PEI 8 - Loup-Marin Poutine

Day 5
Saturday, July 23, 2016

I don't pretend to be a student of Canadian history, so please don't quote me on any of this. But my understanding is that Quebec, settled predominantly by the French, has made grumblings over the years about seceding from the rest of Canada. (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/09/quebec-separatist-movement-independence-referendum) Bilingual signs throughout the country are an effort to respect that French population.

But on Les Isles de la Madeleine, the signs were not bilingual, only French. With the islands so isolated, many of the residents are not fluent in English. I enjoyed dusting off my knowledge of French from high school and college, five years of study that I only had one opportunity to put into practice, when Rob and I travelled in France a generation ago. I got so used to say "Bonjour" and "Merci" that, when we returned to PEI I caught myself still thinking in French.

Situated as we were somewhat in the middle of the archipelago, we decided we could ride to one end on Saturday and to the other end on Sunday. With the wind blowing from the south, we decided we'd rather get the headwind over with first, so that's the way we headed.

Everywhere on the islands we passed colorful, well-kept homes.

Even the motels were colorful and well-kept.

To get from our campground on Cap-Aux-Meules to Havre Aubert we bicycled about 5 miles along a sandbar. Makes you wonder what will happen to life on the islands after the oceans rise.

The wind and shallow bays provide great conditions for kite sailing. Rob and I agreed that next time we're on these islands we're definitely going to give it a try. If we're not too old by then.

Long sandy beaches are plentiful.

Have you ever seen a house painted like this?

We stopped in Havre-Aubert, the town that is pretty much at the end of the road. A young man at our campground recommended a restaurant where he works called Vent du Large - that's French for "offshore wind." We checked it out and liked the atmosphere, sitting on a deck overlooking the town, so we decided to stop for a bite to eat. In my journal I wrote that we got "beer, etc." for $78. We had a few appetizers with our beers.

One of the appetizers was without a doubt the best poutine you will have anywhere. Poutine is a Canadian dish of French fries with gravy and cheese curd. When served in diners or take-out, it is usually prepared with instant gravy and cheap cheese. This was "loup-marin poutine;" loup-marin is French for seal. In this case the poutine came with seal sausages and dried cranberries and the cheese curd was top-notch. Fishing is a major industry on the islands and evidently that includes seal.

The view as we drank our beer and enjoyed our poutine.

The town of Havre-Aubert.

We rode almost 50 miles. The main highway from Cap-aux-Meules to Havre-Aubert, was rather boring and had quite a bit of traffic. We had more fun exploring some of the residential roads once we got to Havre-Aubert.