Our trip thus far, until we reached Quebec City, has involved pretty much zero scenery. Then the road along the coast of the St. Lawrence to Tadoussac came along with amazing vistas over hills and valleys and out to the river. This was one beautiful drive! There are some touristy moments along the way, like Montmorency Falls and the Cathedral at Ste. Anne de Beaupre, but the best part of the trip was the drive.
This pic doesn't really do this drive justice, but then, you had to be there. Other than the natural scenery, this 1929 Mercedes caught my eye.
The road from Quebec city ends very abruptly at the Saguenay River, but a ferry awaited and we drove directly on and within minutes were headed to Tadoussac. As this ferry is a continuation of the highway, there was no charge for this service.
The views up the Saguenay from the ferry, although the day was overcast and cool, were quite amazing, but alas, no whales.
Our accomodations for the next two days are at the classic Hotel Tadoussac, dating back to 1942. We found it quickly, only minutes from the ferry. Today's journey of 364 km took us the better part of five and one half hours. Part of the time was spent in the many construction stops.
Once we moved our luggage in, it was time to explore the environs. The hotel has beautiful grounds right on the edge of the Saguenay, with a sandy beach, if the weather ever gets nice enough to swim in it.
Tadoussac itself is very touristy with mainly boutiques and restaurants. We chose one of these, the Pere Coquart Cafe for a shared salad and pizza.
Then we retired for some reading/napping/blogging time, before our dinner reservation at Le William, probably the swankiest place we'll eat at on this trip. Conveniently, it is part of our hotel.
At dinner this evening, we discovered that this is a seasonal hotel, open only from May to October. In fact, the whole village folds up and goes away. This makes what I'm about to tell you about dinner even more amazing. How do they maintain an excellent chef and staff? So, tonight we ate in the hotel's high end restaurant, with a pretty exotic menu and we both felt that this would rate as one of our best meals ever. First of all, choosing a wine was interesting. The list was built around a lot of really limited production wines with high prices, but we noticed two whites from Quebec. Like Ontario wines, I'm pretty leary of high priced local wines, but after being allow to test the two, we settled for Cuvee Natashquan from Vinoble de l'Orpailleur. The courses we knew this would go well with, included Dawn's opener of Beausoleil oysters poached with sea buckthorn aromas.
I had a feuillantine of Nymph legs (frogslegs boned) with a fricassee of Chinese artichokes and a reduction of champagne. For the main course, Dawn chose a St. Lawrence bar filet seared with a white port reduction and whipped tarragon butter. I had my absolute favourite.
Let me describe what you are seeing here. There are sweetbreads on left and right with an oyster topped with caviar on the right. There is also a slab of pan seared foie gras in the centre surrounded by a bevy of root vegetables and asparagus on a beet puree. OMG!!! We finished by sharing a gratin of raspberries in sabayon. Not a cheap meal, but fabulous none the less.
Tomorrow, we anticipate exploring the surrounding area and hope tonight's rain has gone away.
This pic doesn't really do this drive justice, but then, you had to be there. Other than the natural scenery, this 1929 Mercedes caught my eye.
The road from Quebec city ends very abruptly at the Saguenay River, but a ferry awaited and we drove directly on and within minutes were headed to Tadoussac. As this ferry is a continuation of the highway, there was no charge for this service.
The views up the Saguenay from the ferry, although the day was overcast and cool, were quite amazing, but alas, no whales.
Our accomodations for the next two days are at the classic Hotel Tadoussac, dating back to 1942. We found it quickly, only minutes from the ferry. Today's journey of 364 km took us the better part of five and one half hours. Part of the time was spent in the many construction stops.
Once we moved our luggage in, it was time to explore the environs. The hotel has beautiful grounds right on the edge of the Saguenay, with a sandy beach, if the weather ever gets nice enough to swim in it.
Tadoussac itself is very touristy with mainly boutiques and restaurants. We chose one of these, the Pere Coquart Cafe for a shared salad and pizza.
Then we retired for some reading/napping/blogging time, before our dinner reservation at Le William, probably the swankiest place we'll eat at on this trip. Conveniently, it is part of our hotel.
At dinner this evening, we discovered that this is a seasonal hotel, open only from May to October. In fact, the whole village folds up and goes away. This makes what I'm about to tell you about dinner even more amazing. How do they maintain an excellent chef and staff? So, tonight we ate in the hotel's high end restaurant, with a pretty exotic menu and we both felt that this would rate as one of our best meals ever. First of all, choosing a wine was interesting. The list was built around a lot of really limited production wines with high prices, but we noticed two whites from Quebec. Like Ontario wines, I'm pretty leary of high priced local wines, but after being allow to test the two, we settled for Cuvee Natashquan from Vinoble de l'Orpailleur. The courses we knew this would go well with, included Dawn's opener of Beausoleil oysters poached with sea buckthorn aromas.
I had a feuillantine of Nymph legs (frogslegs boned) with a fricassee of Chinese artichokes and a reduction of champagne. For the main course, Dawn chose a St. Lawrence bar filet seared with a white port reduction and whipped tarragon butter. I had my absolute favourite.
Let me describe what you are seeing here. There are sweetbreads on left and right with an oyster topped with caviar on the right. There is also a slab of pan seared foie gras in the centre surrounded by a bevy of root vegetables and asparagus on a beet puree. OMG!!! We finished by sharing a gratin of raspberries in sabayon. Not a cheap meal, but fabulous none the less.
Tomorrow, we anticipate exploring the surrounding area and hope tonight's rain has gone away.
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