Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and Montebello

Saturday, June 9

Our first hurdle to clear after leaving the Montreal Yacht Club was two large locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway. We tied up at the waiting dock at the St. Lambert lock and climbed up the stairs to call the lock master  on the very special yellow telephone to let him know we were there and wanting to go through. We waited about 1 1/2 hours for the St. Lambert lock until a freighter exited. We were then able to lock through with seven other pleasure craft, tying up shoulder to shoulder.

We are just in front of these boats.

 

It all went smoothly. Next up was the Cote Sainte Catherine Lock, another on the St. Lawrence. Both St. Lambert and Cote St. Catherine charge $25 Canadian to pass through, which we paid online.This also went well- no more locks this day, and we soon turned off the St. Lawrence and on to the Ottawa River, or Outaouais as it is called in French. That is a lot of vowels!

Our dockage for the night was on the lock wall at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, which is a really happening place! Restaurants line the walkway, and on a Saturday night the village was rocking with live music and boaters partying. A pleasant change from our many quiet nights.

On the wall at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue

Boats line the narrow waterway below the dock, 2 abreast on both sides.

We had a good dinner at the Klondike Restaurant, which we chose based on the strength of its free Wifi. 

Sunday June 10

We had a leisurely morning since the lock opens at 9 a.m., and we were 5 minutes away. Three of us locked through together. St. Anne lock is operated by Parks Canada, as are the rest of the locks we will encounter. These are all covered by our seasonal lock pass.

Carillon Lock gate

Next up, The Carillon lock, another lock that has a floating dock inside to tie to. This is Canada's largest lock, and it lifted us 64 feet in 20 minutes, with 20 millions liters of water. During the lockage we were allowed to get out of our boats and walk on the dock and visit with the other boaters and the lock workers- who are college students. No life jackets required.

Inside the lock- going up!

Our dockage for the night is at Chateau Montebello, a luxurious resort on the Ottawa River. It has indoor and outdoor pools, tennis, horses, hiking, canoeing, biking, fine dining, and in the winter, curling, horse drawn sled rides, cross country skiing.... and the list goes on. Mark was disappointed that curling was not available.

Chateau Montebello Lodge, built in the shape of a 6-pointed star out of logs hauled from British Columbia.

The huge fireplace dwarfs Mark.

The indoor pool- not shown are the 2 hot tubs.

On the hiking trail

Granary at Manior Papineau

Adjacent to the resort is the Manior Papineau, an historic estate built in the 1840's. We didn't take the house tour.

We ate an elegant French dinner at the Montebello restaurant and took advantage of the hot tub to cap our evening. This is probably the only hot tub we will find on the rest of our trip!

Tomorrow we will head on to Ottawa, Canada's capital, so this is our last night in Quebec. We have been pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of the people we've  met (of course they were all boaters) and the fact that nearly everyone we interacted with was bilingual. It's been fun Au revoir, Quebec.