|
THE ILE D'ORLEANS |
|
|
THE ILE D'ORLEANS |
THE NORTH SHORE
Having completed the Chemin du Roy from Montreal to Québec in April 2012, the next part of my journey takes me along the north shore of the St Lawrence. That's not without its own excitement as there is a considerable amount to see - so much so that it is my favourite drive in the whole wide world.
When I first drove past here back in December 2001 in the fading light of a late December afternoon I noticed a rather large and impressive bridge from the north shore over to what I thought was the south bank of the river, and I resolved to cross over it at some time or another.
However subsequent enquiry revealed that it is here that the St Lawrence begins to widen out considerably and the bridge actually crosses over to a large island in the river, the Ile d'Orleans. Still, a bridge is a bridge and it merits a crossing.
Another reason for visiting the island relates to an encounter that I had in November 2010. There's a huge waterfall just to the east of Québec called the Chute de Montmorency and I worked my way around there to try to take a quick photo of the falls. However the whole length of the road was marked for "no parking" with all kinds of dire threats and so on, and before you could find a place where there was a decent view, there was a huge barrier across the road and a charge of, would you believe, $9:50 for going further on to have a good look.
It's true that these falls are said to be higher than the falls at Niagara, but they are nothing at all as spectacular, there's much less going on here, and at Niagara I paid a mere $5:00 for the privilege of parking the car and leaving it there all day. They have to be joking if they expect me to cough up $9:50 for the privilege of seeing what's on offer here.
I was determined not to be thwarted. Working out a few angles, I reckoned that there might be an excellent shot of the falls from halfway over the bridge and so that was what I resolved to do, but it was not until one Saturday afternoon in late April 2012, when I had been confounded in my attempt to visit Vielle Québec , that I could spare the time to come over here and spend an hour or two wandering around the island.
As an aside, this was what de Gaulle's infamous "Vive Québec libre!" was all about. It was not a political statement as many of the more naive Québecois convinced themselves to believe, but simply de Gaulle's cry of exasperation after having also been caught in the tourist trap at Montmorency and having been obliged to put his hand in his own pocket for once.
First things first, though. Fuel was quite low in the Dodge and I needed to fill up. I could do with a coffee too and there, at the top of the hill as you drive off the bridge, was a small village and petrol station.
And if you remember when I was at Manic 5 in October 2010 , I was cursing with having to pay $1:32.9. Here in April 2012, just 18 months later, fuel at a mainstream garage is costing $1:39.4. Heaven alone knows what it will be in Upper Labrador (and I did find out too).
Mind you, it wasn't all doom and gloom. Chatting to the girl in the petrol station, she told me that tomorrow was going to be the best day of the year so far, as far as sunshine was concerned. This news galvanised me into action, and I made a snap decision that as far as visiting Vieille Québec was concerned, tomorrow would be "now or never"
I was right too about the view of the falls from over here - especially as it was still early spring and the leaves hadn't yet grown back onto the trees. It's not a particularly good photo unfortunately as I'm still trying to come to terms with this new telephoto lens, but it's best one so far.
In the background above the falls is a small town which I think might be Courville. I'll have to go for a wander over there and check up on that.
From this spot though is an absolutely excellent view of the bridge - the Pont de l'Ile d'Orleans, to give it its official title, if you excuse the street light that is in the way (and remind me to bring a stihlsaw with me next year - I'm fed up of all of this street furniture and power lines and the like ruining my shots). It - the bridge, not the street light - was built in 1935 across the north arm of the St Lawrence, the Chenal de l'Ile d'Orleans.
You can see the Falls of Montmorency to the right of the bridge and to the left are two suburbs of Québec - Montmorency of course and Beauport, where I'll be heading later this evening. The legendary Street of 200 Motels
In case you are wondering, which I'm sure that you are, the navigable channel is the one off the southern shore of the island. You won't find ships passing up underneath the bridge.
Having dealt with the fuel issue, I set off to do a tour around the island to see what there is to see. I travel clockwise because although there is the problem of the other carriageway, there's the better view across the river without the passenger seat and the door pillars getting in the way. I can just poke the camera out of the window of the Dodge.
That is of course the north shore of the St Lawrence over there and behind the power cables you can see one of the many small towns along the shore. I'm not sure which town it might be - either Petit-Pré or l'Ange-Gardien. If you know, .
In the background are the uplands of the Canadian Shield and I'm intending to go for a little drive around up there at some point in my adventures. I'm not quite sure when, though. I've a lot to do in this visit.
I reckoned from what I had seen that there would be a really good view of the north shore of the St Lawrence from over here, and I'm not wrong as you can see.
That's yet another small town that is a few miles short of the famous Ste Anne de Beaupré anyway. Looking at the map later, it might be Chateau-Richer. But then again, it might not. You can if you have a better idea of which town it might be. Whatever it is, it's quite pretty
The view across to the north shore of the St Lawrence is not the only thing that is quite pretty - this is a gorgeous little stone house, presumably made from fieldstone that they raked up when they were clearing the land for agriculture.
