September 18, 2018

Yesterday was the last of the warm days. The next four days are predicted to have high temperatures of 11°Cto 14°C and a chance of some raineach day. The morning brought an overcast sky and a temperature of 8°C in La Baie one of the three major settlements of the Saguenaycombination which includes Chicoutimi, Jonquière along with four smaller towns and their surrounding service areas. Early this morning before sunrise the ship entered the 91 kilometer long Saguenay Fjord having travelled about 200 kilometers downstream from Québec City. La Baie is located on the shores of Ha! Ha! Bay. The name comes from the sight of the bay by settlers who were awe struck by its natural beauty (Aaw! Aaw!, as in Wow!) The Saguenay region’s main industries are aluminium manufacturing and logging. Natural areas abound, from the Parc National du Fjord-du-Saguenay to the east, featuring 1,150-foot-high cliffs by the river,through the dense forestup to Lac Saint Jean further northwest.

After breakfast we left the ship to explore the area on our own. We bundled up since it was only 8°C, overcast and windy. It was quite a contrast from yesterday’s sunny 29°C day. As we exited the ship we heard music and saw members of “La Fabuleuse” historical society actors dancing by the Cruise Pavilion Visitor Center. We were greeted by dozens of volunteers dressed in pioneer costumes. We were invited to take a two person saw and saw a souvenir piece of wood from a small log, already prepared for cutting through with a tiny amount of effort and have our photo taken as we cut off a disc. Then there were “settler” women offering thin wedges of homemade blueberry pie, a specialty the region. At the next hut, there was a trough filled with chipped ice where maple syrup was poured in strips and then a small wooden stick was stuck to it and the strip of syrup was wrapped on to it for a maple syrup candy. The method was familiar as we had seen it at the Festival du Voyageur. All the “settlers” were friendly and we spoke to several before entering the modern Cruise Pavilion and receiving small Saguenay flags. Inside there was a busy information desk where we were told that the Hop On Hop Off buses were just outside the building.

We chose the Fjord Museum Circuit first. The bus had a narrator, Alain, who gave us some history of the area. The Saguenay amalgamation was formed in 2006 with merger of several area towns. There is a dairy industry of small dairies which make their own cheeses. In 1870 there was a disastrous fire starting at the west end of Lac Saint Jean and travelling all the way to the town of Chicoutimi, damaging its church. The first plants to emerge the next year were wild blueberries. The farmers took advantage of this natural occurrence and made a multi-million dollar business from the sale of blueberries and products from the blueberries. We learned that the region was Hudson Bay Company fur trading territory and an arrangement was made in 1832 to allow logging. The “Society of 21” was formed to establish the company and settle. When Alexis Simard wanted to plant a garden at his house, the Hudson Bay Company took him to court saying that the contract was only for logging, but the judge ruled in Simard’s favour saying he could grow vegetables for his family. There was a stop at the Canadian Forces Base Bagotville’s Air Defense Museum where we took some pictures of the planes. The troops at the base helped the citizens in the horrendous flash flood of 1996 in the Saguenay region, where dams burst from the torrential rain. Many homes were knocked off their foundations and floated away. Particularly badly hit were the towns of La Baie and Chicoutimi. In 1923 the first dam was built to produce electricity. Then two years later the first aluminium smelter was built, using bauxite imported from Jamaica, Brazil, Africa and India, because of the cheap hydro-electricity. The smelters were of great importance during World War 2 producing aluminium for the Allied Forces planes. The Bagotville base was nearby to protect the aluminium smelters from enemy attacks. Today the smelters produce all the aluminium for the Ford F150 pickup trucks.

