Christian’s parents had shared the stories and shown the photos about where they first met in Murray Bay (now La Malbaie) back in 1946. It was love at first sight and Christian’s Dad sent the Munoz table a fish that he had caught that day. It was to be the first of many such romantic gestures. So with the stories and images in mind we made our way east along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River while admiring some of the most beautiful scenery and picturesque towns and villages. We stopped for lunch in a little town called Donaconna and had a fortifying late breakfast at a popular local spot called La Fourchette. This drive was the first of many that would challenge VanMorrison and Gibb. We had done this drive in 2012 in the Canadian Chefs’ Congress kitchen school bus and so had an idea of what we were in for – great, long, steep hills for many kilometres. Once we reached Baie-Saint-Paul these steep hills were accompanied by tight turns. We arrived in La Malbaie later in the afternoon and set up camp at Les Érables, a campground overlooking the St. Lawrence. So beautiful. This campsite outdid the previous one simply because of the view and the setting. It too was exceptionally clean with very friendly owners. We called a taxi and went into town for dinner that night to celebrate Julie’s birthday at La Patriarche. This restaurant is situated with a view to the river in a row of buildings dating back to the 1800s. We walked out to the wharf after dinner and admired the sunset, the harbour, the lights on the south shore of the river and watched the loading of a Scandinavian freighter which was so enormous they were still loading it the next day. Just before the taxi arrived Christian decided to use the public facilities and discovered he couldn’t get out. The door nob was broken. Julie tried to help but the whole outside handle came right off which still didn’t free him. Fortunately he had his trusty jackknife with him and was able to escape unharmed after performing some serious surgery in the lock mechanism. We returned to the campsite and admired the evening sky and twinkling lights on the south shore of the river.

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