Kancamagus highway lincoln to Conway

This beautiful road follows the great divide where the americas and Africa collided eons ago

(We have followed this in Iceland and Newfoundland too)

It is largely a ridge between granite formed mountains 

At Lincoln we visited the paper mill market. There was a moon cafe that sold the best coffee and croissants.

We started on the Kancamagus highway. It is a pleasing winding road through the divide. It is called after an Indian chief who tried to protect his people’s rights to the land.

A deer ran across the road and we saw some birds of prey. 

We stopped at all the pull ins and viewed the mountains. The visibility is not so good today but it is smoky from Canada fires and a heat haze. Last stop was the lower falls near to Conway. I sat for ages on the huge rocks near the fierce flowing river bouncing between and over boulders. 

So rewarding lost in my thoughts and writing my blog!

People were paddling in the cold water and jumping over the rocks. Those large yellow butterflies were there as well as flies. It was a relaxing sunny day.

New Hampshire white mountains and cog railway to summit mt Washington 

A lovely clear crisp morning with blue skies. 

Sadly we heard our grandchildren’s cat ziggy was run over and died. They are so sad he was barely a kitten.

We travelled through the white mountains from Gorham to the cog railway up to the summit of mt Washington.

The train was a diesel and the cogs on the line pull it up the steep hillsides. The views and commentary were superb. At the top we were at 6 000 feet (so not like Denver cog railway at 14000 where I felt sick and dizzy) 

We had an hour up there. There was some snow up there and we saw the ice crystals melting and falling from the meteorological station up there. So pretty…

I took quite a few pictures of the trains and the views over the mountains. We really enjoyed this 

The Appalachian mountains are beautiful in spring. Everything is bright green and fresh. There are square miles of state parks and paths to follow. The appellation trail is hundreds of miles across.

We stopped by Ellis Falls on the way back

You walk by the river and down steep stone steps to see the water falling along the river bed. The highest fall is 60 foot drop. 

I was proud I managed this with two replacement knees!

We saw huge yellow and black butterflies but they moved by so quick I couldn’t photo them. 

Today was a good day and we have have two more full days here so with the sun forecasted for the week we should get clear views. 

(I will post photos of the Ellis falls soon as I have to reduce them in size and also WiFi is poor here)

Leaving Quebec Canada to travel to New Hampshire USA

We had a good run all the way once we mastered the spaghetti style junctions around Quebec to get on the correct highway!

We followed very flat wooded and agricultural lands with many fruit trees and vegetable farming.

The hills of the Appellations started as we headed south from near to Montreal. 

The hills are low and divided by many valleys. There were small lakes and marshy lands and signs for moose and deer. Even a sign beware of the wild hairy mountain man 

At the border to Vermouth and America we had no probs in crossing. Just asked where we had been how long and when were we leaving. The border guard was the most Viking type man I’ve ever met with masses of bright ginger hair and bright ginger beard.

You travel very soon to the next state of North Hampshire (but at least we can tick Vermont off our list of American states we have been in)

All the way we were deep into the Appellations until we arrived at Mt Madison Inn Gorham. Our first motel not hotel. 

Nearby we passed through

Milan then Berlin

So washing machine here was soon in use and we have a heated outside swimming pool.

Last full day in Quebec City Wendake long house and First Nation museum

Sadly our last day is also cloudy rainy and colder. We needed to visit somewhere indoors and decided to visit the First Nation museum at Wendake. 

It is situated by Saint Charles river and near to the Kabir Kouba chute.

We had an interactive headphone commentary in English and really enjoyed ourselves. As well as a museum there is a huge hotel and restaurant.

We saw loads of interesting artifacts from the Huron Indian tribe. 

We learnt about their culture and went into a huge reconstructed authentic long house. In here all families slept in bunks on animal skins and two families shared one fire. So there were a series of fires along the centre of the long house.

Outside we saw how they cultivated beans squash and grain for cooking caught fish and hunted animals 

Later we went to the Kabir Kouba chute that provides electricity too. 

I took loads of photos as I know Xavie is very interested in cowboys and Indian reservations. 

Here are a few for my blog too. 

In the afternoon we went back to our favourite restaurant Cochon Dingue and I had poutine with chicken and peas. Then we explored the gift shops

Goodbye Quebec we stayed 9 nights and will miss you!

On to USA New Hampshire tomorrow a long travelling day .

We woke up to dry dull skies and set off to Levis over the bridge.

There wasn’t much to see or do there so we followed the road high above the river bank almost to level with the waterfall

We then caught the ferry over the river to Quebec and continued up to the next bridge crossing over to Ile d’Orleans.

At the chocolate makers we bought a snack lunch and sat outside. It was getting cooler and beginning to rain.

The rain has now set in so we came back to the hotel early. It’s good to have a lazy day

We may go out later if the rain stops. So not much of a blog but it is what it is and we can’t change the weather.

Baie-du-Sainte-Paul. (An hour and a half drive from Quebec City)

Touring Charlevoix area. It was impacted by a huge meteorite fall 350 million years ago. The scenery is forested hills and deep valleys.

Baie-du-saint-Paul is a very quaint artists town with cute shops and restaurants. 

We called at a restaurant 

The …. Le saint pub and vince had a melt in the mouth steak and I tried Poutine for the first time. 

Did I like it ? Yes I did!

It’s cheese curds from the local area with beer gravy and sweet potato chips. The gravy was a bit salty but I also had the local cider with it and water. 

