Islands scenery- Paysages des Iles

We went walking on the small hills close to our house. They are called 'demoiselles' as the sailors who would see the curvy hills from the sea would think of young women (maybe damsel is the translation here?)

Nous sommes allés marcher sur les Demoiselles (buttes ou collines pres de chez nous). Quels paysages époustouflants!!

Ah on this next one you can see the Site of La Grave, small narrow bit of land with buildings on it in the background.

Ah, sur celle ci vous pouvez voir le site patrimonial de La Grave au fond de la photo; la petite bande de terre avec batiments dessus.

The 'boys' club. This is a club I am not part of but sometimes get to be in as an honorary member.(VIP- in my opinion)

Le club des 'gars'. Je ne fais pas partie de ce club mais j'ai le droit une fois de temps en temps d'y acceder comme membre honoraire. 

La croix posée par Jacques Cartier quand il est arriveé sur les Iles.

Antoher nice outing was at l'Étang du Nord to go and listen to some live music while watching the sunset.

Another nice marina over there:

Did the boys listen to the music? No. Why not you wonder? There was a playground close by. I am amazed at the strong inexhaustible drive those boys have to play!

Est-ce que les garcons ont ecouté la musique? non. Pourquoi? Car il y avait un parc très proche.

Je suis constamment épatée de leur désir constant et inépuisable de jouer. Jouer, jouer toujours jouer par dessus tout!

L'île Boudreau et le Bassin des huitres

First weekend, we decide to drive to the other end of the islands to l'Île de Grande Entrée.
There we rent some kayaks to go explore l'Île Boudreau and the Bay of Oysters.
La premiere fin de semaine, nous decidons d'explorer les iles et de se rendre a l'autre bout completement a l'ile de la Grande Entrée. On loue quelques kayaks pour explorer l'ile Boudreau et le Bassin au Huitres. Superbe journee, terminee au meilleur resto des Iles d'apres Trip Advisor: La pizza de la Pointe. La pizza du pecheur est vraiment delicieuse!!!

It's a lovely day and we end it by going to the most well rated restaurant of the island: La Pizza de la Pointe.
WOW! the fisherman's pizza is so yummy!

Biking, kitesurfing and the beach life!

Life is not so bad at all here on the islands!
La vie n'est pas mal du tout ici aux Iles.

Voici quelques photos:
Here are some photos:


Le drapeau des Acadiens est partout!!

Gareth en kite:

Oui! oui! il peut sauter maintenant!!

yes you see correctly, he can now jump to the great delight of Henri and Charlie (okay, me too)

In La Grave, a world Heritage Site, where the first settlers arrived and built their houses. It is on a very thin strip of land and contains 30+ buildings and a marina. Now it is full or artists studios and cafes and restaurants. So beautiful!!

A 20 minutes en bicyclette de chez nous, il y a La Grave, site patrimonial qui est situé sur une petite bande de terre et qui contient 30 quelques batiments traditionnels tous relies a la peche. Beaucoup de studios d'artistes et de cafes et restos. Vraiment charmant!

Okay i need to take a better photo of this...

Voici notre plage: Portage du Cap qui se trouve a 10 minutes a pieds ou 2 en velo (ca descend!)

Here's our local beach, 10 minutes by foot from home or 2 minutes by bike:

There isn't any competition going on at all to see who will find the biggest shell or the most sand dollars (i win that one, at 2)

Il n'y a aucune competition a savoir qui trouvera le plus gros coquillage ou qui trouvera le plus de dollars de sable (je gagne celle la avec 2)

L'ecole qui commence! School starts!

First day of school was the day after we got here!! Talk about jumping in at the deep end!

La premiere journey d'ecole fut le jour apres notre arrivee!

First step, find the school supplies we bought way back when we were in Chicoutimi, sort them out and put them in backpacks! All of this while feeding the boys breakfast!

Premiere etape, trouver les fournitures scolaires achetees il y a belle lurette lorsqu'on etait encore a Chicoutimi. En meme temps, on essaie de se reveiller et de dejeuner...

Boys are a bit nervous. Les garcons sont un peu nerveux...

Okay now we are running late: shoot! Boys are hoping for a subtle quick entrance into their classes...
not the case! We arrived right smack in the middle of a whole school assembly (you will see this is a small school like l'ecole des Sept-Sommets). They were promptly made to stand in front of all the students and got a long (seemed like forever) round of applause. Ha! what a warm welcome and a grand entrance into their new school: l'ecole aux iris!!

