Entering 'foreign' territory
Trip Start
Aug 13, 2009
1
44
53
Trip End
Oct 15, 2009
Levis, Quebec, Canada
Friday, October 2, 2009
October 2, 2009
Awoke after a great sleep - a little sad to be leaving this unique place. We shared our breakfast table with a theatre troupe (3 people) from Toronto - doing a series of performances in the local ‘Playhouse’ theatre - Graham, Tim and (forgot the girls name). It was interesting to hear more about the ‘behind the scene lives’ of theatre performers. They had attended an opening performance party the previous night and were all looking a bit worse for wear! However they were very pleasant and sociable. Graham told us that he is in the process of moving to Calgary to be with his girlfriend and will be leaving the East where he grew up.
Clark (our B&B host) told us that it will take us about 6 hours to get to our next destination - Quebec City, so after a good breakfast we headed North towards the top of New Brunswick and the Quebec border.
Stopped at Hartland, New Brunswick (just off the freeway) to fuel up and to do so travelled through the ‘longest covered bridge’ in the world - 1282 feet ! A very unique experience - somewhat like a very narrow snow shed suspended over a wide river. Crossed the border into Quebec and entered a slightly altered world with new challenges - everything now written in French and the spoken word is unintelligible. No doubt it will be better in bigger centers but in the outlying areas there is simply no English. A little intimidating! We now felt like a minority; made me realize (perhaps to a small degree) of what it must be like to be a new immigrant. Stopping at a Tim Horton’s for a quick bite, the feeling was reinforced - the cashiers spoke a broken English; we were completely engulfed in a world of oral French.
With the help of GPS ‘Jenny’, we located our B&B in Levis, Quebec - (Villa Beau Sejours) - our hosts, Dianne & Jacques - French mother tongue but competent enough in English to communicate with their English patrons - Jacques seemed a bit more comfortable with English than Dianne did. Their home, situated high on the banks of the St. Lawrence, looked directly across to old Quebec City and the Chateau Frontenac. We discovered later it would have been somewhere very close to here that the English dug in their cannons and mortars and began the relentless shelling of Quebec City across the river prior to the final defeat of Quebec in 1860.
We settled quickly into our room and with Dianne’s instructions, headed out to find a Laundromat. A rather sparse Laundromat, Brian had to go to the barber next door to get change. Despite the language barrier, he was able to communicate our needs and returned with coins to get the job done (last laundry day of the trip!)
Laundry done, we returned to our B&B and considered the evening meal. Since it was getting dark, we decided to head out on foot. Close by, we found a street that had a few choices. Settled on picking up some salads and bread at a deli and headed back to our B&B for a simple meal. Despite warnings of intolerant Quebecois, we have constantly been greeted with patience and accommodation. The young girls at the deli were no exception, working patiently with us to help us fill our order. To bed shortly after to rest for tomorrow.
