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25 April Saguenay, Quebec Windy and Tasty

Early to rise for a chance to glimpse the fiord cut by the Saguenay River as it goes to meet the St Lawrence. The passage wasn’t quite as narrow, nor the walls as steep as some, but still impressive as we sailed with following winds. The fiord creates a tunnel that provided a challenge to our captain as he maneuvered the ship for docking. If this had been a tender port, we would have had another sea day. Zodiacs were cancelled which gave us more time to explore at the end of our excursion tour.



Our guide, as has become the norm, confessed she hadn’t given a tour in over two years. She was a retiree from one of the smaller aluminum mills that fabricated special pieces out of billets delivered from the huge complex across the highway. She had notes, large plastic poster pictures and good humor to punctuate her brief.

Our first stop was a family owned fromagerie. Our guide translated for the founder’s daughter (3rd generation) on how the factory came to be and what to expected in the five cheese samples provided. She also had a video recounting the disastrous fire that destroyed the factory we were in several years ago, the rebuilding effort, and the celebration as the first product was produced. Most importantly it tasted just as good the cheese produced before the fire.






We went from there to a farm that produces blueberries, raspberries, and grapes for their wine. The blueberries are low-bush berries, smaller with a distinctive taste form their larger high-bush cousins. This area in Canada produces nearly 75% of all blueberries in the country. After a piece of pie to appreciate the taste, we had sparkling blueberry wine, plain blueberry wine and blueberry wine with a hint of maple syrup. Can’t say we are great fans of any of the three, but the one with maple syrup was much better than expected.






Enroute, we saw the Little White House. It and its occupants survived a disastrous flood. Turns out the builder had fastened to foundation to the rocks below. Flood waters swirled all around, but the house remained.




The old paper mill

The Aluminum Smelter

This church still in use. We did see one huge church that is no longer used.

The Little White House


Upon return to the pier, we headed to a local restaurant for poutine made with cheese curds from the factory we had visited earlier and gravy over French fries. It was an interesting dish. Even better was the chocolate cake and a big glass of fresh, whole milk. Milk on board is the highly pasteurized boxed drink with a long shelf life. Not the same.


Notice the French style on the scarf



Our on-board entertainment, Ben Price, returned for a second magic show. Not as good as the first and he actually got stumped on the pick-a-card trick and blew right by when he guessed wrong.






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