Marilyn's Day

The McCartney concert, the international blues festival and the fireworks competition were all things I wanted to do. So it was only fair that Marilyn had her day.





First off was Potato World. A museum devoted to all, and I mean all, aspects of the potato and its production. Its in Florenceville ''Potato Fry Capital of the World''. The best bit was the restuarant devoted to potato dishes. This resturant is in the potato state, in the potato museum and next door to the McCain potato factory. When we started to choose one of the potato delights off the menu the waiteress told us they had run out of potatoes..... but could offer a Ceaser Salad

Next up was the longest covered bridge in the world. As the tourist blurb says this is not just the longest covered bridge but the longest covered bridge ''by some distance''

Then a trip for the sea view


Followed by a trip to the wood carving museum in a town devoted to wood carving


Unfortuantly because I was driving too fast and we missed the turning for Nackawic ''Home of the biggest axe in the world''



That night I got drunk

Quebec gets better and better

What a great time to visit Quebec. Caught the opening night of Montreal's 'Just For Laughs' festival with streets full of music, dance and monster insects. Then onto to Tremblant for the last night of the International Blues Festival. To top it all we saw the start of the international fireworks competition and the McCartney concert in Quebec.

Australia opened the fireworks festival with a stunning music synchronised display with 50000 fireworks. The only trouble being that there was no wind and after 10 minutes you could see nothing but smoke which changed colour very prettily as massive fireworks exploded above. Three times they stopped the show and waited for the air to clear only for it to become opaque again a few minutes later.

Neither of us was particularly excited about seeing McCartney and Marilyn had to be dragged along screaming. Quebec was packed but we stumbled across an campsite with space on the other side of the Saint Lawrence river. The concert was fantastic and free. McCartney did a storming 2.5 hours session of 36 songs. He was obviously loving every second as was the quarter million audience

The papers even two days later are full of the concert with pages of pictures and rave reviews.
Sometimes the screen can be cruel

If you are really important you have to be in contact at ALL times

Canot Camping in bon Quebec

Protecting our food from non-existant wolves and bears
Marilyn enjoying two days camping in the rain



The real French define their nationality by their language. Many of them speak English but choose not to. The lure of the tourist euro often overcomes this French nationalism. They will even speak in English to the arrogant tourist who assumes its OK to walk in a bar without as much as a 'bonjour' and demand 'full English breakfast'

We know that Quebec has a problem with federal Canada and that its French heritage is so very important. We can of course understand why they are so upset that Englishman Paul McCartney is playing for free and worse singing in English to celebrate Quebec's 400 year anniversary on the Plains of Abraham - where they got beat by the Brits. But they are a minority in an English speaking nation and next door to the biggest (quasi) English speaking nation on earth. So we assumed everyone in Quebec spoke English even if like the French they choose not. But its not the case. Finding a person who can speak good English is rare. Even in the tourist industry people have no or only rudimentary English.

Language apart its wonderful to find a 'European' attitude and culture in this North American desert. Especially after spending time in uptight Toronto where booze is treated like a hard drug and can only be bought from official government sanctioned drug dealers.





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Camping in Canada

Ignoring the major impact on global warming two extended families and various friends descended on Toronto for two weeks to attend the wedding of the year. Mark's (my son) and Shiva's wedding was perfect from the school buses to take us to the outskirts to the superb meal presented by a 'celebrity' chef

Escaping from the intensity of the wedding week we picked up our 'economy' car (compulsory upgrade to this grotesque red fire truck because everyone else had taken the fuel efficient ones) and tent and headed for the hills. We pay $33 to camp in a car park but it was a 4 star one!
When the rather strange looking guy in the tent next to us got an enormous axe out of his car we made unsettling connections with the show we had seen on the previous night - Evil Dead (the musical).



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