Saquenay, Canada and the Back Country of the Fjord and Saguenay Fjord National Park

 

“I think of Canada first and foremost in terms of space. The amount of space available is breath-taking.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Saquenay, Canada is a city in Saint-Jean region of Quebec that is mainly known for Saguenay Fjord which goes into the St. Lawrence River. Saguenay is about 120 miles north of Quebec City. This area had abundant wilderness, a fjord, whales, an inland sea, and small but delicious blueberries. Most people in this area speak French but many also speak English.

On the back to back cruise we were on to New England and Canada, we would get to experience this city twice. On the first visit, we did not book an excursion and decided to just walk around the town. As we exited the cruise ship, we were enchanted with the people at the port dressed in fancy clothes and faces painted. Some were standing on stilts. There were jugglers, guys riding on bicycles, and even some guys dressed in lumberjack outfits. One of the lumberjacks ran over to me and gave me a stick with some maple syrup on it. We walked over to wear they were heating up the maple syrup, then pouring it directly onto fresh snow. It was delicious. The we walked in the port building and there was a unique tall statue greeting us.  

We started walking around this small town when we came upon a statue of a cow painted blue with flowers standing on a cart with wheels. Then we walked passed a beautiful church called Saint Alphonse Parish Church and Presbyterian complex built in 1900. Father Henry Cimon had the house next to the church built for his three sisters. This church was established in 1857 and is one of the oldest parishes in La Baie that is still in operation. The church was originally built in 1885 and was designed by architect Victor Roy. It was later donated to the city.

Then we saw Tim Horton’s, aka Tim’s or Timmie’s, for a cup of coffee and tea. It is known as being the home of Canada’s favorite coffee and is also Canada’s largest quick service restaurant chain. They serve donuts, sandwiches, and other fast food items. We met up with many fellow cruisers at that stop.

From there, we spotted a large a large church in the distance and decided to head towards it to check it our. On the way, we passed a couple of antique cars parked along a building. We walked down a hill and then crossed over a bridge spanning a river. It was a very cold day and the wind made it feel even colder. Before we got to the church, we walked passed the Old Port-Alfred Town Hall which was designed by architects, Lamontagne Gravel and Brassard and was designed after the Quebec City court house. It is a four story French style brick building with a clock tower. This building has been used as a fire station, post office, town council office, municipal services, library, telephone and telegraph and customs office.

Then we came to St. Edward Presbyterian Church. This beautiful church was not open but was gorgeous from the outside. It was build in a thirteenth-century English style and built during the years of 1925-1928. The church and grounds are beautiful. That is when we saw the For Sale sign. Wow. That was unusual.

From there we crossed the street to a park. Then we headed pass the Ha Ha Bay Sulphite Company. We then found a walking and biking trail back towards the ship. We walked by mud flats and saw an interesting fenced area in the mud. We found out that is used for spawning Rainbow Smelts. He raved about the flavor and said the locals here love it. I kind of chuckled as when I was a little girl, we had smelts a lot as this fish was very inexpensive. All my brothers and sister, got to where we couldn’t stand it. I wonder if his Rainbow Smelts were better than the ones we got at home in New Jersey.

Since the town was pretty much closed up that day, we kept it short and got back on the ship.

On our next visit about three days later, we had scheduled an excursion through Viator called Back Country of the Fjord and the National Park. Once again, as we left the ship, our fancy people greeted us again. It was freezing and had snowed but they still braved the weather to come and welcome us. Once again I got one of the delicious maple syrup sticks made by the lumberjacks. It was snowing and we were very excited as living in Georgia, we do not get much of a chance to see snow. We found our bus, just outside the port and it was a 15 seat bus.

Our tour guide was bilingual but French was his main language. He did a good job with telling us about the area. Our journey started with us passing by the monument that was a memorial to all those lost in the flood of 1996 where most of the town got washed away. This monument is called the Ha! Ha! Monument, named after the Ha! Ha! River and is a pyramid shaped monument that stands 69 feet high. It is made out of 3,000 yield signs. The yield signs in French means to help each other. They built this monument as a form of therapy for the people who were lost in the flood as well as their homes. Ten people died in this flood and between 12,000 and 16,000 residents were displaced as 500 – 800 buildings were destroyed. Inside the monument there are engraved plaques with local family names that were affected by the flood. We passed one house that survived and they put a memorial to Christ outside his home as a thanks and praise to God for allowing the house to survive.

The bus stopped at a statue that memorialized a man who helped to plant trees and get the lumber business going in this area.

We started heading north driving for quite a while till we came to the Village de Creche in Riviere-Eternite, Quebec. We stopped at this unique area with many religious statues nativity scenes and religious statues in an outdoor exhibit. This was an interesting stop with some very pretty statues by different artist that were snow covered all along this 300 yard path. The statues were made out of wood, plastic, or metal. In this area there was at least four inches of snow and it was just beautiful looking up at all the snow covered pines.

Then our bus headed into Saguenay Fjord National Park where we saw amazing views of the Fjord. This fjord has an average depth of 690 feet to its deepest point at 890 feet. The park was created in 1983. The snow was a lot deeper here and the pine branches were heavy with snow. It looked beautiful. We were not quite prepared for snow and we were in sneakers. We had forgotten how it sounded walking in the snow. That old familiar crunching sound we heard in years past playing in the snow. We also forgot how cold our feet and toes would get.

The Fjord is both salt water and fresh water. The first couple feet is fresh water so it freezes over in the winter. Our guide said that after the fjord freezes, it becomes a little city as people bring their trailers and set them up on the ice for ice fishing right in the town of Saguenay. He said it used to be hap hazard with where they put their trailers but now, they actually make streets and are very organized. People come from all over to fish.

The L'Anse - Saint - Jean Covered Bridge and town was a lovely stop in this quaint village.  The wooden covered bridge was built in 1926 but has washed away twice.  It spans the St. Jean River.  The inside of the bridge has artwork from local artist displayed.   This was a great picturesque stop. 

On the way back to the boat, we stopped at a grocery store where they sold sandwiches, snacks, and hot drinks. That was just what we needed. Then it was back to the ship. What a great tour. We never would have suspected that we would be seeing snow on this trip but we were not disappointed at all. In fact, we were thrilled. It was a nice bonus. What a great day.

Till next time. Bye for now.