It was bizarre I wanted to order mine completely in French which I did perfectly with help from the menu 👌

But everything I said, the waitress translated into English after I said my French version. Did she want to practise her English? Or was my French poor pronunciation ? 🤣🤣

 There were loads of beautiful art shops and clothes shops as well as places to eat. This is a tourists skiing area in the winter.

The rain started and thunder rolling in the far valleys. It was cooler. We headed back to Quebec passing through a storm and then blue skies once more.

It is sunny and warm again here.

I hope you get a feel of Baie du Saint Paul from my photos xx

A full on day in Quebec City

Parking this morning by the river, we decided to go to our now favourite coffee shop and indulge in crepes! We drank lots of water and coffee and poured the maple syrup over our 3 crepes. They are delicious. I still haven’t tried the Canadian puteen yet, though I’ll try to before I leave Canada.

We wandered around the streets below the funicular and then up to the top. It was very hot and we kept in the shade listening to the buskers up there. 

We saw a beautiful mural covering a side of a building. It depicts the history to present day of Old Quebec. 

We wanted to see ….

“The scene of great battles and Canada’s first national historic park, the site includes the Plains of Abraham and Des Braves Park.”

So ….Next we attacked the wooden steps leading up to the park and plains of Abraham. It was quite a climb and the path lead all along the cliffside up and sometimes annoyingly down then up again eventually to the citadel. 

The views were stunning and there were First Nation coils and statues next to a well placed bandstand. 

The funny thing was that after a long rest we could not find a way down to the grassy bank below us and could only walk completely around the top of the citadel defences until we were able to descend safely. There were no signs to help find our way or even a map!

Back in the old city it was a bit cooler as the sky was cloud covered now but still a warm wind.

We had a long drink of tea and iced water at a Starbucks that is part of the hotel and pretended we were residents there. 

On returning down the funicular to the car it was only 4pm. 

We decided to to go to the top of the huge falls Montmorency falls we visited 2 days ago

The park at the top was lovely there was a different view of the top of the falls and you could walk across them on a wired wooden path but no way would we do that. It was sooo windy up there too.

So what a full on day 

We still have 3 more days here I’m pleased because I’m really enjoying Quebec 

More of a lazy day visiting Ile d’Orleans and over Quebec City ferry to Levis and the other waterfall  near Quebec in chaudieres park 

This morning we headed to St Anne area of Quebec City and crossed the bridge near the falls to the island 

Ile d’Orleans. We spent a time driving round the small island . It is very full of farms and produces and sells cider wine and vegetables and fruit. We eventually stopped at the chocolatier. We bought a ham salad croissant and a drink and ate it outside in the shade. We could have stayed there all day it was so relaxing. Grandad ate a vanilla ice cream and I had a small bar of their milk and caramel chocolate. It was hot even in the shade so we both had to eat them before they melted.

Crossing over the bridge once again we headed for the docks as we wanted to go on the ferry this time over the st Lawrence river Old Quebec to Levis.

There is a small park over there next to a weir and a waterfall. Chaudieres Park

I took pics from the top but grandad walked down all the steps to see it from below. 

I saw a marmot again the third one so far this holiday…..and I managed to photograph it.

I sat under the trees in the shade waiting for grandad and I wrote this blog.

We planned not to go far today as yesterday was a long day. We are so pleased it’s lovely weather and dry

It may rain tomorrow evening

Quebec City to Baie-Sainte-Catherine, ferry,  sand dunes and fjord du Saguenay 

As we have such good weather we decided that we would explore the 

saint Lawrence River going further east and north.

We followed the coastline of the St Lawrence river for many miles. It is so wide and beautiful.

Crossing the road in front of us we saw a marmot about the size of a cat..:

At Baie-sainte-Catherine we stopped to see the watchout point for whales. There are beluga whales out today and I think or I hope I saw one about 4 times or was it a wave? Two girls looking through binoculars seemed to be excited about it.

Here the road runs out and you go on a free car ferry across the fjord. To tadoussac. 

Here we asked at the tourist information centre for maps and where to go for your best views of the area. 

We continued to see the famous sand dunes 

Then returned to Tadoussac and picked up the road above the fjord. (fjord du Saguenay)

There are only a couple of places to see the water in the fjord on the north side as there are steep hills blocking the view from the highway.

We called-at Anse de Roche 

And Sante-Rose-du Nord

After this the huge long fjord becomes a wide river inland to the city of Saguenay

We crossed the bridge at Saguenay and eventually picked up the road highway 175 direct to Quebec City. 2 hours away. This road is dual carriageway all the way and rolling hills very pretty and easy to drive. There were warnings of moose all along here. Fortunately we didn’t have one run out in front of the car!

A long day but we saw so much more of eastern Quebec and the st. Lawrence river going north. I hope you like my photos x

Parc de la Chute-Montmorency Quebec

Went to old Quebec first thing this morning and had crepes bacon fruit and purée and maple syrup mmmmm

We visited the Notre Dame old Quebec. And went up and down the funicular. 

This afternoon we drove to close by Montmorency falls and got some stunning photos. The noise of the water was thundering. You can do a zip wire across, a gondola  ride up, and also a foot bridge high over the falls. We chickened out!

We walked below (and will drive to the top another day.)

Grandad met a couple who had just had to leave Barrie Toronto ( where we stayed) as the black flies are now out and they were being eaten to death. …..we were so lucky weren’t we!

We got caught in the rush hour traffic on the way back and it took ages but at least we know now to avoid 3.30pm onwards for travelling.