Québec city to Saguenay and back to Québec city

-

Québec, from the Lévis ferry

Next stop was Québec (city), where we stayed 3 nights in the Vieux Port area. Michelle's first time here. It's a beautiful place to walk around. Again, we had some excellent meals. Fortunately, the walking helped with some of the calories. 

Le Moine Échanson: Our favourite meal in Québec

Québec (from the Port)

We also paid a visit to the Lévis fortifications. It required the ferry and then quite a long walk. Unfortunately, a little misinformation from Parks Canada over on the Québec city side didn't inform us the fortifications were not yet open. Nevertheless, we got a good look around (and in) them. These fortifications (part of three built across the river from Québec City) are different in that they were specifically built to protect Canada from the Americans. Hey Donald! We built a wall first... needed back in the 1700s and 1800s, and perhaps it'll be needed again.

Lévis Fortifications: Protection from American invaders...

Looking across St. Lawrence river at Québec from Lévis

After Québec city, we decided to visit the Saguenay region, Northeast of Québec. Saguenay is a fjord, famous for its beluga and other whales. It would also be an area where our French language ablities (inabilties) would come out.

We camped for 2 nights at Tadoussac. Had one night with huge winds and pouring rain, but our tent held up and the sun was out by morning. We did a nice walk around the dunes. The town itself is very cute (site of the first French settlement in 1599, but only 16 of 50 settlers survived the first winter). Now there is an excellent microbrewery (Microbrasserie de Tadoussac); their "Triplette" Triple Belge is SO good! (Perhaps this says too much about us that our favourite part of Tadoussac is the microbrewery....) 

Selfie looking West towards Tadoussac (with dunes visible)

Looking East up the St. Lawrence River (from Tadoussac dunes)

We drove all around the Saguenay fjord. Up the East side to Chicoutimi (now amalgamated as "Saguenay") then down the West side. (The West side is more photogenic.) We had a bit of an adventure after booking what we thought was a room with a kitchenette but turned out to be a room plus a bathroom and kitchen we would share with the (very nice) landlady and her cat. David is very allergic to cats (and dogs). Fortunately she was understanding (she didn't charge us) and our broken French didn't spoil things. We consulted Agoda and Booking.com and then continued on for another 45 minutes and found a lovely fully-equipped cabin for 2 nights in L'Anse-Saint-Jean (where David's French was truly tested; hey, we got the cabin we wanted, so that says something, n'est-ce pas?).

Looking up the Saguenay (near L'Anse-de-Roche)

After 2 nights in L'Anse-Saint-Jean, we drove (in pouring rain) back to Québec city, where we are now. Tomorrow we head south towards Sherbrooke and then our detour to visit family on Long Island, New York.