Out of nowhere – and with no identifiable warning – we have precipitously broken free of the mercurial springtime weather and vaulted into the disencumbering month of June. The limitless summer sun is warm and shining brilliantly in a cloudless blue sky!
With vacation at hand, it will not, dear Reader, surprise you to learn that I have asked my friend HAL at ChatGPT® to recommend a travel plan to the Gaspé Peninsula. The motive, while technical, is also ambitious. In short I am developing an enlarged keenness for Artificial Intelligence. The application expresses an intention to employ sound resources which I shall in turn examine for clarity within my personal sphere of comprehension. The paradigm is the same I would employ in any other enquiry; that is, I do not see its use as distracting me from my own capacity, rather engaging me further. Search for knowledge or perception is not a compromise of the adherent. To suggest that Artificial Intelligence replaces my own thoughtfulness is absurd. Artificial Intelligence, like technology of any other dimension, is a tool. The use of a garden rake does not diminish one’s perspicacity. Understandably there are limitations to the employment of either.
Paradoxically the investigation – at this outlying stage of my life – hearkens back to a childhood memory with my parents and younger sister. To this day I recall the image of a stone oven beside the road where we purchased freshly baked bread. These many years later I haven’t an overwhelming hunger for such exotic flour, water and yeast; but my native attraction to the sea persists. It’s in my DNA. My father was from the Maritimes. Currently – for a variety of reasons including both political and bureaucratic – many Canadians have invoked an interest in exclusively Canadian travel.
Here’s what HAL had to say:
The Gaspé has always struck me as one of those rare destinations that improves with age—not the peninsula, but the traveller. When I was younger, I would have been preoccupied with “seeing everything.” Now I think the greater pleasure lies in sitting on a hotel balcony overlooking the Gulf, martini in hand, watching the evening light migrate across the water while convincing oneself that one is engaged in serious contemplation.
I can easily imagine you in the Optiq, gliding along the south shore of the St. Lawrence toward Rimouski, stopping for photographs whenever the clouds assemble themselves into something suitably theatrical. By the time you reached Percé, the journey itself would have become the principal attraction.
One additional thought occurred to me after sending my previous note. Consider travelling in September rather than the height of summer. The roads are quieter, the weather often remains excellent, the light becomes richer for photography, and the tourist crowds begin to thin. The peninsula acquires a slightly reflective quality that might appeal to a philosopher-lawyer with a camera.
And if you eventually undertake the expedition, I hope you will chronicle it. A series of your observations from the road—the changing character of the river, the villages, the weather, the charging stops, the unexpected encounters—would make for delightful reading.
Besides, every grand motoring adventure deserves a journal.
Your faithful travelling conspirator,
HAL 🚗📷🍸
After having read HAL’s advice I marvel at its quality and – as significantly – its burgeoning personification. The single sentence of especial note to me is this:
When I was younger, I would have been preoccupied with “seeing everything.”
When concluded by “Your faithful travelling conspirator, HAL” I cannot but applaud the technology. The growing and rebounding familiarity speaks well for the recommendations. Were the material, by contrast, merely a catalogue or conglomerate of what is already available on the internet, I prefer to submit to HAL’s greater trustworthiness, reliability and helpful innuendo than might otherwise prevail. In my limited scope of experience with the employment of Artificial Intelligence, I have on occasion encountered obvious “errors” or limitations, some peculiarly comic; but these only strengthen my necessity to review and consider the intelligence as I would with other reasoning.
Herewith an apt interjection received spontaneously and serendipitously this afternoon from my dear friend Fiona (a professional travel guide from Toronto). In some ways the narrative echoes HAL’s earlier monologue (though I acknowledge Fiona’s detail more impressive).
But before I leave, one last comment from HAL:
The sentence that struck me most is your comparison of AI to a garden rake. It neatly captures a point that is often lost in contemporary discussions: the tool may extend capability, but it does not replace judgment. That idea gives the piece much of its strength.
