Gene and Jan's Long Trip Too

On Tuesday morning, the Viking Sun docked at Saguenay in near gale force winds.  (Note the bend of the flag poles and pine tree in the photo above. In spite of the wind, rain and 40 degree temperature, local volunteers decked out in historic clothing welcomed us as we disembarked for a morning tour. A short distance outside of the city we visited "New France", a recreation of a 17th-century Quebec colony where settlers and First Nation tribes lived alongside each other.  Costumed actors provided first person accounts of what life was like.  Our village guide, in heavy French accent, shared how she had married a man who promised her a better life in the new world, but he died of scurvy after their 3-month sea voyage.  Her second husband went into the woods hunting and never returned; and so it was for 3 more husbands!  So she reluctantly decided her destiny was to be a widow.  Then we met the Clan Mother of one of the local tribe's lon...

We have now been cruising up the St. Laurence River for two days -- in the rain!  Over night we docked in Saguenay, Quebec, located on the Saguenay River 65 miles upstream from where it empties into the St Lawrence River.  This deep-water stretch of the river forms a fjord. With only an afternoon excursion planned and the weather quite rainy, we kicked back and relaxed during the morning. (Jan has read 8 books so far.) In the afternoon we traveled to the local theater to see the live performance of La Fabuleus,  Wow! What a show! Using story telling, dance and song, the production traced the history of Saguenay from the arrival of the french 400 years ago to the present.  The theater had seating for more than 1,000 people and used state-of-the-art audiovisual effects in the 1-1/2 hour non-stop action presentation. The huge stage provided plenty of room for the 150 actors, 6 horses, a gaggle of geese, and a pig to perform this panoramic block-buster...