For those of you not as fluent in French as I am, the above translates (figuratively) to, “It is raining so fricking hard that there are ducks standing in line to purchase umbrellas.
The nice valet parking attendant snatched the $5(CAD) bill out of my hand, handed me the car keys and watched Richard and I slog out in the rain to our vehicle. In the few seconds, it took us to toss our bags into the trunk and climb into the front seats, we were drenched. We wrung the excess moisture out of our clothes as I deftly navigated the car through the streets of Ville de Québec.
Thirty-five short minutes later, we were at Ste. Anne de Beaupré. Although a scene of miracles, it is a somewhat lesser pilgrimage site than Lourdes. Richard's mother had always wanted to go to Ste. Anne de Beaupré, but had never made it there. So, in honor of Bernadette Sloan Parker we made the pilgrimage.
Ste. Anne de Beaupré’s location, while not stunningly beautiful, was quite pleasant in its own waterlogged way. The Fleuve St. Laurent was nearby and it had lovely gardens and lawns. The torrential rains pouring off the roof of the basilique were, umm, quite invigorating as they splashed on our heads.
Richard thanked me for attending mass with him to honor his mother. I’m not quite as respectful as he gives me credit. My other option was sitting at a picnic table, unprotected from the deluge.
Leaving Ste. Anne de Beaupré, we passed the Chutes de Montmorency. We had planned to stop, but quite frankly if you’ve seen one damn waterfall in a pouring rain, you’ve seen them all.
We decided to take the scenic route back to Montréal hugging the Flueve St. Laurent, largely because I took a wrong turn and that was the road we were on. We passed through many quaint, rain soaked towns before we rejoined the freeway just past Trois-Rivière. By the by, if you’re looking for a picturesque small city, do not take the route we took through Trois-Rivière. Bleak is the best description.
We got back on the freeway just in time to experience… you guessed it… road construction. Nothing gives you an adrenalin rush quite like navigating Canadian road construction in heavy traffic during a rain storm.
We were quite happy to finally get to our hotel.
Stunningly, there are few pictures from day 5. The is the basilica at Ste. Anne de Beaupré.
This is a cute little park in the town of Champlain. We needed to pee and it wasn’t raining very hard.
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