Where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be

 We have been spoiled. The last 10+ times we have been across the border, our wait has been about 5 minutes. Today we had to pull over and wait, while a bus load of Touring French-speaking Canadians were cleared through customs, so that the Airstream could be searched for felonious tomatoes. After the search and confiscation, we were on our way into Vermont.

It was another day of travel along gorgeous-leafed highways. It is definitely "peak" viewing time here. I have always felt that the Columbus Day weekend, when supposedly New England color is at its best, was too late to see the most vivid color. I have been up here in New Hampshire a number of times on the Columbus Day weekend, but I have never seen color like this. The woman at the campground office said that one problem this year is that, with the lack of rain, the leaves are not hanging around, but are falling off the tress as soon as they turn color for a few days. I'm glad we are here now.

The border crossing at Derby Line. What you don't see in this picture are the two busses off to the left. We had thought it would be a quick zip through the stop. Now we have to go to the store to buy some more tomatoes for our salads this evening. 

I believe this is Mt. Washington with its own weather system at the top.

We are camped in Franconia, right at the entrance to Franconia Notch State Park. It is about 5 miles to the site of the former Old Man of the Mountain viewing. With the Old Man no longer there, it is now called Old Man of the Mountain Profiler Plaza.

This is where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be - just as you would say in Rhode Island!

The Profile, or Old Man of the Mountain, was one of the best-know natural rock formations in the country. The iconic granite profile was shaped by the forces of nature about 14,000 years ago, when the last ice sheet retreated from North America. Five distinctive ledges or slabs formed the elements of a human face in profile, measuring about 40 feet high and 25 feet across. 

On May 3, 2003, the Old Man of the Mountain collapsed sometime during the night hours. While the public lamented the loss, there was widespread agreement that rebuilding on the cliff was not appropriate. The state geologist confirmed that the mountainside rock was too unstable to safely support construction. A non-profit organization, the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund, stepped forward to create a privately-funded monument to the beloved state symbol. 

This is the new Old Man of the Mountain Profiler Plaza. Sculptors created a series of steel profiler rods which point toward the cliff where the Old Man once stood (hung out?). By standing on a paver that corresponds to your height, and squinting along the profiler arm, you can see how the Old Man of the Mountain used to look. It's very ingenious.

This is the top of one of the arms and the bumps that create the profile.

Here is the image seen as I squint along the profiler arm. 

One of the four stabilizer rods that fell with the stone on May 3, 2003. For the past 100 years the profile had been anchored in place with many of these cables.

Franconia Notch from Profile Lake.

La Flambee des Couleurs

Today is our last full day in Canada and what better way to acknowledge our excellent adventure in Canada then to go climb a mountain. Magog, where we are staying, and Orford, the adjoining town, are a sort of resort area and are located adjacent to the Par National du Mont-Orford, a provincial park of Quebec. 

We kind of got a late start and didn't arrive in the park until noon. We stopped at the Visitor Center to find out about trails and were directed to an intermediate trail, 11 km in length, called Mount-Chauve. Mount-Chauve is one of the three mountains in the park, but not the tallest one. This trail did take us to the top, at nearly 600 meters high (about 2 thousand feet), where the peak was bare.

Driving through the park to the trailhead we passed several lakes. The air was very hazy, but the colors shown through.

For the first kilometer the path follows a bike trail. Look at that gorgeous yellow/orange tree above Frederick.

As we ascended the mountain, there were a number of viewpoints.

You can see that the air is still quite hazy.

The colors up close are dramatic; I'm afraid the distant trees suffer from the haze.

I thought this rock, with a top-knot of ferns, was charming. Tall tree trunks with the tops of the trees trying to reach the sun. 

Higher and higher we go.

A view to the east.

That's a farm in the middle of the picture.

Almost to the top.

We made it! And time to eat our lunch; it was about 3  pm.

There were 360 degree views.

There was a sort of viewing platform at the top.

Still hazy to the west.

The north.

The south.

Nice red tree to cheer us on the way down.

The shelter at the trailhead. The Park is celebrating the fall season.

One final view at Park Orford with the sun shining on the fall colors of Canada.

