DAY 50 : August 26/22 Friday. Mont Ste Anne to Paradis Marin, QC
Hey Hey Hey! We’ve been on the road for fifty days!! Wowza!
Had pancakes and packed up the rig then Meems and I rode bikes (me on Ollie’s) across the little bridge to the road. Jonathan took the rig with Ollie to the Sani dump to unload, park it by the chalet and then meet us at the trail head. We rode (Ollie on the pannier rack) the 6km green trail “Circuit Jean-Larose”… an up and mostly down gravel trail through the woods alongside a little river. Amelia had on small wipeout when she slipped out on the gravel, but recovered well.
At the bottom of the circuit we discovered the ski hill main lodges and chair lifts. Very quiet around there. We saw a few mountain bikers, but things were very low key. We found two awesome pump tracks to ride around and a few jumps. Jonathan took one for the team and rode his bike back up the circuit (turns out he also couldn’t help himself and rode a section of La Bouttaboutte). I walked the kiddos and their bikes over to the Delta Hotel in hopes of finding a coffee shop (all the lodge stuff was closed) and we got a coffee and pastries while we waited for Jonathan to get back down with the RV. We ate our goodies in the nice lobby, then went back out to play at the pump track and playground until Jonathan showed up in the parking log with the rig.
Left Mont Ste Anne around 1:30pm and went to the IGA in Beaupré for some supplies and by 2:15pm we were headed for Tadoussac/Charlevoix region for some whale watching! RAIN RAIN RAIN.
3pm we rolled into Baie Saint Paul to fuel up (110140km @ $2.019/L) and then in Clermont for propane at Solugaz Propane Charlevoix Inc $45. Again, I used my impeccable French (haha) to go inside the office and ask for propane for our “V.R”… they were very friendly.
Reached the Baie of the St. Laurent and went left up the coastline of the North Shore towards Tadoussac. Lots of hills 10% grade. Jonathan would comment each time on “this is a steep hill right?” Worried that the RV engine was lugging.
By 4:45pm we reached Ste Siméon and popped into the tourist centre right by the cemetery. We’ve really noticed there are a lot of cemeteries just on the sides of the highways around Ontario and Quebec. Jonathan always makes the same dad joke to the kids about how he heard “it’s so popular, people are dying to get in there”. Now he just has to point them out and say, “I heard…” and they groan. The tourist info was very specific to Ste Siméon and not super helpful for us going up to Bergeronnes.
Baie Ste Catherine, arrived around 5:30pm to catch the little 15min ferry over to Tadoussac across the Rivière Saguenay. Caught the ferry right away (on the boat by 5:36pm!) and we were on the other side around 5:50pm.
Drove up to Bergeronnes and hung a right onto Chemin L’Ange towards the water. Arrived at 6:15pm to PARADIS MARIN, the campground right on the rocks on the edge of the St. Lawrence. So beautiful!!! Jonathan had booked us in for two nights on the recommendation from the bike guy at Mont Ste Anne. On the map we were way up and back from the water’s edge, but when we drove up to the site, we realized that we were actually on the top tier of a stepped campsite and every row had a beautiful view of the water. It was just a short walk or bike down to the rocks where you could explore tide pools and sit and watch the whales and dolphins swim by! Super cool.
We got set up quickly and we met our lovely neighbours Adeth and Jules. I had said Bonjour and Jonathan said Hello, and Adeth immediately asked “how come your wife speaks French and you speak English?” I explained that I only speak a tiny bit of French (in French) and we had a very fun conversation with me trying my best in French, and Jules enjoying trying his best to remember some English. They were super lovely and sweet.
By 7:30pm we rode down to the rocks in time to see about a hundred grey seals swim by in a huge pack. Pretty neat sight to see! We also saw some Harbour Porpoise, and Jonathan saw a Minke Whale pop up and blow it’s spout. I heard the spouting but didn’t see the whale. The kids were excited about exploring the tide pools in the massive rolling rock surfaces and found little shrimp and anemones. Amelia was super curious about the seaweed. Hung out down there with the sun setting… gorgeous.
When we got back up, Adeth gave the kids a box of gummy bears as a treat. They both said, “Merci Beaucoups!”. Had another small chat before making wraps for dinner. Two tired little kiddos.
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