ATLANTIC CANADA, Part 2: PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND AND LES ILES-DE-LA-MADELEINE

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND:  Cavendish Coast (Sept. 14)

We're staying in North Rustico, a small fishing village near Cavendish, settled by Acadian fishermen in the 1790s. Today was a beach day.  Actually it was Prince Edward Island National Park day, free after Aug. 31.  Red sandstone cliffs, red sand, dunes, marshes and forests run along a slim 40-km coastal section that would be packed with tourists in summer.  Lucy Maud Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables lure tourists into:  Green Gables Heritage Place, Green Gables Golf Course, you get the idea.  The beach was wonderful for walking, beachcombing, dipping feet into the water.   You can walk for kilometres.  We also walked the boardwalk to North Rustico Harbour.



 
                    Cavendish beach                              

lobster buoys as house decoration, North Rustico

 

 

Tonight we attended the Ross Family Ceilidh performance in Stanley Bridge.  Ceilidh means meeting.  In the Maritimes, most of the music is from the Scottish highlands, but the Ross family has Acadian ties through their mother.  The place was packed.  Johnny on keyboards, Stephanie on guitar and Daniele on fiddle put on a lively show, with their mother joining them for step-dancing.  www.rossfamily.ca

 

 

 

 

Sept. 15 (Tues.):  The weather is still iffy so we passed on touring the windy North Cape in Prince county; instead we headed west to French River, Darnley, the Cabot Beach Provincial Park and Malpeque (oyster capital) through Stanley Bridge.  The back roads wound through small fishing villages and farms, some Acadian settlements.  After lunch we covered the Brackley-Dalvay section of the National Park where we fought wind and rain on our beach walk.  At the eastern end, Dalvay by the Sea is a rustic mansion built in 1895 by American oil industrialist Alexander MacDonald.  Today it’s run as an upscale restaurant and hotel by the National Park.

Malpeque

 

French River

Dalvay-by-the-Sea

North Rustico - Magdalen Islands:  Sept. 16 (Wed.)  Today started cloudy but as we travelled east along Hwy 6 and 2 (Trans Canada), the sun came out.  By the time we arrived at the Greenwich unit of the National Park on St. Peter’s Bay it was summer-like.   We trekked the 5 km round trip on the trail and boardwalk, past the site of an old farm, through a coastal forest and across marshy wetlands, arriving at the sand dunes.  The wind is slowly pushing the dunes back, burying trees that eventually become skeletons.  There was a chair waiting for us!

Greenwich unit of PEI Nat'l Park

Onwards to Souris (Sur-ree) where we had time to eat our picnic lunch before the 2:00 CTMA ferry to Cap-aux-Meules, Iles-de-la-Madeleine in PQ, five hours.  It was smooth sailing; we just relaxed, though there were things to do aboard.  We docked just as the sun was setting and got to La Maison du Cap-Vert B & B in Fatima as darkness set in.  We have a wonderfully spacious room, with an alcove and en suite bathroom.  Dinner was at the pub in town, Les Pas Perdus, where we’ve booked a room for our last night as it’s across from the ferry terminal.

Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine a brief history:  Long before the Europeans discovered the Islands they were used by Micmac Indians for fishing and hunting.  Early explorers were Jacques Cartier in 1534 and Samuel de Champlain in 1629.  The name “Madeleine” was given in honour of the wife of an early concessionaire in 1633.  In 1755, after the “Grand Dérangement” (exile) of the Acadians from present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, many came to populate the Islands.  Briefly they were annexed to Newfoundland and under British rule.  Following the French Revolution in 1789 families also came from St.-Pierre and Miquelon.  A couple of the Islands, Île d’Entrée and Île-de-Grosse-Île, are populated by Anglophones, mostly of Scottish descent who left their homeland after "The Clearings."  Many Irish settlers came to the islands following the potato famine.

Sept. 17 (Thurs.):  Our hosts, Irene (limited English) and Jean-Marc (fluent) were waiting to show us to the dining room this morning where our choices for breakfast were printed on a card.  There was cereal, fruit, juice, coffee, choice of eggs and breads.  We had omelette fromage along with a croissant.  The other guests, Helene and Denis, from near Quebec City, and Rosaire, from Laval, all spoke excellent English. 

 

We were able to tour all of the Islands in the archipelago in one day.  There are six main islands linked by long, thin sand dunes.  They take the shape of a half-moon fishhook covering 88 kms.  Red sandstone cliffs and white sandy beaches, green hilltops make up the landscape, surrounded by bright blue seas.  Temperatures are mild this time of year and we enjoyed a swim in the Gulf of St. Lawrence! 

La Grave, historic region on Ile-Havres-Aubert

 

Itinerary:  Fatima (Cap-aux-Meules) – Havre aux Maisons – Pointe aux Loups – Grosse Ile (populated by Anglophones, mainly of Scottish descent) where fishing, farming and salt mining are the main industries – Grande-Entrée (last of the islands to be colonized in the 1870s; lobster fishing brings in more than half of the Islands’ total catch) – back to Havre aux Maisons where we had our swim in the ocean (Gulf of St. Lawrence) and explored caves in the red rock at Plage de la Dune du sud – Cap-aux-Meules – Havre Aubert (the first Acadians to arrive settled here) and our Gite le Marie Michel in Bassin.

Marie and Michel welcomed us warmly along with their yellow/golden “Mieka.”  Our room upstairs with shared bathroom, is small, especially when compared with last’s night’s room.  This couple in their 70s moved here from Montreal 15 years ago and operate the B & B four months a year.  They’ve been trying to sell it for six years, since their first grandson was born, but there are a lot of houses on the market all over the Islands.  Michel says people come in the summer, are enchanted, buy but become disillusioned in winter when ice surrounds the islands until late May.  This couple seem to have a real enthusiasm for meeting people, which is something you can’t fake.  We drove around most of the Island before going to le Café de La Grave.  The season is pretty much over so there was no Acadian music but a piano player entertained. 

Sept. 18 (Fri.):  We ate about 8:00 and enjoyed lots of laughs and discussion; we seem to share the same views on many issues.  Marie’s breakfast was every bit as delicious as Irene’s and even more artistically presented.  There was a fruit plate on a bed of yogurt, sprinkled with sugar-flour-butter crumbs and a sprig of mint, followed by a country omelette. 

 

Itinerary:  back to La Grave (means “pebbly beach”) for another look at the fishing harbour and shops – Cap-aux-Meules (L’Etang-du-Nord and its lighthouse; Fatima (Belle Anse and Plage de l’Hopital) – Havre-aux-Maisons (Pointe Basse, Butte Ronde, back to Dune-du-Sud for another walk on the beach over to Butte Chez Mounette with its La Petite Baie. 

typical houses on top of hills with no trees nor obvious property lines

 



Butte Chez Mounette, Ile-Havre-aux-Maisons



La Petite Baie
 

Cape Alright, Ile-Havre-aux-Maisons, Ile-d'Entree in background



We checked into Les Pas Perdus and strolled le sentier around the harbour, up some stairs looking around the harbour and town.  The hotel room is surprisingly large and modern and well-kept.  Dinner was at La Maisonee des Iles on Ile-Havre-aux-Maisons.  We had a 45-minute wait so went back to Alright Cape lighthouse and watched the ferry approach as the sun was about to set.  Good dinner but the servers were a bit frazzled, dropping things and confused.   There was a large party of about 20 and their capacity is 44, so maybe that explains it, but everyone was jolly.

                       
                     Sailing away from Cap-aux-Meules Harbour, back to Souris.