Day 126, Monday Aug 6, 2018. Canada Holiday , We move into Quebec via Montreal.

Most people in the world when they think of languages think of Canada as being English speaking nation.  It is for the main part, but the province of Quebec is a French speaking Province that surprises many passing through or staying there and meeting the local people. Although we drove quite a ways into Quebec before we conversed with any of them, the signage along the roads tells the story. No roads have bilingual signs. It is all French.   Almost all restaurants, businesses and civic signage is in French. So when we traveled through Montreal (or at least part of it) we relied on the numbers of the highways and hoped we had them right.

The large greeting sign at the entry to Quebec on Highway 417/40`

The traffic on Highway 20 coming from the east was 15-20 miles backed up. It was third day of a National "Summer " Holiday set by the Federal Government.

Our campsite  in St. Hyacinth farm country.

Montreal has 1.7 million people and was first "discovered" by Cartier in 1575.  It was originally known as the "City of Mary".  It is composed of many Islands of which Montreal is the largest. Yes Montreal is an Island. Along the right bank of the St. Lawrence River are hundreds of towns that have Saint's name's as they have a Catholic heritage.

The heat of the day was terrific as the temperatures reached 36 C (91 F) and it was good to get off the road and into the Air Conditioning. Ruth didn't have any trouble turning it on today.

The route through Montreal was a bit tricky and we missed one turn so headed into the city instead. We stopped and rerouted (didn't have to backtrack) and got to the route that brought us to the campground. The road the campground is on does not have an entrance off the Hwy. So it means driving almost a complete square in order to get to it. Get off the freeway, go under it, drive two very rural roads  and two right turns around the corn fields, and arrive at the campground after driving over the freeway again.

The campground is quiet now after the Holiday and the owner Natalie was quick and efficient  and the process took less time than ALL of the campgrounds we have stayed. We were ready to go in less than 4 minutes. She used a simple cash receipt (carbon copy) and the computer for the credit card.

We are nicely parked at the edge of the campground in an easy to get in and out site. There are only two campers in sight from where we are.

Tomorrow we will drive to the place where we will finish the time in Quebec and that is in St Anthony  just a few miles from the St. Lawrence River. We will drive along the St. Lawrence most of the day tomorrow.  Expect more photos.