The Malbaie

Basilica of St.

During the night it rained, but now it's just overcast. For breakfast, we try maple syrup for the first time, served with toasted bread and freshly made pancakes at $14 each. Delicious! Shortly after 8 am, we visit the Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupré, which at that time lacked the usual tourist flow. Built in 1920, it is beautiful and well-maintained, but impressive at the same time. Beautiful too the chapels located underground. It's interesting to see the televisions placed next to the stalls, and the elevator that goes from the bottom of the basilica up to the upper floors. It seems newly built, and its beauty is barely affected by these symbols of American opulence. At the back, there is also a long row of crutches belonging to people who were miraculously saved after pilgrimages.

We visit Mont Saint Anne, passing through Beaupré, a popular winter resort for skiing. We are close to the St. Anne canyon but proceed immediately beyond. We return to Route 138 east, passing through the Charlevoix area with its pleasant hills and mountainous environment reaching altitudes of up to 750 meters. The San Lorenzo lake is visible from time to time. The Baie Saint Paul did not impress us when viewed from outside, so we don't go into town. We arrive in La Malbaie where the weather has cleared up. After crossing the region, we observe that the surrounding environment is typical of Scandinavian areas: many birch trees, low vegetation, classic oak trees where snow dominates in winter, and consequently, the upkeep and maintenance of houses sometimes leaves something to be desired. It would indeed be difficult to maintain everything perfectly with such a short summer. La Malbaie was named by Cartier because he had to stop and wait for better luck with the tide. We arrive in a landscape of misty waters as a result of the receding sea due to low tide, in a very humid environment due to evaporation from the San Lorenzo lake. We stop at an artisanal cheese factory to buy some granular cheese (cheddar), with a rubbery texture and pleasant taste, which will be our lunch while waiting for the 15:30 ferry to St. Simeon.

Arrival at Malbaie

We actually arrived at 11:10 am, but due to the high demand, the 12 pm ferry was already full and there was nothing left but to wait for the next one. St. Simeon's harbor. In the meantime, the clouds had given way to a light rain. The crossing lasted approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes; it was quite impressive, although the weather wasn't very cooperative. We arrived at Riviere du Loup, beautiful and well-maintained, and as we drive towards Edmundston on the 185, we encounter some heavy rain. We lose an hour due to the time difference, which is later in New Brunswick, and book a motel in Saint John, anticipating that we will arrive late. We have at least 550 km of driving ahead, and the weather is terrible. We need to do everything possible to reach St. John and take the ferry tomorrow morning for Nova Scotia. Waiting for the afternoon ferry would mean losing a valuable day. After Edmundston, the rain stops, but it's already nightfall. The road alternates between two-lane and single-lane sections. It was on a two-lane section that, around 9:30 PM, just after passing a car with a tow truck, we saw the figure of an animal crossing our path. On this stretch, the traffic is divided by a forest about several dozen meters wide. It was a moose: since we were on the left lane, the only option was to steer sharply to the left, as the animal was crossing towards the right, towards the outside edge of the road. We are driving at 110 km/h (the maximum allowed in this section), and our instinct saved us from having 400 kg of meat smash into our windshield, with consequences we didn't want to imagine. We clearly hear the impact as the right side of our bumper hits its hind legs. The car and the moose both survive. We continue on our journey. A strong jolt must have also run through the vehicle we had just passed, which would certainly have been involved in an accident if we had hit it head-on, or if the animal had fallen onto its lane immediately after the impact. We stop for a moment to realize how lucky we were and then continue on our way. To make matters worse, south of Fredricton, the road becomes narrower, is completely surrounded by forest, and warnings about moose are even more frequent. We drive with extreme caution and arrive in St. John at midnight. It's not over yet: amidst all this chaos, the last thing I thought about was having dinner. In our room, we satisfy our hunger with some crackers, and that's it!
The landscape of the Saint John River valley is very beautiful, although there are several industries along its banks. The river meanders through low hills and we also see large potato and cereal fields, still green. Houses and nature harmoniously combined.