Nouveau Brunswich

After a nice long walk along the promenade in Rimouski, we got loaded up and drove to the Finesse d’Alsace bistro for dejeuner (not so petit).  The usual awkward ordering trying to deploy the five or so French words I know. The big commonality between Parisienne and Quebecois is in the service sector.  Regardless, we had a very satisfying b’fast and then wandered down to the show and shine were there were a lot of classic cars on display.  This was a nice distraction to start what proved to be a long driving day.  The drive took us across the mountains and forest cutting through the Gaspe peninsula to Tide Head NB then Campbellton.  We did take a short side trip to see what was at St. Francois de Assise before getting to NB, turned out to me not much.  Initially relieved to have left the challenging communications behind, we started to notice the the francophonie influence still runs strong through the region.  The Drapeau du Acadienne (Bleu, Blanc et Rouge, Etoile d’Or) was visible everywhere, and many houses emblazoned with the ubiquitous pentastar.  We had hoped we would stumble upon a micro brewery or such enroute, but no luck.  I did note however that there are an awful lot of hairdressers and ice cream outlets (literally) in NB.  The drive along the Acadian Coast Trail was a bit disappointing between Campbellton and Bathurst, with the only point of some interest was the huge coal fired power plant at Belledune. Once in Bathurst, our accomodations were easily found.  Having lost an hour passing into the Atlantic time zone, we quickly got organized to go to the Cast & Crew for a pint and bite.  Doesn’t appear to be a lot going on in Bathurst NB, so we plan to be off to Moncton early in the morning.  We all have noted the odd sensation that we are visitors to a very foreign country.