Wednesday - exploring Isle aux Coudres
We stayed in a van park just outside of Baie St Paul and on Wednesday, headed over to Isle aux Coudres to explore. Isle aux Coudres was one of the first areas discovered by Jacques Cartier as he was exploring this new country sometime around 1540. It is a small island, only accessible by a vehicle ferry. Bertha was allowed on board, so off we went. The island is 10.4 km long and only 3.6 km wide, with a 23km bike path around the perimeter. Perfect for us in a day. There were a few hills … in Sophie’s opinion it was primarily hills, so she whinged … but we made it around. There is very little english spoken on the island so we had fun conversing in French. 
The welcome sign on the island says “the rhythm of the tides” and it certainly has that slow, relaxed feel to the place. The island is very much a sleepy hollow, with a population of 1 700. It supports a school and several churches but not much else. Even cafes are limited. It is exactly how I imagine Prince Edward Island would be. Unfortunately, we won’t make it to PEI while we are in Canada in 2014- it was on my wish list - but this small island had beautiful, wooden houses with large gables of all colours (not brick as its not such a good insulator), rolling hills, stunning wild flowers and amazing scenery. For all the Anne of Green Gales readers … at one stage, Olivia stopped and said that she could imagine Anne and Diana running through this particular paddock full of wild daisies, with the Haunted Forest in the background, between their houses. It was beautiful, but very much a quiet town. It also reminded us of Batemans Bay in the quieter periods, but much smaller. We can imagine in high summer, on a great day, it would be packed. 
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