Quebec day 3

I was suggested to visit L’isle d’Orleans, a little island in the middle of the St. Lawrence river, not far from the city. It was again a beautiful day so ideal for exploring. I seem to have hit a good stretch of weather. Hopefully it lasts. The island is connected to the mainland by a bridge.

The eastern side of the island was apparently the more scenic side so as soon as I crossed the bridge I started making my anti-clockwise circle of the island. They grow a lot of produce here, apples, grapes, pumpkins, you name it and there is probably a farmer growing it. The road takes you through nice quaint villages.

One can tell from the houses that you need quite the financial reserve to obtain property in this neck of the woods. But you get a nice landscape in return and I’m sure property prises peak in summer and even autumn when the fall colours come out, like they are doing now.

I stopped here and there to take a picture. After a while I noticed a sign for a maritime museum and decided to check it out. I was greeted at the entry by the admissions lady. She gave me her sales pitch to lure me into the museum and although I could not understand everything she was saying it sounded very convincing and I went in to have a look…after paying the entrance fee of course. The grounds used to house a small boat shop, and you could enter the old workshop and learn about the craft of building wooden dingies.

I continued riding and after seeing what seemed like the only restaurant on the island I went for lunch.

I made a few more stops here and there but I had almost covered the east side of the island. The road curved to the west and like I was being told, there was not a whole lot going on on this side. I completed the loop around the island. Just across from the bridge on the way to the mainland there are some waterfalls. As I approached the falls I was greeted with a nice gate for which they asked $9 to go through to the parking lot. I think not. There was another road that led close to the falls. I planned to park here, ignoring the no parking signs, and walk to the falls. There was a man warning everyone that they patrolled this spot a lot and had no problem writing out parking tickets. Ah well, better not risk it then, I am not a ticket collector. There was another entrance to the falls at the top of a hill. Again, they charged for parking. I parked my bike about 5 minutes walking distance from the paid parking lot. Anything to save me from paying for parking.


After visiting the falls I made my way back to the city where the evening was spent on a nice dinner.