It was a lazy day for us today. We slept in until about 10:00am local time and didn’t get on the road until noon. We travelled about 45 minutes to Bathurst, NB where we had an “Acadian Breakfast†at the “Dixie Lee” which seems to be a very common chain. The New Brunswickians are very gracious and easily switched from French to English when recognizing that we were “foreigners.” Although our hotelier from last night was from Germany (by way of Nelson, BC) and neither we nor a french speaking couple could understand HIM very well.
After lunch we carried on and crossed into Quebec and a new time zone. Our route took us along the Acadian coastline (about as far east as you can get before jumping onto Newfoundland).
This route is dotted with many tiny little towns and villages which makes for a slightly lengthy journey caused by slowing down to city speed then resuming highway speed about every 10 kilometres. Aside from that, the drive was absolutely incredible. Every village appeared to be in perpetual summer mode, with the beaches and water being so close to the roadway, there was constant pedestrian traffic crossing the road between cottages/residences and the beach. Many of the places we passed thru were looking very festive and inviting and many times we commented on how great it would be to live so close to the water. Incidentally, the water is amazingly warm for what we think of as the “atlantic” ocean, caused by, we found out later, the warm waters of the gulf-stream from Mexico.
Most of the day was a slow meander up the coast and we now find ourselves at Gaspé, QB. We are currently staying at “Adam’s Motel.” There is a restaurant right next door called “Adam’s Restaurant” with the subtitle of “Salle de Diner.” We did not want Salle for dinner but we are going to give it a try for breakfast tomorrow.