Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine

I slept soooo well last night. Probably had something to do with yesterday's drive. The bed is a bouncy one and a little soft for me but I guess it was okay. It is raining when I get up but it will clear later. I want to see a couple of lighthouses today.

I made it to the first one. It is about 40 minutes away. The road to get there is a little sketchy but my trusty Escape handles the road well. The road is a dirt road and goes on for about 3 kms. When I get to the parking lot, I see not one but two trucks that have pulled 5th wheels through that mess!

This lighthouse is called Pointe-a-la-Renommee. They have a whole exhibit there, so get ready for your history lesson. The first lighthouse was built in 1880 and was a wood construction. This one did not weather well and was replaced in 1907 with a steel one that is there today. A little about the life of the lighthouse keeper. He not only had to keep the lighthouse lit (fueling it with oil every 3 hours/24 hours a day) but in foggy weather he had to keep the fog horn going (wood stoked) continuously as well. The really neat thing about the lighthouse is that this is where the first wireless transmission system in Canada. This was installed by the Guglielmo Marconi (famous Italian inventor of wireless transmission) company. This system allowed for communication with the passing ships. It was also used for telegraph messages and radio transmission. They have a wonderful exhibit on Marconi there which is very interactive. They also have a wonderful interactive video giving the history of the lighthouse.

This lighthouse was decommissioned in 1975. It was then moved to a park in Quebec City. This outraged the locals and it took them 20 years to bring it back. The buildings currently at the site are all replicas of the original buildings and the lighthouse is back where it belongs. This was a marvelous exhibit! After which you can walk along the trails and just take in the beautiful scenery.

The next lighthouse of the day was Cap Madeleine. This one did not have an exhibit, so I just took a couple of pictures. They do have a campground (of sorts) there. Only $20.00/night. I noticed quite a few campgrounds along the way. I’m not sure what kind of services they have but I can say most of them have killer views of the coast line!
One thing about this area is the amount of time it takes you to drive from one area to another. I was going to head to a third lighthouse but I only had a couple of hours until sunset and didn’t want to drive home in the dark. You know that is when I’d meet that moose on some lonely stretch of road up in the mountains! So instead, I went to dinner.
I found a place called Captainerie in Riviere-Madel. This was a place at one of the local ports where a few fishing vessels were moored. I saw a sign and followed it. Thank goodness I did!! They usually take reservations but they had a table that was open for an hour. I jumped at it. This has been the best food I have had this side of the Atlantic in forever. I ordered was they called a rib steak. This was marinated and cooked to perfection! Juicy, tender, flavourful. I was in culinary heaven. The salad and fries were okay. The wine was very good. The price $24.00 for the dinner, was excellent! The view was great! I’m so glad I stopped.

It took me another 1.5 hours to get home and the shadows were getting very long by this time. I’m glad I didn’t do the third lighthouse.Read more