With no offence intended to the French or the French Canadians, we were determined to experience another country within a country.
We left the family and headed north around the tip of Lake Simcoe. We were told to follow the 7 highway east towards Ottawa for the prettiest route and in the hopes of spotting a Canadian unicorn (moose). We stopped for lunch in Peterborough at a sandwich delicatessen called Sam’s Place. Wayne had the special which was a bacon infused meat patty sandwich and I had a turkey club. Both were delicious. This was a late lunch, 4pm ish, our food clocks are way out of wack here with the late sunsets!
From Peterborough we kept on going as long as Wayne was happy to drive. The countryside along the way was lush and hinted at all the many lakes along the way. This area, to me, is a archipelago of the land. Lake after lake on each side of the road. It was pretty but no luck on spotting any swamp donkeys (moose). We thought we found the perfect little Inn to stay for the night at Sharbot Lake but unfortunately it was booked out. We kept driving and finding a bed for the night was becoming pressing for the navigator. We settled on a cheap stay in a town called Smith Falls. A town on the canal that runs boats from lake to lake all the way to Ottawa. Our stay for the night overlooked the canal and one of the gates. We didn’t see the gate in operation, but if was a pretty spot just the same. Place was a little run down but hosted a bar on the ground floor so we didn’t need to go far for a drink and dinner. We settled in for night looking forward to hitting the capital in the morning.
Ottawa was only 78km away but of course we didn’t know the roads, aren’t big city folk and driving on the wrong side of the road adds another layer of challenges. We google mapped our way into the city amongst mega traffic situations. I am very glad to be the navigator at this point. Wayne may have been a little stressed but was cool as cucumber! I directed my driver to the Parliament building. We parked in staff carpark illegally for a few snaps and then sought out the canals. I don’t think we really found the nicest part of the canals, but when we tried to get to the historic parts the roads overwhelmed us and we decided to get out of here and journey over the bridge to Frenchland (Quebec).
Wayne says from minute we crossed the border, not only did the language change, the roads deteriorated significantly. It was like we were driving in an alternate realty in Queensland but the signs were in French and the traffic lights were drunk and needed to lie down.
Our mission was to have lunch in Montreal so though we wanted to see the countryside, we also were in a hurry to get there. We did a combo of the country highway along the Ottawa River and the main highway to speed things up. The highway along the river crossed through farmland and what seemed like old villages that maybe suffered in covid times. They were tired looking and needed some TLC. We scouting for a servo that didn’t require us to speak French. It seems that here there was no self serve so we had to suck it up and attempt to speak. The attendant, maybe owner, came roaring out the door at us speaking French at a hundred mile an hour. She was smoking in and out of the shop, so that was different. Finally, much to her disgust, she worked out we didn’t speak French. She reluctantly let us fill up! It was quite the experience. She was mid argument with someone else in the shop and looking for sympathy from us all the while speaking French at us… we handed over our credit card, smiling and saying merci merci hoping her wrath didn’t turn on us.
Once again we tackled the city traffic, but this time nothing was in English. We were warned to not attempt driving in Montreal but we rolled the dice and let Google do the interpretation. Wayne says this place was next level. Old Montreal is what we wanted to see and where we wanted to have lunch. Google got us there but now we need to find a park. We ended up in a multilevel carpark that was like a maze. The fear of losing our car was real. As Wayne is driving our internet provider in Canada (Rogers) kept dropping out. I thought my phone was broken and was manic trying to restore the connection to keep maps running. The stress was also real! We parked, we found the street level and found Old Montreal. What a step back in time!
As we marched down the cobblestones with the imperial band in tow, we found a crepe house, were guided to our seat on the third floor by the window. We innocently ordered a crepe each with a French onion soup to share. What can I say about that soup other than yum! Like who doesn’t want to eat a soup that is sealed with a slice of grilled cheese. This was something else. One giant tick off the bucket list, dining in Montreal with people more tolerant with our lack of French language. So glad we forced our selves to face the overwhelming traffic to make our way here. Happy 😊
We polished off our crepes, mine chicken and mushrooms, Wayne shrimp and lobster. All the while I was trying to work out where to stay tonight. Nothing had sparked any interest so I booked something south back in the land of English speaking people but a reasonable drive from where we were now. Next on the list of things to see was the Notre-Dame Basilica. I am, by definition, in no way religious but the churches do know how to spend money on architecture and that intrigues me. A little donation to the church and we got our pass to enter.
Seriously, the amount of detail in this place was mind blowing. This place, rightly or wrongly was a labour of love. Time was ticking and I finally revealed to Wayne that he had a few hours of driving ahead of us before he could retire from his duties. Before I sign off, and it has been a couple days since we left Quebec, I need to share the giggle memory, the happy place I have with this mad day of manic road tripping to this place. Wayne, with every comment and every remark, referred to this place as France. This is what they do in France, the fuel in France isn’t self serve, the lights sure are funny in France how they lie down flat like that. Everything to us here was another country. We were no longer in Canada, we achieved the goal of experiencing a country within a country. This is happy travelling ☺️
My Happy Travels 