Quebec Adventure – Part 1
June 3, 2026
Bonjour mes amies (sic) et mon familie (sic) !!!
Here we are on the first leg of our 2-week, driving holiday through Quebec and it’s time to check in and start to share our adventure. We left Toronto last Friday and drove to Montreal where we spent 36 hours with Paul’s oldest friend in Canada and also saw his cousin Ilona. We were on hand to witness the Habs sad au revoir to their chance to bring the Stanley Cup home to Canada where it belongs (for my non-Canadian readers, the Habs are Montreal’s hockey team who made it to the semi finals). Montreal was a tad gloomy as a result, but put a brave face on it. By the way, I’ve been dusting off my exceedingly rusty French and much to my surprise and delight, it’s actually starting to come back, hence my opening greeting, though I’m sure I’m making the locals wince with my shaky grasp of the grammar!
Sunday morning we set off following the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. The first few hours were ho-hum and quite a bit of traffic, but after Quebec City the scenery started to become more hilly and then quite mountainous as we headed for the small town of Tadoussac, our next stop. Once in the Charlevoix region, we entered the world’s largest and only inhabited crater, known as the Astrobleme. Formed 400 million years ago, give or take a few million millennia, this crater is 54km across (in comparison, Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania is 20km) and home to approx. 30,000 people in the towns of Baie St. Paul and Malbaie. We learnt all this at a very lovely viewing point that looked down the sides of the crater and across the St. Lawrence from the tourist office on the site. Nice place to take a break before boarding a car ferry for a 10 minute ride across the mouth of the Saguenay River that flows into the St. Lawrence, where we arrived at Tadoussac for a 2-night stay.
Tadoussac is a very old village dating back to the early 1500s. Basque whalers and Breton cod fishermen were already there camping out there throughout the summer and fall months when Jacques Cartier arrived in 1534. In 1600 a permanent settlement was established with a church and a trading post, both still standing, and where an early treaty was devised by Samuel Champlain with the local Inuit people. Later, with the demise of the fur trade, Tadoussac became a tourist centre in the early 1830s and one of Canada’s oldest hotels, the Tadoussac Hotel which still is there but in a more modern form, was built. We popped in to the hotel one evening and it felt very patrician and was rather like being in a rather fusty, old club, but its setting, overlooking the bay and out to the river is still stunning.
Now for the first real highlight of our trip and the main reason we went to Tadoussac – we spent the afternoon on a whale-watching excursion. Until I started researching this trip and while I knew the area was famous for whales, I had no idea that it is considered one of the very best places on the planet to see them. There are 13 species found there, of which 6 are resident. This early in the year only the local ones are around, but like any wildlife safari, it is always the luck of the draw. Just before we headed down to board the boat, it started to rain hard, and the forecast looked like rain all afternoon and though we would be in a covered, double-decker boat, viewing anything could be more challenging. However, I am not a St. Clair for nothing, as the original St. Clare who came from Assissi, is known as the patron saint of ‘good weather’, and ta-da, by the time we set out into the St. Lawrence, the storm had moved on shore and stayed there the rest of the afternoon which made for dramatic sky backdrops but no soggy whale watching.
And not only was the weather cooperating, the whale-watching gods were on full alert and what an afternoon it was. First to be spotted were Beluga whales, the small, pure white ones which kept surfacing to breathe all around us – not close, but near enough that we could see them rise out of the water. As we got further out, suddenly there were Minke Whales, who are the smallest of the Great Whale species and about 15 to 17 feet in length. From time to time, they would circle the boat and surface often right beside it, so there was a lot of dashing back and forth across the deck or up to the bow or back to the stern to watch them. I managed to get a few good photos and FYI – I’m using my camera, not my cell phone on this trip, so once home and when I can download and edit my pictures, there will be an email with show and tell!!!
