Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Riviere Ouelle - Kamouraska!


This week, I abandoned my three men in Victoria, and headed off to Quebec to spend the week with my co-researcher (and longtime friend!) Marie-Claire.  While we were there to work, who says you have to work in an office?   So, the morning after I arrived, she hustled me off to their cabin on the St. Lawrence River at Riviere Ouelle.It is about 1.5 hours from Quebec City.  I was freaked out when i learned i was in Kamouraska (since it is the first novel i read in french [after le petit prince]...Nothing like a good murder novel!

In any event, we set our bags down, and we headed off for a walk along the beach.  It was an amazingly calm day, which was interesting. She claims that the water is usually much rougher.  It is, after all, (she tells me) a FLEUVE and not just a mere RIVER.  \

red and grey rocks
OK.  so it is a fleuve.  We don't have a translation in english.... it is a river, but an ocean river.  She has always said that makes it special.  Maybe i agree.  :-)

shale?  or something else?
Being the St. Lawrence and all, it is salt water.  it felt a bit like being on the beach at tofino, but the rocks were totally different: a mixture of sand, some kind of 'shale'-like formations of mixed red and grey, occasional granite boulders (dropped in some iceage), and even patches of clay. 

Birch bark beauty
The mix of red and grey rock, with blue sky and water... well... it was lovely!   I was also a bit taken with the trunks all along the highwater mark.  It seemed that the red and grey in the rocks was echoes in the colour of the birch bark.  I don't get it, but that's what it looked like to me!

down by the quay


fabulous driftwood pieces of art


a chair to relax in







MC with lobster

RJ with lobster

In any event, it was a nice place to do a (small) bit of work, and eat some tasty food!








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2 comments:

  1. Mary JohnsonMay 13, 2013 at 10:23 AM

    Heaven! Thanks for sharing. I remember the first time I saw the "fleuve" -- I called it a river and everyone (the francophones that is ) laughed. True that there is not English word to capture it like the word fleuve. A river that you can not see across... one where you might glimpse a whale. Pretty special.

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  2. Arta JohnsonMay 19, 2013 at 8:03 AM

    The pictures are beautiful, Rebecca. I am always taking pictures of the trunks of trees as well, so that made me laugh when you also trained your camera on them. I not only take pictures, but I bet up close and touch them. Go figure.

    Also loved the large picture at the end of your picto-post (a word I just made up, unlike the word fleuve which I didn't know but do now). Living on the prairies, one doesn't need such a word. But back to the picture ... lovely shapes and beautiful colours.

    Thanks for the virtual trip with you.

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