It my assumption is correct, then this might give some kind of clue as to the age of the house. The first settlers arrived on the island in 1648 and they were clearly so impressed with the fertility of the land that within 20 years there were more people living on the island than there were in the settlement of Québec. By the beginning of the 18th century the island was a thriving, prosperous agricultural community.
You can tell what I mean by prosperous simply by looking around at a few of the settlements here. There's been quite some money spent on this island in the past.
It all goes to enhance the scenery of the island, of course, which is quite nice in its own right. This island is actually quite attractive and I really wish that I could find somewhere to photograph that would do justice to what I'm seeing. Mind you, the sun is shining and everywhere is pretty when the sun is shining. The acid test is to come back in a torrential rainstorm.
We mentioned agriculture, didn't we? When Cartier came here in 1535 he was astonished to find the island covered in so many wild vines, and he initially names the island the Ile de Bacchus. I've stumbled across many vinyards so far on the island - "is 'stumbled' a Freudian slip?" ...ed - and this is just one of them.
As an aside, many people reject the idea that l'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland was the site of the Norse Vinland, scoffing at the idea of the Vikings discovering wild grapes in that area. Whilst I'm convinced that l'Anse aux Meadows is a Norse settlement, I'm not so sure that it's the Vinland of the Norse sagas, but nevertheless, when Cartier came down the St Lawrence in 1535, the northern Hemisphere was in the grip of the mini Ice Age, dancing and bonfires on the frozen River Thames and all that. When the Vikings sailed to North America at the turn of the 11th Century, the northern hemisphere was in the middle of the "Medieval Warm" period where average temperatures are generally acknowledged to have been warmer than in Cartier's day.
And so if Cartier discovered hordes of wild grapes here in the middle of the mini Ice Age, there's no reason why there could not have been wild grapes around the coasts of southern Labrador and western Newfoundland in the "Medieval Warm" period.
Global warming is a phenomenon that has only been recognised fairly recently. The scientific world of 100 and 150 years ago which scoffed at the stories of the Vikings in North America had absolutely no conception of that concept and their reports and conclusions led to opinions and beliefs that have not been properly challenged today. The Norsemen of Norse America have been treated most unfairly, if you ask me.
Meanwhile, back in the 21st Century, sooner or later I find myself driving up opposite the town of Ste Anne de Beaupré sure enough, a town said by some to be the most famous place in the Province of Québec east of the city itself.
I'll talk more about the place at greater length in due course but in the meantime let me give you a little appetiser by telling you that it's a place similar to Cap de la Madeleine which we visited back in 2011
in that it is said to be the site of a miracle or two in the mid-17th century.
My attention was focused on the pier out there in the river. A railway was built to the town at the end of the 19th Century but prior to that, most of the hordes of pilgrims came by boat down the river and I'm wondering if that was the landing stage for the boat.
There's an excellent view of the basilica from here and it goes to prove that my decision to come here to photograph everything in the early spring before the leaves begin to grow on the trees was a good plan.
There are however other reasons as to why this might not have been such a good plan, and a glance over to the Mont Saint Anne at the back of the town will give you a clue as to why.
I was looking at all that white stuff up there on the top of the mountain and wondering what it might be, and then the penny dropped. I reckon that it may well be snow, and I shall have to have a closer look. It's over there that I'll be going in early course and the snow might be throwing a little spanner into my works if I'm not careful.
I mentioned that agriculture has been the mainstay of the island's economy for well over 350 years, and a little further around, we come to one of the most typical scenes of the Ile d'Orleans - the small farm with what looks to me to be extremely fertile clay-based soil. This is exactly how things must have looked 300 years ago, except for the corrugated iron.
That there in the background is the Mont Ste Anne, and I'm absolutely sure that that is snow up there. And here I am, melting away inside the car. It's all looking pretty ominous. The thing that gets me about those mountains over there is that they are predominantly south-facing, and that makes me wonder what it must be like round the back on the north face where the sun doesn't reach.
Ahhh yes - now isn't this one the photo that I want to represent the Ile d'Orleans? This is absolutely superb if you ask me. I'm impressed with this, and I took it!
We have of course the typical small island farm but this one is in a gorgeous setting right down at the eastern end of the island. In the background we have of course the St Lawrence and over to the left is Cap Tourmente, the big headland that cuts off the north shore from the St Lawrence basin.
You'll notice just how rounded the headland is there - not a jagged rock in sight. The smoothness is an indication of glacial erosion and you need to have a good imagination to picture a glacier so thick that it covered over that headland. And when you think of how much water there must have been in that glacier, then just think of how much the sea level must have risen when the glacier melted. No wonder they keep on finding all kinds of ruined and abandoned cities beneath the sea. They were probably well above sea level while the glacier here was doing its stuff.
At the eastern end of the island we turn to the south and go over a slight rise. This takes us to the south shore of the island and for that you need to turn to the next page, the link for which is below.
©