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Entrance to Fort Chambly with the
Richelieu River entering Lake
Chambly |
It was stormy morning with la foudre et le tonnerre (lightning and thunder). The bad weather was forecast to continue after noon so we decided to remain another day in Chambly and not navigate further down the Richelieu River toward Sorel. While the rain was poring down, we started watching the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom DVD. The rain ended before the movie so we walked over to
du fort Chambly (Fort Chambly). The Canadian Government did a wonderful job in archeology, restoration, and interpretation. Information placards are presented in both French and English. We learned more about Canadian (and American) history from the Canadian perspective. For example, we use the term Native American and American Indians in our history books. The Canadians use the term Amerindians. We use the term patriots in our books regarding the wars with the United Kingdom and it’s colonies. The Canadian's uses the terms
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Panographic picture of the Richelieu
River in front of the fort |
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A placard showing the
evolution of Fort Chambly |
American rebels and renegades. But, we were surprised in the undertones regarding the distain of the British occupation of “New France” in the Canadian Park Service narratives of Fort Chambly's history, not to mention the American invasion/occupation for a short time. Quebec’s history is definitely worth reading more about. After our tour of the fort and it’s grounds we found an
Episcopal church, built by local troops in the 1800s, and then returned to Splash Down.
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The Brick at St. Steven's
L'Eglise Episcopale
(Episcopal Church) |
We finished the DVD and discussed what to do next. It was about that time Linda noticed a yacht with an American flag and an American Great Loop Cruisers Association burgee tied up at the lock wall in front of Lock 1. We walked over and introduced ourselves to Reenie Boyer who was in the process of putting away groceries. Shortly after that, her husband Greg came back with a new Canadian flag to be flown as their courtesy flag. They invited us back for some wine in about 20 minutes allowing them to put their items away. When we returned, we learned that they started out from Norwalk, Connecticut, on a 40 foot Mariner, a single engine trawler, named Thistle. They started on their journey June 18th with their goal of doing the Mini-Loop this year. They gave us a tour of their boat then we walked over to Splash Down for our show ’n tell. Greg and Reenie left to go to a concert in the park across the road from the marina. We opted to stay on the boat, have dinner, write this blog post while watching ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ TV show, and go to bed. We’ll head out tomorrow around 9:00am toward Sorel. Greg and Reenie will do the same since they must vacate the blue line on the lock wall by 9:00am. (Boats tied to the blue painted section of a lock wall signals the lock master that you want to lock through.)