On the way to the next stop we crossed the Mars River where salmon can be caught and there is a fish ladder. We arrived at the Fjord Museum, which was built after the flood. It overlooks Ha! Ha! Bay close to the point where the Saguenay River (fresh water) meets the Saguenay Fjord (salt water). An ice breaker patrols the Fjord in the winter to keep a channel open for shipping. Across from the museum is St. Alexis de la Grande Baie church built in 1868. It has a higher elevation beside the 1842 home of Alexis Simard, one of the ten members of the Society of 21 who settled here. A 1929 statue nearby commemorates his win over the Hudson Bay Company and lists the names of the original Society of 21. The Fjord Museumwas built after the 1996 flood in a waterfront area where all the buildings were destroyed. One of the homes destroyed was a modern 1947 house owned by Dr. Gobiel, an area doctor who discovered the vaccine for the shingles disease. The Fjord Museum has a fascinating 20 minute video giving a geological history of the region with separate presentations in French and English. The presentation theater is like the interior of a space ship which transport visitors from a bird’s eye view of the land and then dives underwater for a look at the marine life. There is an aquarium of native marine species, including a wolf fish and salmon and a smaller tank containing mussels, starfish, sea cucumber, which move at a rate of eight centimeters per day, sea urchins and other marine life that can be touched after washing your hands. There was a replica of a Greenland shark. There are several galleries. In one gallery is a stuffed a 185 cm, 41 kilogram Atlantic Sturgeon which is estimated to have lived 35 years. Adult lake sturgeons are the second largest fresh water fish in Canada. Another gallery features the BALSAC project that was started in 1970 to record the birth, marriages and deaths of the area residents since settlement and has been extended to all of Québec. It gives a genealogy of the residents. In another gallery is the history of logging with emphasis on William Price who set up sawmills and logging towns paying his employees in tokens that could be redeemed at the company store. Near the parking lot is a sculpture of beluga whales. There is a close shop where a local Italian artisan creates blown glass pieces for sale. At an adjacent park is the several storey high Pyramid des Ha! Ha! made from Yield Signs as a commemoration of the 1996 flood.

We returned to the cruise center and changed to the route 2 bus that drove us to Chicoutimi, 17 kilometers away. Here, a French fur trading post was established in 1676 covering an area from Tadoussac to Hudson’s Bay. At the stop by Saint François-Xavier Cathedral was the start of our walk in Chicoutimi. Unfortunately, I did not set the GPS unit properly to record our route. The church was built in 1878, destroyed by fire in 1912 and rebuilt in 1915 then fireproofed in 1922. We continued to walk along rue Racine and selected Café Cambio for lunch. Step count 5418

We continued along rue Racine with a detour to Chocolaterie Bons Délices to buy some chocolates. Then on to the former city hall of Chicoutimi which is now the Hôtel de Ville for the 2006 mergered Ville de Saguenay. We continued our exploration and headed to the Chicoutimi River. We saw an old white flour mill which looked more like a house. It survived the 1996 flood that wiped out many of the houses nearby when a dam burst. However, not far away, there was a single small white house known as La Petite Maison Blanche. The owner of house after an earlier flood decided to replace the foundation with a solid concrete base to survive any future floods. It was the only one in the area to survive. The 1996 flood. A park has now replaced this flood prone space with the house as the main feature. Close by on the other side of the Chicoutimi River at the top of a rocky cliff is the 1903 Église de Sacre-Couer and the old Presbytery which is now a restaurant. We looked below and saw the Hop On Hop Off waiting. Its last stop was the 1921 La Pulperie, the former pulp and paper mill, now a museum. Then it was back to the La Baie cruise terminal where we used the complimentary Wi-Fi to update the blog. As passengers returned to the ship through the terminal there was a volunteer offering them a blueberry chocolate.

As the ship left Ha! Ha! Bay, we climbed to Deck 12 to take photos as the ship cruised through the fresh water into the brackish water where the river and fjord waters meet. As the sun set, it was cold, about 7°C, and windy and we were the only people on the open deck . We took some pictures and then went inside for a quick g dinner in the Oceanview Café on Deck 10. We climbed down to the Celebrity Theater on Deck 5 to watch the piano virtuoso, Rogerio Tutti, play both classical and contemporary selections including some of his own compositions.

Final steps 16,505