August 11 & 12, 2019
Sunday I traveled north from Miramichi to the extreme northeast corner of New Brunswick (see prior posts about the very windy day, stalking birds in various spots, Acadian pride items and the lighthouse at Miscou Point). After visiting the lighthouse I drove west to the town of Caraquet, then returned to where I would be spending Sunday night in Tracadie-Sheila. The next morning I left to make the long drive north, leaving New Brunswick and crossing in to Québec province. Here are things I saw those two days.
When I stopped in Tracadie-Sheila Sunday morning I saw this large church, just up the street from my Airbnb. It is the church of St. Jean Baptiste and St. Joseph. I would see several huge churches in the next two days.
When I arrived in Caraquet I was a little concerned about traffic and congestion because it was my understanding that there was a large music festival being held as part of the Acadian heritage celebration currently underway in the region. I ended up stopping at the harbor and never made in in to the town itself so I didn’t have any problems or delays. This boat was just setting sail for a late afternoon cruise.
Next to the harbor was a small shopping complex with these two eating establishments:
Poisson means fish in French so there is obviously a seafood restaurant located here. A Crèmerie is an ice cream shop.
The announcement of the seafood place on the sign made me realize that I’d have to be very careful when ordering food. “I’d like the poison du jour and a side of pilates, por favor – oops, I mean s’il vous plaît.”
And let me make a quick jump ahead to today (as I post this), my first full day in Québec City. Up here almost all signs are exclusively in French. I’ve learned that the French word for tires is “pneus” :
Which means if I have a repeat of my tire problems in the next few days I’ll have to be very VERY careful when making my request. If I don’t speak clearly when I ask the mechanic to “please check my pneus” I may end up getting zee slap on zee face….
But I digress… (had to go for the cheap laugh)
After visiting Caraquet I took some back roads down to Tracadie-Sheila for the night. On the way home I drove through Paquetville where I saw this huge church.
It is St. Augustine Catholic Church. I had taken a few photos about 10 minutes prior to taking this one and there was a white car parked facing the roadway right in front of the building. The driver had to have seen me moving around with both cameras getting in position and taking photos, but would he move??? Of course not. I was still steamed about the incident with the goofy little car a few hours earlier but resisted the temptation to go over and say something or ask him to move.
I went down the road to a Tim Hortons to log on to their wifi and sent a photo to my friend Shawn and when I returned the car was gone.
Monday morning I retraced some of the steps I had taken Sunday and discovered this big church in the little town of Inkerman. It is the Catholic Church of St. Michel.
This time I drove past Caraquet and continued west on Route 11 towards Québec province. When I got to the town of Grand-Anse I stopped for several photo ops. As I drove in to town I was greeted by this eye-catching welcome display:
And as I was walking back to my car after taking the photo I noted the name of the boat:
OH NO. Not THAT Donald T. I hope!!! Mon Dieu!
Next I saw the house and mini-lighthouse-like structure painted with the colors of the Acadian flag which I included in an earlier post. There was also this large, human sized lobster trap (which I did NOT go in to use the picnic table inside). My original employer in North Carolina used to say “I was born at night but I wasn’t born last night”:
And finally this gigantic church, the Church of St. Simon and St. Jude.
I continued on up the road and crossed in to Québec province. I still had a long drive to get to my next stop in Gaspé.
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