.








Heading back to the truck we stopped to hear the New York Police Department marching band play in concert at the International Military Bands concert in the park.

Then we watched a fascinating movie of Quebec's history displayed on this row of grain silos. It was a beautiful evening and spending it outside was a great way to end the day.

Another day in Quebec City

We started our day by walking through the Lower City by all the quaint shops along the cobblestone street.











Every small shop is decorated on the outside with plants and signs or small displays.
















Then on to the Funicular which would take us up to the Upper City.














A view of the Lower City from the top of the Funicular.












And immediately the Chateau Frontenac grabs our attention.












We found an archealogical tour of the ruins of a castle that had first been built by the first governors of Quebec, and perhaps a cornerstone to a house by Champlain who first settled Quebec. The ruins are under the hotel and have been well preserved.







We then went on a tour of the Chateau Frontenac which was lead by "Blanche", the maid, who showed all the ins and outs of the hotel.



















We saw the courtyard outside the third floor














and a room that is typical of the rooms in the hotel.










We decided a good way to see the city was by carriage and that proved to be a great trip.












The horse clopped slowly along the streets and gave us a chance to see (and smell) the sights and sounds of Quebec City.

Visiting Quebec City

We spent the day in Quebec City and took a two hour bus tour that was a great way to get a quick overview of the city and some of its history.

The famous Chateau Frontenac.











St. John's Gate which was a gate in the wall that surrounded the city.













The shipping lane in the St. Lawrence River.













Just a touch of the Lower Town, a quaint European feel to Quebec.


This was so fun we're coming back tomorrow!!