August 12, 2019
I continued east from Saint-Siméon and stopped in Bonaventure for lunch. In the restaurant (actually just a small ice cream shop with some basic food) I took these two photos while waiting for the young lady working there to prepare my meal.
Not other customers, they were small wooden gnomes up on a shelf.
This was a dessert the young lady could have made for me. Cute (hence the photo) but I passed.
I took my food outside to eat as it was a beautiful day. After I finished I took these photos of a huge church right next to the little strip mall where I ate. This is the Catholic Church of Saint-Bonaventure. Lots of photos because it is another huge church and I didn’t want to miss anything, including the detail.
Further up the road was a little rest area and there were big batches of wildflowers:
I tried to get cute with some pictures of a sailboat way out in the water and using the flowers in the foreground but I’m not happy with how they turned out.
I continued, northeast now, on Route 132 towards the town of Percé (pronounced PEAR-see, and you must “roll” the r which I still can’t do). My Airbnb host in Gaspé works in Percé and highly recommend I plan to spend some time there as I passed through the area. Other hosts told me to be sure to see the Percé Rock.
When I got close to Percé I saw a large island not far offshore and thought to myself, “Percé Rock, eh? Looks like just a big island to me….”. The island is the one on the right in the first photo below and extends ever further right, out of the shot.
As I was taking these photos I heard a helicopter spooling up (increasing speed to the rotor blades) and sure enough, a tourist helicopter was taking off just up the road from where I was standing:
After watching it take off and leave (I LOVE helicopters) I went back to my picture taking.
When I decided I had enough photos (you’re only seeing the best ones) I got in the car and continued driving. As I climbed the hill and went around a bend I saw a large group of cars in a parking area and several people walking around. In a moment I realized why.