Le Manoir du Cafe in Baie-Comeau

It’s a beautiful, cool, sunny Monday morning in Baie-Comeau. We set down close to the ferry landing in a little public park with lots of bike trails and RV campers. The neat thing about these municipal parks, besides being free, is that they often provide water, dumping stations, public washrooms, relative quiet and a chance to talk to other like-minded cheap tourists. Usually they are seniors and often they have travelled a LOT! So last night after talking to an amazing adventurous couple from Ottawa, (who were very excited to see our Ontario licence plate) we changed our plans. Instead of taking the 1100+k trip through the muskeg to Labrador City and further up the gravel roads to Goose Bay we plan to stay on the St. Laurence north shore to the end of the road at Nutashquan. They were so excited about their trip that they wrote 2 pages of places to stay, things to see and helpful hints. Then they wrote another 3 pages of great places to see in Newfoundland and Labrador. I guess from now on we’ll be going slower, stopping at more little towns and seeing the sites.
Today, however, we have a long list of things we need to buy, groceries, propane and rear-view mirrors for the bikes would be helpful. We also found out (and I bet you did too Amy) that we have no cellular service. (I’m posting this from an internet café.) So we have to get that all straightened out too.
Henry is busy doing some business things for back home. (Which is why I’m writing instead today.) It’s not as easy as he thought it would be to pull out his computer and get to work. After that there are lots of touristy things here to see and do.
Yesterday we drove up(down?) from Tadoussac. What a beautiful place to spend a couple of days. It is just a tiny town but really popular because of the whale watching. We never did take the boat tour out. Being beach people we were attracted to the beach. What a beach! Try the Sand Hills times 100. It was an incredible descent and a very isolated spot. (Try to find the people walking on the beach in the picture.) A good place to relax and lie in the sun for the afternoon. We sat on rocky inlet and phoned Dan to see how the BBQ was going back home. Very sweet moment. The climb back up was another story and I’m still feeling those muscles.
We had our first campfire. The neighbours were a very jovial bunch from Quebec City and invited us over. It was a lot of fun despite not being able to speak French. There always seems to be one person in the group who is bilingual and most people try very hard to communicate. I spent a lot of time with Micheline who wanted to learn English as much as I wanted to learn French. It would be so cool to meet up with her again in Quebec City on our return trip.
Grace
PS. We also met aunt Wilma’s neighbours in Gaspe. (Does that make it French bingo?)
Watching- the heavy fog rolling in from the St. Laurence.
Listening to- the drone of Robert McCormick’s paper mill.
Wish I had left behind- Henry’s extra lawn chair.