Fast n' French

Day 14

It's our last morning in Quebec City. We decide that we need to have several breakfasts. First, we head to a little cafe for dark roast coffees and croissant. Then, to “Chez Ashton”, a local chain begun as a chips truck back in the day. They are famous for poutine. So, once our concierge heard that we'd had poutine in Ontario only, she wrinkled her nose and looked as us like southerners would look at someone who's only had grits in New Jersey. She suggested we hightail it to Chez Ashton, which is open 24 hours, and get us some real Quebecoise poutine (pronounced poo-TEEN here in Quebec).

Chez Ashton does not disappoint. It's fast, and delicious, and we get to order our poutines “bebe” sized. Who wouldn't love something in “bebe” size? Anyway, we order the traditional with just cheese curds and gravy, and also a sausage one, which simply has added sliced hot dogs. It's delicious, and it sticks with us for the next six hours.

The ride away from the city is beautiful, even though we're on the highway. We choose to take the highway once again, mostly because it's the last time it will be an option for the next 1,000 miles. Seriously. We are headed ever closer to the mouth of the St. Lawrence; as the river widens as gradually and imperceptibly as the expanding belly of an expecting mother, the roads narrow. On my trusty Rand MacNally paper maps, interstates are blue, and secondary roads are in red, ranging from thin to thick. The roads for the duration of our trip through the Gaspesie are red, medium thick.

The Gaspesie is the bulbous peninsula of Quebec that swells out from the river eastward into the Atlantic. It is marked, so far, by big skies, dark green conifers, views of the ever widening river, rocky outcroppings, expansive boulder strewn tidal flats and adorable wood clad houses. This is the moment we've been waiting for.

We ride for only about 300 km today. That takes around four hours, including a stop to the grocery store. Quebecois groceries are interesting. There is all the pate you could ever want, the take-n- bake pizza are rectangular and very thin, and the wine section knocks it out of the park. Even in the smallest gas stations, there are wine sections. Our grocery basket usually ends up with some sort of cured meat, 6 eggs, water crackers, olives, crunchy almond granola bars, red peppers, avocado and wine. When we aren't living it up in some big city, this is what we eat.

Tonight we are camping with in view of the mighty St Lawrence at the Motel de l'Anse. It's $29 to camp and have use of all the facilities of the campground. As we were arriving in the community building tonight to blog, we discovered a makeshift restaurant. A local Chinese woman cooks a limited dinner menu of her native fare here three nights a week. For $10 we get a heaping plate of pork fried rice, and the adventure of ordering food with the cook, who speaks broken French through her native Chinese.

As I blog, a couple is playing ping pong within feet of me. They speak French, and giggle-y ping ponging French is pretty adorable.