Storyline: Unfinished Roadtrip
Starting late in the season always poses challenges. How far east we could go would be dependent on the weather, or so we thought. The main goal was the Gaspé Peninsula and possibly The Bay of Fundy.
Our first night was to be spent at the Merrickville Fair Grounds near Ottawa. We’ve been through this pretty town many times before, but never before seen it so busy as that Sunday afternoon in mid August.
The small town was booming. No parking spot was left untaken, no boutique store or café was left without crowds and line ups. One could not find a place to set one’s foot.
Scouting the Rideau Canal locks, the old ruins and the old hydroelectric turbine generator (it operated in the nearby power station between 1915 and 1953),
we decided that our best option was to withdraw to our quiet boondocking site under the ospreys’ nest. Our worries that the ospreys would be screaming all night were baseless.
As the dusk settled in, so did the osprey’s chicks.
Next morning Alex went on a photography tour and brought me a cappuccino from the local café.
Not that I don’t have my coffeemaker, but it was easier that way and nice of him.
Shortly after we drove away to our next destination, “Camping Marina Parc Bellerive” on the Richelieu River, Quebec. It was almost lunchtime when we reached Grande Ile. We’ve crossed this island in the St. Lawrence River before, but I’d never realised how big it is. And primarily boring, not to say ugly, with the hydro power plant views. Good we decided not to boondock there or spend any time there.
Driving through Southern Quebec, though, was very refreshing. No one local went over the speed limit. I’ve been always in contempt with the Ontario drivers who think that one should drive at least 20+ over the speed limit. From what I knew one could drive up to 40km below the maximum posted speed on a limited access highway. I had some discussions with Alex on that subject, until he finally googled it. And yes, it is exactly the same in Ontario. Just the mentality is different.
Later on, when due to an emergency I had to take Quebec limited access highways, the signs everywhere indicated minimum and maximum speed. Difference? Exactly 40km. Simple and clear. One does not need to know French to get around this one. Somewhere in the area we drove for about an hour behind a little red car doing 60km in a 90km zone. No one was honking or trying to pass. Alas this didn’t hold in Gaspé, where it felt like we were back to Ontario with all the unruly and impatient drivers.
There are many wineries south-east of Montreal which we decided to leave for another time. It was past lunch hour and we were just south of Montreal. Time to find a lunch stop. That lovely lunch spot on the bank of St. Lawrence River was Parc André-J.-Côté in Ste-Catharine. Nice art installations throughout the park.
Dropping the wineries from our list (as many other things later) we arrived at our first campsite for the summer season.
It was in the middle of nowhere if you ask me, but with the best site on the river we had the time to enjoy the sunset, take photos and taste the restaurant’s delicious seafood. This would be the only campground with an onsite restaurant. It wasn’t just an RV park; there was a swimming pool, spa, kids’ playground, community hall and more.
My concern when I booked it was that it could be noisy with all the motor boats zipping up and down the river (as it would be anywhere in Ontario). Not sure if it was because of Covid or because it wasn’t a weekend, but it was so quiet.
Just the birds and occasional golf cart transporting people to the restaurant/store and facilities. There was a single winding road downhill that was probably inconvenient for mostly seasonal campers here.
But this would be the only campground on our trip where there were lots of people using golf carts.
Our next campground was just outside of Montmagny at Camping Pointe Aux Oies.
Montmagny is a small city sitting astride the South River as it empties into the Saint Lawrence. Nice camping with trees and flowers all around. Here we’d use our precooked food and take our time to walk through the city and its surroundings. Didn’t go to the microbrewery as it looked overwhelmed by the tourists, but the trails by the river were nice.
There is a Poissonnerie (seafood shop) near our camping and of course I had to check it out. We walked with the usual “Bonjour”. A very small store on the road to the RV park. Their main product is sturgeon. Fresh, marinated, smoked… you name it. I am adamant to get some for BBQ. We are attempting to inquire if the fresh surgeon is good for BBQ, to which the sales lady explains that it takes a long time to cook it. In the oven. It is a tough fish and won’t do well on BBQ. Still in French. I looked at some delicacy on the shelves as she overheard us talking English. Then she switches to English. “My husband loves the water. He is a sturgeon fisherman” she says. The sturgeon in the store is his catch and her preparation. As we continue chatting, she reveals that she was from Maine, US.
We laughed. She should have told us right away, so we didn’t have to fight the fisherman’s French talking to an American. But perhaps her French wasn’t that good to grasp our poor attempts at the beginning. She tells us, now in English not to buy the raw sturgeon if we are camping. It is hard to cook. She offers us a marinated one to try in the microwave. I personally have never tried any so we end up buying a piece of marinated one and another piece of smoked one (we brought part of it all the way back home). And a container of bourgots marinated in saline water. The latter were so delicious that they disappeared in the afternoon as a meze for the wine.
Initial Google translation from French to English does not help: bourgot is bourgot in English. They however remind me conch. Are these the same or similar? Both are water snails. Whatever they were they were simply delicious. Further research reveals that a bourgot is a whelk, a form of a sea snail, a gastropod, found all over the world, but mainly in temperate waters. It is known as bourgot in France and scungilli in Italy. Conchs are of the same gastropod family, but are found mostly in the Caribbean countries. OK they really look the same to me. The only difference I could find is geographical. And perhaps all of you have one of those unique shells at home. Have you listened to the ocean (or the sea) while holding up the shell to your ear? As children we used to play a lot with these shells on beaches of the Black Sea. And to clarify the confusion gastropod is just another way to say snail. Sounds smart, right? And if you are in France, you may find them as bulots, buccins or bourgets. Rather confusing, eh? Oh, and one thing they are not, these are not to be confused with abalone. Completely different sea snail. Being salty water creatures, the bourgots are found in the region of the North Shore (la Côte-Nord), the region of Bas-Saint-Laurent-Gaspésie, where Saint Lawrence River flows to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and The Magdalen Islands (Îles-de-la-Madeleine) in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Apparently, a huge amount of bourgots is sold to Japan and the US. My data is a bit old, but according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in 2007 Quebec sold 195 tonnes to Japan, 157 tons to the US and about 533 tonnes went to the Canadian market. Impressive!
The morning of our departure I bought more for the road. They went fast too. Didn’t even think of taking a photo so I can ask if one can find them in stores around here in Ontario. But they were my favourite new discovery in Quebec.
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