This is Henri in his class followed by Charlie with his group heading out for his first class, his favorite: P.E. The students were very curious about them and kept asking them questions for at least the first week. They are asked constantly to speak english, their friends can't believe how well they can do this!! Boys are loving the specialness they feel!

This next picture does not do it justice, i will take more, but their school is very close to the ocean. Recess with a view of the sea!! Not bad!

During school, mom and dad go for bike rides but are very forlorn and miss their children so much as you can see with the sad faces in this photo:

Boys come home for lunch as they get 1h40 minutes lunch break. That is very nice I have to say. At the end of the day they come by bus. We are happy to see that they made it through their first day at school!

Beautiful Islands!! Les belles îles!

Bonjour et Hello! This should be dated August 28! Date de cette entree devrait etre le 28 aout.

Nous sommes arrivés aux Iles de la Madeleine!
We have arrived on the Iles de la Madeleine!

Le traversier de Souris IPE a été tres agréable et a quand même passé vite pour une durée de 5 heures!
This is us waiting in line for the ferry! We were 7 minutes late and were told 1 minute more and we would be put in 'stand by'. Serious business!!! En ligne pour le traversier! il faut arriver a l'heure juste sans ça...

While the boys were playing in the arcade of the ferry or watching a movie in the cinema lounge this is what Gareth and I did:

Voici ce que Gareth et moi faisions pendant que les garçons jouaient aux jeux d'arcade ou regardaient un film dans la salle de ciné:

Hey!nothing wrong sampling the regional culinary fare!! Il faut bien gouter aux produits culinaires de la region en preparation!!

Première vue des îles: l'île d'Entrée. Elle est superbe!

We were supposed to rent from September 1st but I found out school here starts a wee bit earlier than it does in good ol' BC.

Oops. So we had to get here sooner than we thought and planned on camping for the first 4 nights.

Line who is the lovely person whose house we are renting happened to be on the island and offered for us to camp on the property for the first night and just get the house 4 days sooner than agreed.

That was a big relief and very very kind of her and her husband Gilles (who wasn't here).

So we got to meet Line and her mom and got a personal tour of the house which is called the House of the Small Daisies.

La maison aux petites marguerites.

The house is so quaint and cute and was built in 1881. It belonged to the great great grand father of Line.

It was moved four times!!

J'aime accrocher mon linge sur la corde! Quelle vue!

I love to hang my clothes to dry: what a view!!

We all love it here!

Nous adorons tous cette endroit!

Quel paradis!

Mary and Derek

We spent a couple days at my aunty Mary and Uncle Derek's place in Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia.
WHAT A GREAT TIME WE HAD!

First of all they are really cool people!
We came on a day when my uncle Derek got a minor operation to remove some skin on his leg. Well, let's say when we arrived, there had been blood all over and even though they were a bit under duress, they still made us feel very welcomed and at home.

Next day we went to the market and what a market it was!
Amazing produces, arts, food, music, a real taste of the local fair.
Henri had a massive waffle (best of the trip so far- best in his life i think) made by a german couple.
I got some local wine, Gareth got local coffee owned by a guy who knows some of our friends in Rossland! small world! Charlie got baskets of fruits! to each their own pleasure!

Mary showed us the boardwalk and some spectacular houses in town.

Then Derek arranged for Gareth to take us on his little sun boat! Some liked it more than others...

In the evening, Derek took us on a little tour around the place. First stop Port Royal:

"Port-Royal National Historic Site has a reconstruction of the Habitation, an enclosed wooden compound. In 1605, Samuel de Champlain helped establish one of the earliest European attempts at settlement in North America on land that is the traditional homeland of the Mi’kmaq."

Then off to see the bay of Fundy and a small fishing village. The tidal range is huge here as you can see in this picture:

Here are the boys jumping on the rocks next to the warf (they can't just walk they have to climb and jump!!!):

The next day we had to say farewell to our Little Biggy Bob trailer, as it is not coming with us to les Iles de la Madeleine.

Here's us saying aurevoir to Mary and Derek:

Thank you very much for your hospitality!!!

See you in November when we come to pick up Biggy Bob and start heading down south towards the sunshine!