Colors of fall

Last night there were three Airstreams, at our campground, a Bambi (16ft.), our friends, David and Sandra, from Cohasset, MA (Remember them from a previous blog? They are the ones who are traveling in an Airstream with two kayaks on their truck. This is the third time we have been in the same campground in the past three weeks), and us. This morning, as Frederick was doing the outside work for getting us ready to move, the man from the Bambi came over to chat. They have had the Bambi for about six months and they started out small just to see how they liked camping in an Airstream. Now they are thinking of up-sizing and are working with CanAm, in London, Ontario, where we got our Airstream; they are from Ontario. Frederick and he talked about towing vehicles, Airstream sizes, and hitches. The man is a retired mechanical engineer and he was fascinated by our Hensley hitch.

Then, just before we pulled out, we went over to say hello to David and Sandra. We didn't think we would be that long, but we ended up talking for about an hour. Sandra and I talked about inside stuff, and David and Frederick talked about generators, full-timing, and hitches. There is something about men and their hitches that seems to generate endless fascination!

Our traveling from Quebec City to Magog was extraordinary. The 100 mile stretch on highway #20 that we travelled, between Quebec City and Montreal, was aflame with color. Mile after mile the trees were in their full fall glory.

This tree was in our campground, in an area that they are preparing for additional sites, hence the presence of the front loader that has been moving gravel around. This tree has been giving us pleasure all week.

On route #20 we stopped at this Rest Area (Halte Routiere).

Before we got to Montreal, we turned south, toward Vermont. The terrain is a lot more hilly and I think there are not so many red and sugar maples. We tried to get some of this beautiful landscape, but taking pictures from a moving car does not do justice to their vibrant colors.

Whole mountainsides are full of color.

Tonight we are about thirty miles from the Vermont border. We are here in Magog for two days before we re-enter the U.S. 

Meeting with the gods

Once again we find ourselves in the position of not having enough time to do everything we want to do in a place we are visiting. Quebec has some great museums so today we went back into the City to visit the Museum of Civilization (Les Musees de la Civilisation). We had also planned on visiting the Musee de l'Amerique Francophone and the Musee de la Place Royal, but we only had time for the Museum of Civilization because it had some great exhibits. One of their permanent exhibits is, This Is Our Story, First Nations and Inuit in the 21st Century, but when we arrived we learned that the museum had a fire two weeks ago. We were happy to learn that there had been no damage to the collection, but were unhappy to learn that a number of exhibition halls were closed down as a result, including the First Nations exhibit. 

However, we were thrilled to learn that the original Treaty of Paris (1763), ending the 7 Years War and transferring control of Canada from the French to the British, and validating documents were on a special two week exhibit, the first time the Treaty has ever been in North America.  We spent a bit of time waiting in line because they only let so many people at a time in to see the documents and supporting exhibit materials. Out in the waiting area there were some exhibits from the French and British battles for control of Canada, including the deciding battle on the Plains of Abraham between Wolfe and Montcalm.

This is a diorama of the Plains of Abraham battle. Fought on September13, 1759, and lasting only 20 minutes, the British were disciplined and surprised the French who fought a sloppy battle. Both Wolfe and Montcalm died as a result of woulds received during the battle. 

There were also these examples of the uniforms worn by the British, red, on the left and grey for the French, on the right. It also mentioned that the soldiers abandoned their swords in favor of the hatchet which made it easier to move through the woods in North America.

That is it for the pictures of this exhibit. The museum police came up to me to tell me that no photos are allowed in the exhibition. There was also low light because of the fragility of the paper and ink. It took several years to negotiate the treaty and all those official negotiating and validating documents were included in the exhibition. The treaty was signed by Great Britain, France and Spain. The 7 Years War was costly to all the countries involved and in an effort to replenish their treasury, Great Britain increased taxes on their North American colonies, including a tax on tea. We all know what this action led to!

After viewing the Treaty of Paris, we visited the Quebec province historical exhibit and learned about the landmark events that shaped Quebec up to the current time. 

This is a replica of the "Abitation" built by Champlain. Champlain choose the site of Quebec City, ("Quebec" is a Mi'kmaq word meaning "narrow", an allusion to the narrowing of the river at this point) because it is a natural headland and can control navigation to the Great Lakes.  

The French forged strong alliances with the Amerindians. From the Indians the French learned about the canoe, snowshoes and freedom of movement. The Aboriginals began using the cooking pot, the rifle and some converted to Christianity.

