Most of our Drei Mädel trips have one or two days dedicated to nature/outdoor adventures. We’re not particularly outdoorsy (I save those adventures for my hubby and me), but we love to look at and appreciate the beauty that nature has to offer. For our Canada trip, we decided to explore the area around Saguenay Fjord National Park as the outdoor portion of our adventure. Unfortunately, as we had already encountered earlier in the trip, we were a little early – the real summer season had not yet started. This meant that a lot of the activities we wanted to do, like whale-watching tours, kayak tours, etc, were not open yet or were opening just a few days after our stay. But we made the most of it anyway!
We left Quebec City and drove up along the St. Lawrence River to Baie St. Catherine where we took the ferry across the Saguenay River to Tadoussac. Tadoussac is the place to go for whale-watching, but since we were driving to Saguenay in one day we didn’t really have time to stop and take a tour. However, the ferry (which is free) gave us a nice glimpse into the meeting of the Saguenay and the St. Lawrence rivers.
View of the fjord during the ferry crossing.
We had lunch in Tadoussac at Café Boheme, which is a cozy little place with good food. We had been eating a lot of food the previous few days so we just opted for soup and salad to tide us over to dinner. If you’re passing through like we were, I can recommend it! The next half of our drive way through some national park/nature preserve areas on the north side of the Saguenay River. It was a beautiful drive and we made a quick pit stop for photos in Sainte Rose du Nord, which is a small, picturesque village on the water.
View from a dock in Sainte Rose du Nord
There was also a handy (and clean) public toilet at the waterfront that we took advantage of. There isn’t much on this stretch of road. Onward we drove until we got to the bridge that crossed back to the south bank of the river. We stopped for groceries in the town of Saguenay, since our AirBnB host had warned us the house was very remote and we should come with all our supplies in hand. We picked up some fresh veggies and plenty of yummies for breakfast and dinner over the following two days. And then we set our GPS to find our AirBnB. It didn’t go as smoothly as we had hoped. Haha. This AirBnB was remote… I mean…when the host wrote and told us the last few kilometers of road were unpaved I must have just overlooked it. After some troubles with the GPS, and then switching to my iPhone and Apple Maps, we eventually found the right place.
The paved road ended and then we were in the middle of the woods driving on gravel roads for about five kilometers with some fairly scary blind turns. Vanessa kept asking where the hell I’d booked us a place to stay. Alas, it was worth it in the end! We arrived and it was just like the photos – a beautiful lake house on Lac Kenogami. And for under $100/night for all of us, seriously you can’t beat it. If you’re looking for a place to stay, check out this AirBnB property!
The owner lives just down the road and met us to show us where everything was and how it works. We were given fair warning about the bugs, but I wasn’t totally prepared for how many bugs there would be come dusk. Bring bug spray! We settled in for the night and I cooked dinner. I grilled some pork chops and endive and made a chimichurri sauce. I was so in love with the kitchen – I never wanted to leave! Continue reading
Wanderlust und Heimweh 