Day 123

Hamilton Ontario to La Pommerie, Ormstown Quebec

ROAD REPORT: This section is a full day of driving, and, until I get to the Montréal area, all of it on 4 lane, divided freeway. It’s a straight shot up ON-401, which changes to QB-20. However, when I left the highway things went to hell. First the English road signs disappeared (see below), then the S&T software tried to route me the wrong way down a one-way street. And finally, when I tried to get directions I got glares and blank looks when they heard me speaking English. I finally found a gas station run by a Vietnamese couple that put me on the right track.

Something’s weird here, ever since I crossed into Canada I’ve noticed that all the road signs, street signs, information signs, and even advertisement billboards are dual language, English and French. I assume this is in deference to the Francophone’s from Quebec. Now that I’m in Quebec, all I see is French, no English anywhere. I’ve been told that Quebec actually has a law against English!

This leads me to assume one or more of the below is the cause:

The Quebecers do not want Anglophones in their Province, including tourists;
The Quebecers are paranoid about losing the French Language;
The Quebecers are anal.

After spending a week here I’m convinced it is all 3!!! With the exception of a couple of fellow nudists at La Pommerie, these people get really uptight when they hear someone speaking English.

RV PARK REPORT: La Pommerie is a nudist park so the report will be put on the AANR page. However, I will say that, in the future, I won’t spend more than a couple of days in Quebec. It’s no fun, even in a fairly friendly RV park, to be the only Anglophone in the park and 95% of the other guests can’t speak English (or at least pretended that they can’t). You can't even join in around the nightly campfire!

While at La Pommerie, I decided to go into Montreal and see if I could find an internet café. I should have known better. After entering the downtown area on the freeway, I took an exit marked with the universal question mark symbol for Tourist Information. At the end of the exit ramp there was another “?” sign indicating that the information center was 2 km straight ahead. Unfortunately, the street ended 3 blocks later; you had a choice, turn left or right. Of course there wasn’t any more “?” signs to follow. I drove around for about an hour, stopping frequently, trying to find someplace that could give me directions with absolutely no luck. I then got back on the freeway and headed back to the RV park. Or at least I thought I was. After I went through a tunnel that I didn’t remember from the trip in, I figured out that I was heading the wrong way! So, after a couple of hours, I arrived back at the park with absolutly nothing accomplished. Except for short trips to the store, that was the last time I left the park until I was ready to get out of Quebec!

Unless you speak (and read) french, I cannot recommend Quebec as a place to go. I've been in 57 different foreign countries where I didn't speak the language and have never been treated like that! Most of the time I had fun getting lost and then trying to talk to the locals to find my way back. I met a lot of great people like that. When they heard english they went out of their way to straighten me out. In fact I was invited to go home with one family in Greece to have dinner and spend the night. They drove me back to my ship the next morning. In Montreal, I was repeatedly snubbed outright!

WEATHER REPORT: The weather was great the whole time, mostly in the low to mid 20’s and clear with a light breeze. I spent most of my time working on my tan.

Next stop, Prince Edward Island, with an overnight in Edmundston, New Brunswick.