re: Gaspe. As we were driving the peninsula, we crossed one river after another (10 or so) called Riviere Saumon. We were thinking "Boy, they really didn't have much imagination when it came to naming rivers here!" Some variety would have been nice: Grande Saumon Riviere. Riviere Avec Saumon, etc. As it happens, the woman who checked us into our present hotel was a native of Gaspe' and she told us the "Riviere Saumon" wasn't the name of the rivers, but was referring to some sort of fishing rights.
We were on the Gaspe' after the end of the season (apparently Leafers aren't very big) and a lot of things were closed. The fall foliage was spotty -- we might have been too early -- and we met a lot of rain so the viewing was also spotty. It was a nice drive, and I'm glad we did it, but the weather definitely took out some of the pleasure.
In our next to last hotel on the Gaspe, we were 30' from the St Lawrence (our last was rain and fogged in) and we saw three freighters, a cruise ship -- coming in -- and a ferry -- going out. Here in Quebec there've been three cruise ships (with the attendant tour buses making walking the city unpleasant at times) four or five more freighters (at least one tanker) and another ferry. A lot of ship traffic but less than I expected for a seaway that serves nearly half of the U.S. and Canada
(an observation from dw: if your hotel/motel has an attached restaurant, you won't get free coffee in the morning)
Quebec is a beautiful city. We spent yesterday walking around (mostly in the rain) looking at buildings and galleries -- continued well after dark. Today the same, except it only sprinkled a few times. We went across the old town to an artists co-op gallery. The exhibits were mostly "installations" a couple were actually impressive and they all were good. After returning to the room at 4, we rested for several hours and went back out this evening. We wandered about a bit -- had a dessert -- went to view point that over-looked the lower old town, the river, and Ile de Quebec. Listened to a saxophone busker ("Smoke Gets In Your Eyes") for a bit and then back to the room. The weather this evening was near perfect: almost shirt sleeves, light breeze, no rain. The city showed us a very good side before we move on.
At the tourist info center, they have "Instant French" cheat sheets they hand out. French -- english/german/spanish/japanese/etc. Among other phrases deemed to be useful: "J'ai le Bloc!" = I have one heck of a hangover! But being the tourist city that it is, every clerk, waiter, etc. that we've met has been fully conversant in english. DA
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