The Trip part I - Québec

At the end of April our house in Waterloo was going to be sold; I packed everything needed for 3 weeks travel in my backpack and left my suitcase with the rest of my stuff at a friend's place until the half of May when I was going to return back.

On Monday 26th we started the first part of a big travelling through Canada and USA. First we took a bus to Toronto for a quick tour.

This was my third Toronto visit, but it's always nice to walk its streets. It was a nice sunny day ideal for shooting nice pictures :) In the evening we met Nicolas and left together by night bus to Montéal.

CA09 Toronto 26.4.2010

Morning in Montréal, around 7am, snowing, cold! Finding a place for a breakfast was the first thing to do, then waiting till 8 when Thrifty opened. They let us left our bags in the office and we went to kill two hours in Old Port. At noon we came back to get our car (Toyota Camry with a hybrid engine this time! Not a bad one :)). Then we made a quick shopping in Walmart with a purpose to "rent" a tent and GPS for our trip (rent because we were about to return it a week after :D). 

Driving on the highway to Quebéc wasn't much pleasant, it was snowing with a strong wind. However when we arrived the weather was fine. We found our accommodation - a really nice Motel Le Châteauguay with a swimming pool, sauna, breakfast and even cheaper then a hostel! After sweating out a fatigue of the day in the sauna we met Sophie and went together for a french stand-up comedy in a bar. It was a great evening despite the fact we understood nothing from the show :).

Next day we started our way to Lac St-Jean, concretely to Saint-Félicien, where Sophie's father lives. The lake is very beautiful and it creates the beginning of Parc National du Saguenay, the NP around a river running into a quebéc fjord. Almost the whole day was spent on the way and the night partying in a local club. The day after (and after beating out the hangover) we visited rapids in St-Félicien, Parc National de la Pointe-Taillon at the other side of the lake and finally had a nice dinner in a restaurant.

The third day we said goodbye to Lac St-Jean and our great host and headed back to Québec. With stops in Chicoutimi, where stands "Little White House" the only house which survived huge floods in 1996; and Tadoussac by an estuary of Saguenay river, here we took a short whale-watching track (but didn't see any), had lot of fun in a beach with inclination around 45° and finally took a free ferry to the other side of the river.

Back in Québec we booked for another two nights our previous great Hotel. On Friday evening we joint Sophie and her friends for a birthday party, on Saturday made some sightseeing and another party in the most well known club Chez Dagobert in the night (it might seem we were clubbing and drinking everyday, well yes so far :)). Sophie had to work on Sunday, so she left us to visit Montmorency Falls and Canyon Sainte-Anne alone. I'd seen the falls before, but it's always impressive. The Canyon was splendid too! There are waterfalls and rapids and moreover you can take via ferrata track above the wild river. Then was just the time to stop in QC to say "au revoir" (rather than goodbye..) with Sophie and start our way towards west and Montréal..

The last day with Nicolas we made a trip to Parc national du Mont-Tremblant, a very huge park north from Montréal with many nature tracks, lakes, hills, skiing resort, etc. Our original plan to camp there was forsaken, because that morning was raining when we were leaving Montréal. Anyway it stopped soon so we could have enjoyed 4 short lovely hikes in the park. 

The second night in Explorers hostel in Montréal, morning visit in Walmart to return part of our equipment, and Nicolas was leaving back to France through Toronto (Tu 4.May). See you in July! Bon voyage!

Pictures from the whole trip are here:

CA10 Québec - Int. car trip, Apr-May 2010