On to PerceJul 20, 2009
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The Jacques Cartier Monument
Close-up of some of the cast-iron pieces
These tell the story of the historic encounter in 1534
While we loved Forillon National Park and could spend another day here easily, it is time to move on around to our next destination, Perce. We feel compelled to cram in as much sightseeing as we can while the weather is dry and sunny. Joe took Foxy for her morning walk and spotted a whale out in the bay. We met a really nice couple from Texas (Fred & Olivia); they took a whale-watching cruise and saw lots of humpbacks.
In Gaspe, the Museum de la Gaspesie is in a large expanded and renovated building and houses a permanent exhibit which takes the visitor on a tour through the Gaspe Peninsula. The exhibit details the different sections and highlights what makes each area unique. It was fun to see and understand better where we’ve been and exciting to look forward to the regions ahead of us. There were two temporary exhibits; one on an artist whose work didn’t appeal to us at all, and the other described the color dying process to create Batique cloth. The staff were thoroughly impressed that we had driven our motor home all the way from Oklahoma. When I told them it was 2,600 miles, one of them grabbed a calculator to convert that to km. We asked for senior tickets and they jokingly corrected us…”students with life experience” is how they refer to us seniors.
On the museum grounds stands the Jacques Cartier Monument National Historic Site. The site is comprised of six cast-iron plaques that depict the scenes of the historic encounter between Europeans and Amerindians in 1534 when Jacques Cartier had a cross erected on the shore of Gaspe Bay.
From Gaspe, we continued along the coast road and it seems we never get tired of the lovely seascape views…gloomy and dreary on a rainy day…but, breathtakingly beautiful on a bright sunny day. We stopped at a rest area overlooking the water for our lunch stop and then we trucked on to our targeted campground.
We haven’t been making campground reservations, mainly because it hasn’t been necessary…lots of sites everywhere we’ve been…….and, secondly, we haven’t seen a cell phone signal in a week or 250 miles. Today, our luck about ran out. When we arrived, the lady sighed when we asked for a site for two nights and ‘no, we don’t have a reservation’. She gave us a choice of about 5 sites and we found one of them met our needs just fine…full hook-ups and a clear shot at the satellite signal….what more could we want! The sites are close together and it feels cramped because the place is full. We’re not sure why but it’s the most touristy place we’ve been yet in Quebec.
We got settled and took Foxy for a walk to check out the campground. She’s found another muskrat and drags us to that spot every chance she gets. We went into town to check out the boat tours for tomorrow. We also splurged on a fantastic seafood dinner at a lovely restaurant by the wharf…it was called Cage du Pecheur and the food was truly scrumptious; Joe even got his clam fix.
Perce Rock is directly below us and we can see it from the motor home; tomorrow, we’ll take the boat tour and get a closer view.
Generally, we're able to communicate our needs pretty well; but, today I felt linguistically challenged. Joe was going to wash the RV and the Jeep and sent me to the office to see if it was OK or if there was a fee. The lady tried very hard to explain to me where the Laundromat was; it failed me to explain that I didn't need to wash my clothes...but the house and car...I finally just gave up and Joe did a little washing anyway and no one objected.