We ate out lunch across the street, on a green patch right next to this cruise liner docked for a visit to Quebec City.

We had to get back to the Museum for a 2pm guided tour of their special exhibition, Master of Olympus, Treasures from the Greco-Roman Collections of Berlin. 

We could't take any pictures of the exhibition, there is a beautiful Exhibition Catalog which I almost bought (but where would I keep it?), but we were able to take a picture, outside the exhibit, with our tour guide, Helene.

However, I did manage to take this picture of Frederick standing at the entrance to the exhibit. The white blob on the edge of the sign above, is actually an enormous stone foot that was once a part of a huge seated statue of a god. This is the left foot; the right foot is in the British Museum. At one time there were numerous statues with just the hands and feet of stone; the rest of the body was made of wood and was draped with cloth.

One of the items that our guide mentioned is that careful study with modern techniques have determined that these Greek statues, which now appear to be of white marble or other stone, were once painted with bright colors made from natural dyes. I'm not exactly sure why this is a sculpture of an Indian, but it is an example of the colorful decorations scholars now believe covered the statues of the gods in ancient Greece and Rome.

This picture, and the one above, are forbidden pictures that I took against the rules. 

It was a fascinating exhibit and in addition to the statues, we were also witness to a visit by the First Lady of Germany (the domestic partner of Jochim Gauck, President of Germany, [he is legally married to someone else]), Daniela Schadt, who was visiting the exhibit with a whole retinue of people, many of whom looked like security people. 

We are currently staying at a campground that is located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, across the river from Quebec City. Every time we have visited the City we have had to cross, and recross, this bridge on the right. The bridge with all the trusses is a railroad bridge. 

This is another picture of the highway bridge. 

Food for the soul

The National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec is currently housed in two Pavilions, or buildings, with a third very much under construction. There are lots of construction workers and they all park in the public parking lot of the Museum, leaving no room for visitors. Fortunately, there is street parking, and since we arrived shortly before the Museum opened, we found a parking place just at the front doors and we were the first visitors of the day. 

Front entrance to the Museum located in a sort of connecting building between the current two pavilions. 

I really liked the way the Museum is organized. In the traditional museum building, the original 1933 Gerard-Morisset building, with the grand entrance with pillars (currently under renovation), there were two floors with current exhibitions. A third floor is currently closed for the installation of three  new exhibits. The main level floor had two exhibition room, one showing Figurative and Abstract Art in Quebec: 1940 - 1960, and another featuring the work of Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002). This is where we went first.

Riopell is one of Quebec's most famous artists, including the impressive fresco L'Hommage a Rosa Luxemburg.

Another impressive canvas dating from the 1960's.

The other exhibition on the first floor was Figurative and Abstract Art in Quebec: 1940 - 1960. This work is by Alfred Pellan, Secret Conversation.

Other works are by Borduas, Dallaire, Leduc, Roussil, and many other artists who marked this period of artistic creation in Quebec.

There was sculpture, enamel work and furniture.

On the stairway up to the 2ed floor, for the next three exhibitions, was this display of glasswork. The center piece was particularly stunning. 

Five Muses by Alfred Laliberte, on the 2ed floor landing. A bronze casting is in Montreal

The three exhibitions on the 2ed floor were highlighted, for me, by the 22 Inuit Art pieces on display from the Museum's Brousseau Inuit Art Collection. Collector Raymond Brousseau collected 2,635 pieces from every region of Nunavut. 

"The works in this exhibit reflect the deep interrelation of humans and wildlife in the Arctic over thousands of years. Inuit artists are well known for their ability to capture the spirit of an animal in stone, ivory and bone; this understanding of Arctic wildlife is rooted in their intimate knowledge of the land and the respectful relationship they have with animals of the northern sea, sky and tundra. For millennia, Inuit survival depended on their ability to responsibly harvest whales, seals, caribou and other Arctic wildlife, which provided not only food but also oil for lamps and skins for warm and waterproof clothing. While the Arctic has modernized over the last century Inuit still rely on the traditional knowledge passed down through generations to closely observe animal migrations, ocean life and even weather patterns. This intimate knowledge of their ecosystem enables them to provide for their families by continuing to harvest healthy "country food" (sustainable local Arctic food sources such as caribou, seal, blueberries, fish and fowl). Furthermore, many Inuit now also apply the considerable powers of observation and practiced patience honed through hunting to the creation of artwork depicting the wildlife with which they share their vast polar territory. 

