The Destinators

Mont Tremblant National Park

Mont Tremblant National Park is the oldest national park* in Quebec, the 3rd oldest in Canada and the 6th oldest in North America. Created in 1895 as Parc de la Montagne-Tremblante, its original purpose was to ‘conserve’ this beautiful area within the Laurentian Mountains, meaning manage reasonable use of resources like logging, which had been underway since the 1850’s. (This is as opposed to newer national parks’ definition of conservation which is to protect park resources from exploitation.) As a park employee described to us, all of the lakes were flooded in the spring to allow logs cut during the winter to be floated down long chains of lakes to the larger rivers to feed the lumber and pulp mills downstream. This form of logging was destructive to river ecosystems. That, along with the development of modern logging trucks, skidders and rail transport ended the log drives in the 1980’s. The area became officially Mont Tremblant National Park in 2001 with conservation (new definition) as its central focus.

Mauricie National Park

As Jacques Cartier National Park was all about protecting the river, Mauricie National Park is all about protecting the lakes. Yup, 150 of them…

Quebec City, partie 4

On a rendu visite à mes cousins Suzanne et Normand deux fois en 2023. Dans des articles de blog précédents, on a raconté comment nous nous sommes rencontrés et retrouvés. Ces visites étaient si agréables que nous avons décidé de remettre ça : même lieu de rendez-vous, même restaurant avec terrasse, mêmes pizzas, partager. Suzanne et moi avons ri à la fin du déjeuner en réalisant que nous avions toutes les deux mangé la bonne stuff, laissant la croûte ! On doit être de la même famille ! Ce qui n’était pas pareil, c’était notre niveau de français, à Doug et moi. Suzanne et Normand ont tous deux remarqué nos progrès en trois ans, des remarques qu’on a parfaitement comprises et auxquelles on a répondu avec toute gratitude. On était rayonnants de fierté ! Un grand merci à tous les membres de notre club de français MRV !

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Jacques Cartier National Park

Jacques Cartier National Park was created in 1981. Like other national parks around the world, its raison d’être (we’re in Quebec…) was to protect the natural resources of the region while balancing access and recreation. Although the entirety of the river is over 160 km/100 mi long, the area protected by the national park features a 54-km /34-mi stretch of a magnificent glacial gorge that is 550 m /1,800 feet deep. Water sports – canoeing, kayaking, tubing, and fishing – are top of mind at Jacques Cartier. There are also 100 km/ 62 mi of hiking trails throughout the park.

We’ve been confused before about national parks in Canada, particularly in the province of Quebec, because all but 2 of the national parks in Quebec are under the umbrella of SÉPAQ, a provincial organization that operates 23 national parks in Quebec, including Parc National du Jacques-Cartier and Parc National de la Gaspésie, among others. Huh? Inquiring minds…

Gaspesie National Park, deux

This is our second visit to Gaspesie National Park. Our first visit in 2023 was amazing and we knew we’d be back. Well, here we are! Last time we did 3 epic hikes in 3 different regions of the park – Mont Jacques Cartier, Xalibu, and Mont Albert – likely our favorite hike in a North American national park. This time we did one hike, not as spectacular as the others, yet it was still magical!

Saint-Siméon-de-Bonaventure, QC

Nous étions garés sur un grand parking presque vide de la plage de Brackley, dans le parc national de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard, en train de préparer nos vélos pour visiter les sentiers dans le parc, lorsqu’un autre camping-car, identique au nôtre mais un peu plus récent et beaucoup plus rutilant, s’est garé quelques places plus loin. Nous avons vu un couple commencer à préparer leurs vélos. Bien sûr, nous n’avons pas le choix – il fallait leur dire bonjour…

English version follows, or click here.

Caraquet, deux

This visit to Caraquet was different from our first visit in 2023. My maternal grandparents and generations of ancestors were born and lived here and I’ve heard about the town since I was a kid. In 2023, we aimed to check out the town. The town is in a pretty location on the Baie des Chaleurs (Bay of Warmth), on a peninsula in northern New Brunswick. We loved it! The arts community, the funky restaurants, the murals, the beaches, the marinas, the bay, the outdoor gathering spots all caught our attention. We (literally) sought out signs of my ancestors and found street signs with the Morais family name.

South central PEI

As we drove across the beautiful and brilliantly engineered 8-mile-long Confederation Bridge between PEI and the mainland, we were entering PEI with a few time constraints – tickets to a show on 8/8, meetup with friends on 8/14 and don’t visit PEI National Park with its legendary crowds on a weekend – and a list of things we wanted to visit. Oh, and we had forgotten about the Canadian long weekend and so arrived just in time for that. Working up a schedule with all these constraints required a bit of creativity. (Check out PEI on our travel page in you’re interested in just how much creativity…)

There was was only 1 item on our list in the south central part of PEI. However, given our driving routes to work around the constraints we got to explore this area and found a few gems.

The east side of PEI

By PEI standards (I wish to stress that this is an important qualifier here), the east side of the island was quiet, laid back, and less touristy. It was also geologically different – again, by PEI standards – hillier, more trees, fewer huge flat farms. According to locals (and backed up by the Potato Museum), we learned that the soil on the west side of the island is perfect for large-scale agriculture, while on the east side… not so much. There are farms, to be sure, however the east is also home to some forestry and a few sawmills. As on the west side, there are lovely red beaches and cliffs along the shore, and lots of lighthouses, along with the agriculture and fish processing.

PEI’s west coast

From the north coast we set off to explore the west coast of PEI. The drive was quite pretty as we passed miles of tidy, colorful potato, corn and wheat fields. Relatively flat with rich red soil, it seems every bit of land that is not used for a house, a church or a music venue is used for agriculture. Taking back roads as much as possible, we also passed through bunches of tiny towns, a handful of big ones, and more of the red coastline’s alternating cliffs and beaches.