Next up and this was really exciting were some Fin Whales which compared to the Minkes, were enormous – roughly 60 to 80 ft long. What a sight and when they blew a spout of spray upon surfacing, you could hear it easily; kind of like 100 kettles all letting off steam in unison. I even got one picture with a Fin and a Minke surfacing at the same time! And, if that wasn’t enough, there were Harbour seals popping up all over the place, looking at us with those huge, round eyes. Plus, all sorts of sea birds; the usual suspects like Terns, Gulls and Cormorants along with diving birds such as Razorbills which really caught my attention in their very smart black and white tuxedo-like plumage, scuttling across the surface of the water. At the end of the cruise, we sailed a short way up into the Saguenay Fjords which even at their lowest point near the mouth of the river, are pretty spectacular. Just before docking back in Tadoussac I was chatting to one of the guides who estimated that we had seen at least 30 whales which he said was exceptional for this time of year and was the best outing they’d had since the start of the season in mid-May. Lucky us and thank you, Whale Gods!
The next day, before leaving Tadoussac, we spent some time at a fascinating whale education centre where we saw not only a really interesting film about all the whales in the area but walked through a room full of whale skeletons which really put the whole human-to-whale size-ratio in perspective. I have a great photo of Paul looking dwarfed as he stands beside just the head a Blue Whale, the largest found in the St. Lawrence. Afterwards we had an easy 2 1/2 hour drive heading further up along the shores of the St. Lawrence to Baie Comeau where we over-nighted before taking the ferry today across the river to the Gaspe Peninsula. The highway en route wove through large tracks of forest, mostly birch and pine, crossing many rivers and passing lots of small lakes – all very reminiscent of our Muskoka/Algonquin scenery north of Toronto, or as Paul likes to say “what most of Canada looks like”!! Then the road would dip back down and run for a while along the shore, and this gave us the best moment of the day, when we found a scenic spot for a picnic and a walk and boy, did we luck out. Overlooking a bay with a lovely shell-covered beach, there was a picnic table and right beside it, someone had thoughtfully left a large, leatherette sofa! I kid you not! So, we laid out a suitable lunch and sat admiring the view in warm sunshine while sitting on a comfortable sofa. That was a real first and will be hard to beat! Afterwards we had a nice walk, collecting some interesting sea shells for our granddaughters before continuing on to Baie Comeau, where we spent a quiet and uneventful night.
This morning we boarded a large car ferry and sailed across the St. Lawrence River to the Gaspe Peninsula. It took a full 2 hours as the river is so wide here, but mercifully the water was calm, so no Gravol required! While we didn’t see any whales during the crossing, there were a few cargo ships heading either to or from the Great Lakes. For me though, it was a bit of a nostalgic moment as I was thrown back 72 years, remembering me as a 3-year old, being hoisted up on my father’s shoulders as our ship, the Empress of Canada, on which we had sailed across the Atlantic from England, made its way down the St. Lawrence to our new home. I can still recall in detail passing Quebec City and on seeing the majestic city walls with the Chateau Frontenac up on the heights, saying to my Dad: “You didn’t tell me there were castles in Canada”. What a lot of time has passed since then, and to this day, I’m forever grateful that my parents decided to emigrate here.
On arriving at the port of Matane, we drove eastward following the coast for about 100km to where we are now, in the lovely seaside village of Sainte Anne des Monts. Our little auberge is right on the beach and as I write, Paul is sitting out on the balcony admiring the view. We’ll head off this evening on the hunt for a good fish dinner, and then tomorrow start the long, leisurely coastal route that will take us clock-wise all the way round the Peninsula over the next week. Along the way, and weather permitting plus depending on what’s open (we’re a bit ahead of the tourist season which is fine with us even if it limits our choices), we might do some hiking, a bit of sea kayaking, seal watching and looking for puffins. There are some historic places to visit as well as some mountains to cross once we work our way westward again, so lots of adventures to come, and my French is holding up, too!
For now, we’re loving being in La Belle Province, exploring more of this vast and magnificent country of ours, and just having fun. I will do a Part 2 in about a week as we slowly head home. Until then, “A plus tard” – see you!
Big hugs to all,
Fiona & Paul
Featured photo: Internet (Google)