Yesterday was our anniversary, and as is our tradition, we spent a good part of it outdoors exploring someplace new. This time we put our bikes on our new car rack and went to the national park on the Iles de Boucherville in the middle of the St. Lawrence river, only a few miles from the city. (If you visit the link, be sure to watch the video, even if you don't speak French, for an introduction to typical Quebec emotive discourse, courtesy of the park service's Marie-Helene.)
There's a series of three islands that are part of the park, each one increasingly remote, and 20 km of cycling trails. The first island has a fairly conventional parking lot and under-the-trees picque-nique sites, but that's as far as cars are allowed. After a short bike ride or walk you come to a channel that divides this island from its next neighbor, and can only be crossed by a solar-powered ferry. So after a short wait, you and your bike-rising or pedestrian friends are taken across the water and can set off on a circuit around the second island (which contains a golf course, and an interior which is farmland), or head out to the last island, Ile Grosbois. As we were riding along a large cornfield on the second island, we passed the old city center of Boucherville on the southern shore, with its heavy stone river wall, tall church spire, and Hotel-de-Ville, all made of the same grey stone, when the church bells rang out at 4:00 pm, and it felt like something that has been happening every Saturday for at least three centuries, calling the faithful out of the fields.
The third island is reached by a narrow bridge. We went all the way out to the end, and then rode back along the northern shore, which is marshy and much quieter; the islands on the northern side of this one are protected wild sanctuaries with no public traffic at all, with a quiet channel and marshy areas inbetween, so this is the area where migratory birds and native waterfowl hang out. Once we figured all this out, we know the areas we want to go back to; there's a tower that functions as a blind and would be an excellent place to spend a fall midweek afternoon, when I'm quite sure we'd be nearly the only people on the island. As it was, we only saw three or four other people all the time we were on the third island.
We didn't see any exotic species yesterday: gulls, sandpipers, cormorants, and various songbirds from warblers and goldfinches to swallows. And we finally saw one of the small deer from the herds which are resident to the islands. The fields we rode along were bordered with goldenrod, purple asters, tansy, and thistles, and the birds and insects were very happy -- so was I. What a remarkable sanctuary - and so close to home!
Congratulations on your anniversary, you two! Funny, we often do the same thing on ours, pretend we're tourists and explore some new to us area. This sounds like a very special place indeed.
Posted by: Marja-Leena | August 02, 2009 at 11:48 PM
beth,
congratulations on your anniversary. The place looks so heavenly beautiful. I like the second shot.
Posted by: anasalwa | August 03, 2009 at 12:15 AM
Congrats. The Iles de Boucherville are really nice with lots of very tame deer. However, I think the tower/blind isn't accessible in the fall because the ferry stops running in October, except on weekends. Which is a shame. Can't find the exact schedule on their site, though, but I remember I've been bitten by it once.
Posted by: mare | August 03, 2009 at 01:24 PM
Thanks for this, Beth. It inspires me to try to go there next time I'm in your beautiful city. My friends there are always up for something new.
Photos are lovely.
Teresa
Posted by: Teresa | August 03, 2009 at 01:53 PM
Thanks for the good wishes, Marja-Leena and Ana!
Mare: wow - thanks for the heads-up on that. I would have gotten out there and been standing on the shoreline, annoyed and disappointed...
Teresa - I hope you'll go, it's so easy, but I'm sure it's not everybody's cup of tea, being a rather quiet place with no real beach scene. Most people probably prefer Parc Jean Drapeau (right underneath the Pont Jacques Cartier).
Posted by: beth | August 03, 2009 at 01:58 PM
Happy Anniversary, Beth. That sounds like a perfect getaway.
Posted by: Dave | August 03, 2009 at 08:39 PM
happy anniversary! what a lovely, green place.
Posted by: elizabeth | August 04, 2009 at 09:55 AM
Happy anniversary!
Loved the video even though I understand no French.
Posted by: EJ | August 05, 2009 at 10:53 AM
How funny, Beth. It was our anniversary too, on July 31st. And we went to Vermont, to South Hero on Champlain Lake!
Posted by: Sally | August 05, 2009 at 01:51 PM
Happy Anniversary, Beth.
The islands seem fascinating. Looking forward to more of your visits and pictures!
Posted by: Parmanu | August 09, 2009 at 05:01 PM