Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Mon Voyage À L'Acadie: Part 3: Paspébiac & Bonaventure, Quebec

The next day, we headed off with our cousin hosts for the town of Percé in Quebec by crossing over the J.C. Van Horne Bridge. Along our drive there is much forested land with views of the Bay of Chaleur and some very small towns. The most prominent architectural feature of these towns are the churches; most notably the Catholic ones as the Protestant ones are made of wood and painted white, just like the houses. Sometimes, the only differentiation is the spire and windows. Churches like these can be seen all over New England, but are smaller than those.

Below is a photo of the Roman Catholic Church in Bonaventure. Note the silver metal roof and stone siding. These are typical architectural features of Catholic churches in Canada. Some have brick masonry instead of stone. As can be seen in the next photo. Click to enlarge.



This photo was taken in the town of Paspébiac in Quebec.


This was a wharf and fish processing area that is now not used. The building above has been retrofitted into a restaurant. As you can see, there is nothing else in the area at all but trees! But, one fishing boat was at the dock, so I photographed it mostly because it had the town's name on the stern.


Flowers are amazing in this area of Canada! They don't suffer the extreme heat and have a very short growing season. Just look at the glory of these purple petunias! Have you ever seen anything like it?



And how about these nasturtiums and rainbow chard! Wonderful, eh?


Here I am purchasing a souvenier for Sean. This artisan, Hector Legrisley, has been crafting sailing boats in wood for 45 years. You see them everywhere! I bought the one he is holding for only $35 Canadian! Priced to sell, eh? My mom bought a smaller one like those on the second shelf from the bottom for only $15! He could be charging so much more for these! They are just gorgeous and he sells them from his driveway! Incredible!



Stay tuned... We are getting closer to Perce!

7 comments:

Stan said...

Those sailboats that guy makes and sells are so cool! So cheap too!
I love seeing the architecture from different places like this.

Cristiano Mancini said...

I love how flowers grows better in the north part of the globe. Also during my trip on the Baltic Sea I saw healthy flora everywhere. Nice pics !

Y said...

Wow Canada is so beautiful!!
I see rainbow chard for the first time.Interesting!

Sue said...

Stan - I know, what a bargain! Stay tuned, there will be more architecture to come.

Cristiano - Glad to hear that things are the same on at that latitude on the European Continent... thanks!

Toni - The miracle of global blogging comes to fruition!

Ray Avito said...

I do love churches and those two are really beautiful.

Pick said...

Wow, I can't believe the deal you got from Monsieur Hector Legrisley ... I might have to take a drive up there next summer. I love model ships and those are beautiful ... what a find!

Oh mon Dieu, beautiful as all that purple is, I'd HATE to be dead-heading those petunias after a rain ... yuck, can you imagine the slime? lol

It's funny but I'd never really thought about the silver on the French-Canuckian Catholic churches before but you're absolutely right, it is a common feature with most of them. There an amazing (actually kind of amazingly gaudy Cathedral in Ottawa that takes that feature to new heights) no pun intended.

Pick said...

Merde, sure wish one could edit these comments ... I see my brain did a typo ... again!