This exhibition features more than twenty works from the Brousseau Inuit Art Collection, created by artists from communities across Nunavut and Nunavik (Arctic Quebec) between 1970 and 2006. The artworks in this selection demonstrate the artists' keen observation skills and ingenuity with abstraction, while highlighting the centrality of Arctic wildlife to Inuit culture, traditional knowledge, livelihood and well-being."

This piece, the other side is below, was carved from whale bone, a very difficult medium to use.

Incredible details that reflect their life.

This piece shows a mother and child (in the mother's hood) protected by a shaman. 

A woman soon to give birth.

A fanciful interpretation of a shaman hunting/riding a caribou (which the description said would never happen). There is a fair amount of symbolism in the artwork.

A work carved from a walrus skull.

Detail.

A sculpture that captures the weightlessness of a polar bear in water.

A whimsical interpretation of a walrus.

A Narwal whale.

Another fanciful animal interpretation.

The other two exhibits focused on historic perspectives of the development of art in Quebec. The first was called Tradition and Modernity in Quebec. The works in the exhibition echo the birth of modern art and the desire to preserve traditional values and illustrates two artistic realities that clashed between 1860 and 1945.

Jacques Cartier Meeting the Indians at Stadacona, 1535, by Marc-Aurele de Foy Suzor-Cote, painted in 1907.

A more modern interpretation of traditional culture and values.

Landscape.

The importance of nature with a focus on one tree.

A Montreal city street scene from the 1940s.

The other exhibition highlights the key role Quebec City played, artistically speaking, during three significant periods: the French colony (1608-1763); the British holding (1763-1867); and, the Old Capital of early Confederation (1867-1900).

During the French colonial period, religious art dominated.

We then moved to the other building which, it turns out, used to serve as the provincial prison. Standing on the Plains of Abraham, the building was in operation for more than one hundred years (1863-1970). After the jail's closing, the building was transformed into a youth hostel for one season, in the summer of 1971, and was then completely abandoned. The Museum's decision to incorporate it into their complex of buildings in 1987 put an end to its period of disuse. 

Today cell block six, where in the beginning those awaiting the death sentence were housed, has been preserved.

This is cell block eleven, originally used for vagrants, it has also been preserved as part of the Museum.

There are four galleries in this pavilion, each devoted to four different artists, considered the major figures of modern art: Jean Paul Lemieux, Alfred Pellan, Fernand Leduc and Jean-Paul Riopelle. 

Jean-Paul Riopelle was a multi-faceted artist - sculpture and paintings.

Riopelle.

 Frederick read that Riopelle exhibited with Jackson Pollock.

Fernand Leduc was part of the great movements of abstract art in 20th -century Quebec.

He was all about color and geometric rigor.

Alfred Pellan explored a great many art forms imbued with Surrealism.

These works are very textural.

I loved his whimsical figures.

The fourth artist in Jean Paul Lemieux who explored a world of space and silence. This is a self-portrait with youth and adolescence reflected in the picture.

His vision of anguish in the contemporary age.

His remembrance of his childhood summers.

A snowy city with the suburbs in the foreground.

The Express Train.

Lemieux.

Lemieux.

Lemieux.

We ate our lunch on the Plains of Abraham, know as the location of the Wolfe -  Montcalm battle for the control of Canada. 

There was one track for runners and one for roller-bladers.

We then headed for the Levis Forts National Historic Site, about 15 miles from our campground. It is one of three British detached forts built 1865-72 on the heights of Pointe-Levy, Fort No. 1, was meant to protect the city of Quebec from an invasion by the United States following the American Civil War. Fortunately, the Treaty of Washington, between the U.S. and Englnad, signed in 1871, settled the disagreements between the two countries. Consequently none of the forts ever housed a garrison.

Unfortunately for us, the fort is only open for visitors during the summer. The gate was locked.

We did take a walk around the fort and saw the walls and fortifications.

Outside the fort.

Beautiful tree across the street from the fort.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at the Parc des Chutes-de-la-Chaudiere, about two miles from our campground. 

You can view the 116 ft. Chaudiere Falls from a suspension bridge hanging 76 feet above the river.

Selfie at the falls.