Long Weekend trip to Gaspé, QC

[vincent9993]

Oh yes, we decided to take advantage of the long week-end to visit the Quebec province. We left Montreal around 11:45am. The weather was gorgeous but a little bit chilly and windy. Our first stop was at St-Apollinaire to gas up. The stop was longer than expected because Vincent needed to restart a server that was down at the office. After that, I asked Vincent if we could take a ride to the cemetery so I could have few minutes in front of the tombstone of my great-grandparents (on my paternal grandmother side). After turning in circles a bit, we asked where the cemetery was. Because it was not a big cemetery, I was pretty sure that we would quickly find the tombstone. Effectively, it was the case. My great-grandfather was the mayor of the town from 1919 ‘til 1930. I can imagine that he told everybody upstairs that who visited them today was his granddaughter and that was the one who built that gorgeous dune buggy….he should be proud as a peacock.

Afterwards we drove the road along the river as much as possible. At one point, we crossed an S.Q. car (Quebec provincial police) was “out of order”…really special. The landscape along the river is so beautiful. Several village names were unknown to us. We arrived at the hotel around 7:30pm. We didn’t enjoy the Jazz Festival because we worked this morning and yesterday, we went to bed late due to the football gamel. So tonight we didn’t want to go to sleep too late. Oh yes, we wrote something on the blog of the Dune Buggy Quebec to let them know that we were at Rimouski and a member received an email today with a picture of a dune buggy that he saw on the highway…and yes, that was us….what a small world.

Tomorrow we are going to Percé.

Milleage: 382 miles / 615km
Avg Temp: 72F / 22C
Consumed beers: 2 x Heineken

Again happy wedding anniversary to my sister Louise and my brother-in-law Alain.

Have a nice evening and talk to you tomorrow.

Vincent et/and France

[hillmotorsports]

Is it just me or is there a problem with half your posted images?
Enjoy your trip....we're moving our daughter back to college in Ottawa today so no time to play tourist today!

[hillmotorsports]

False alarm...Guess they were REAL slow loading as they are there now!

[vincent9993]

This morning we left Rimouski around 8:45am, the sky was a little bit cloudy but the sun was out. Oh yes, the Saint-Germain hotel is really great and not expansive. The breakfast that was delivered to our room was really good. When we stopped to put gas, a future retired couple (the guy will take his retirement in 2 years) talked with us about the place that we were going and as well about the route. They seems to travel a lot and it was really pleasant. On the road, we stopped a few times to take pictures. I need to admit that I fell in love with “Le Bas du Fleuve and La Gaspésie”…the road is gorgeous (especially near the town of Rivière-à-Claude). For lunch we stopped at Maxime-du-Mont-Louis at the resto “Eau à la Bouche”. The dune buggy was again the star. Along the day, we got hot and cold drafts…that was really strange. We have lot of nice little towns in our province, this part of the country needs to be visited at least once. More and more we were driving toward Percé, more the sky was veiled but at least not scary. We arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm. When we are on the balcony of our room, we have the Rocher Percé just in front of us. For dinner, we went to the “Bistro Sac à Vin” that my sister Louise suggested to us. This is not really a tourist place. The food was delicious. We arrived just on time because the person that was supposed to help the owner/cook never show up and the service was a little bit slow. Tonight we will sleep with the sound of the waves (we will keep the door open). Tomorrow we are going to Saint-Andrews in New-Brunswick. Oh yes, today we thought about Charlotte who turned 4 months and to aunty Josée who would have celebrated her birthday.

Mileage: 296 miles / 476km
Avg Temp: 68F / 20C
Consumed beers: 2 x Les Pas Perdus (from the “Iles de la Madeleine)

Good night.

Vincent and / et France

[vincent9993]

Today we spent another excellent day. We decided to wake up early to see the sunrise. What a great idea because the show was gorgeous. We left Percé around 6:30am this morning. It was 55F / 13C but the sun was there. We stopped at the Royal Bank at Chandler to get cash. At this place, I asked Vincent to put the roof because it was really really cold. We stopped at Maria for breakfast. This place seems really nice, I would like to come back. The sun had warm up the ambiance so we removed the roof. Another town that seems to be nice is Carleton-sur-Mer. We crossed New Brunswick, it was the first time that one of our buggy went to this province. With the nice weather, we loved driving this province. Driving on the route 2, we crossed Hartland. Do you know what’s in Hartland? So in that town you can find the longest covered bridge in the world. It was inaugurated on July 4th, 1901 and it is 1282 feet long / 391 meters. We decided to do a detour. The signs on the road in N.B. are really clear. Here they don’t have “stop” or “arrêt” neither “arrêt / stop” but they have “stop / arrêt”. We arrived at the hotel around 5:30pm (keep in mind that we are one hour ahead than in Quebec). This hotel is so beautiful, we would need to come back for sure. For dinner we wend on the harbor front. We ate a little fast because we had company that we didn’t really want…mosquitos. Back to the hotel, we took the opportunity to go to bed early because we have a little bit more than 450 miles / 700km to drive tomorrow to go back home.

Mileage: 442 miles / 711km
Min Temp: 55F / 13C
Max Temp: 90F / 32C
Consumed Beers: 2 x Alexander Keith

Good night

Vincent et/and France

[vincent9993]

Today we left St-Andrews around 7:15 and it was warm enough to leave without the top. While I was waiting for Vincent in the lobby, a lady asked me where I was going and when I told her I was heading to Montreal, she proceeded to ask if it was that cold in Montreal?! Surely she was asking because I was wearing my jacket and I told her I was travelling in the Buggy. At that same time, a man turned around and commented about how nice the buggy looked. I wonder if he may have been the owner of the Maserati. We crossed the border into Maine via St-Stephen. There was no one waiting at the border and the border agent seemed a little surprised about the car we were driving. Nothing special to report other than the fact it was pretty hot but we’re not ones to complain. We kept driving west through New Hampshire and onto Vermont. At the Canadian border in Derby Line, we had a 20 minute wait. Everything went well on the road, a little traffic on Aut-10 but manageable. We had a great week0end and are happy to be able to lengthen our buggy season this way. We’d take this weather to end of November.

Next trip will be on North Carolina next month.

Distance todayi : 641km /398 milles
Distance total : 2443km / 1518 milles
Min : 16C / 61F
Max : 35C / 95F
Beers : 1 x Kwak
States : Maine, New Hampshire et Vermont
Provinces : Nouveau Brunswick et Québec

Good night and until next trip!

[vincent9993]

Here's the actual map. Light blue = planned route, dark thin blue = actual route.

[luistim735]

The trip of Canada or the trip of Gaspé is one of the best trip of the world. You can feel the nature in this trip. To enjoy this trip you should have complete road map with efficient vehicle. Because the vehicle without good engine can make your trip bad. During trip i see the truck wraps nyc which was i think going to deliver something and trying to promote any type of business in free of cost.