Crossing The St. Lawrence

We were up early at 5:30 for our ferry crossing and surprised to see three vehicles already lined up. No reservations are necessary... first come, first served. Being Saturday we thought it better to get in line sooner than later. (They advise 90 minutes before sailing.) We left the campground at 7:30, were measured and moved to lane #2 for boarding.

The crossing distance from Saint Siméon to 

Rivière -du-Loup is 27.2 km;  average crossing time is

75 minutes. We were the first vehicle directed onto the ferry and to the very front of the loading deck.

The fare was $209.50 for Harvee Too and $42.70 for two seniors = $252.20.

Ramp in our faces

Leaving St, Siméon

First off once the ramp was down

We stopped for groceries at another Maxi in Rivière-du-Loup, ate lunch and took Rte 132, la Route des Navigateurs along the river. Traffic was very light.

To avoid setting up in the rain, we stopped early at 3:00 in Ste. Flavie  at Camping Capitaine Homard, full hook-ups looking out over the river. The rain started shortly after we arrived. It never got warmer than 10º as we motored  141 km plus the 27 km ferry crossing.

Kathy treated me to dinner out at Capitaine Homard's restaurant. Our meals were very good . The restaurant was quite busy.

La Route du Fjord: Day 2 - the South Shore

 Before leaving La Baie, we were very lucky to find a Shell station and filled up @ $1.71.9 with our 3¢ CAA discount. We stopped at two lookouts on the river before continuing to Parc National du Fjord-du-Saguenay. Saguenay National Park was created in 1983. In 2011 it was renamed "to emphasize its unique geographic feature." The park is a glacial valley  stretching over 100 km of the river with a sector on each shore.

 We paid $20.60 for a one day pass for the two of us in la Baie - Eternité  Sector  and parked at the Discovery and Visitors Centre.  

We hiked the Sentier des Méandres-à-Falaises, a 1.6 km loop with a 30 m. elevation. The scenery was breath-taking along the shore of the fjord.

Kathy also hiked the longer and more challenging Sentier de la Statue , a 2.4 km loop. She turned back just before the lookout as the trail became too treacherous.

We ate lunch before leaving and drove the remaining 85 km to Saint Siméon where we checked into the municipal campground on the shore of the St. Lawrence.

It was another short driving day, 164 km . It remained mainly cloudy and reached only 18º ,,, good for hiking.

Saint Siméon

La Route du Fjord: Day 1 - North Shore of the Saguenay River

Dawn over Tadoussac

 The weather was almost perfect for our first day driving la Route du Fjord. Rte 172 along the north shore of the Saguenay River combined with Rte 170 on the south shore creates a 235 km winding  route cutting through the Canadian Shield.

Rte 172 follows the  Sainte-Marguerite River .
We had one frustrating delay for construction, more than ½ hour before stopping for lunch in the village of Sainte-Rose-du-Nord.

We continued to Chicoutimi, one of three boroughs making up  the city of Saguenay located at the confluence of the Chicoutimi and Saguenay rivers. We visited two attractions. 

In July 1996 a flood hit the city of Saguenay. La Maison Blanche survived with devastation all around it.

The house is now a museum and the grounds around turned into  a park.



La Pulperie de Chicoutimi was designated a National Historic site in 1983. It comprises five buildings constructed between 1898 and 1923.

Now on the south shore, Rte 170 we stopped in La Baie, a major port on the river and natural harbour.  We checked in at Camping au Jardin de Mon Père, another campground Jean and I stayed at in1999.

It was our hottest day reaching 29º as we travelled 166 km. It was not an easy drive with many twists and turns, climbs and descents. But the scenery was great.

Baie-Sainte-Catherine and Tadoussac

We had a beautiful sunny drive north on Rte 138 which still had some good climbs, descents, twists and turns to  Baie-Sainte-Catherine  located at the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord. It is said to be  an excellent  place for watching  marine mammals.

The Saguenay Fjord is a 105 km long glacial valley. It is North America's only navigable fjord. It is also an estuary combining fresh water from Lac St-Jean and saltwater from the St Lawrence River.

 We stopped in Baie-Sainte-Catherine at the  Pointe-Noire Interprettation and Observation Centre. It was closed but we were still able to enter the grounds and go down to the various observation decks. The view in every direction was breath-taking.

We continued to literally the end of Rte 138 and took the free ferry across the Saguenay River to Tadoussac. The 1.6 km crossing takes approximately 10 minutes.

We checked in at Camping Tadoussac (another campground Jean and |I stayed at in1999), paid $62.09 for one night with 3 hook-ups, We have a partial view of the river and passed on paying $80 for a site overlooking the river.

Visiting Tadoussac, one in a  select group of "Most Beautiful Villages in Québec", turned out to be a challenge. We defied the law in search of parking which we finally found with some  help from locals.  We paid $10.00 for two hours.

The village is very picturesque, dominated by the Hotel Tadoussac. It was first built in 1864 by wealthy Montrealers and Quebecers, sold for $12,000 in 1879 and renovated in 1888. It was demolished in 1941 and rebuilt in 1942.

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While I stayed in the village, Kathy walked one of the trails at the end of the village at Pointe de l'Islet, a short 1.3 km.

We returned to the campground at 3:00 after an easy 50 km day. It was our warmest day, reaching 28º. Tadoussac has blackflies.😒

Charlevoix

 The Charlevoix Region stretches from Petite-Rivière-Saint-François to Baie-Sainte-Catherine at the mouth of the Saguenay River. It was created 450 million years ago when a meteorite crashed into the area forming a 54 km crater.

Gouffre River

 We had another leisurely start to our day as we waited for the shops in   Baie-Saint-Paul to open. We crossed the Gouffre River which flows   through the city to get to  Rue Saint-Jean-Baptiste. a very picturesque   central  street in downtown Baie-Saint-Paul filled with art galleries and   boutiques. While Kathy browsed through the shops, I took pictures. (I   already have a few objets d'art from here.)

We drove the Route du Fleuve (St. Lawrence Route) from Baie Saint-Paul, a 78 km panoramic route along the river with spectacular views, points of interest. There were many steep climbs followed by 7%, 10%, even 13% grade descents. It was quite a workout for Harvee Too.

In La Malbaie we drove past the famous Fairmount Le Manoir Richelieu.   Samuel-de-Champlain named the city in 1608 "malle Baye" (bad bay) for anchoring because  the river "dried up at low tide." We stopped in Pointe-au-Pic below the Manoir  on chemin des Falaises, walked on the pier and took pictures of the summer homes built in the beginning of the 20th c.

Our  next stop  back on Rte 138 was in Saint-Fidèle at  la Fromagerie-St-Fidèle founded in 1902, "the village's crown jewel." Kathy bought some cheese; I bought some jams.

After  115  km which often felt like we were on a roller coaster ride, we stopped in St-Siméon where  the ferry terminal to Rivière-du-Loup is. We are at Falaise-sur-Mer Camping, a terrassed campground on the river. We have a very nice site with an obstructed view of the river.

We're not complaining. Although it was 3:15 when we checked in, we received the "Express" rate , a 20% discount for arriving after 4:00 and leaving before 9:00 in the morning. No problem and nice to pay only$43 for full hook-ups with Wi-fi.at our site. 

We reached 20º under partly cloudy skies and NO bugs.