At Mont Joli without a car

Visiting the Gaspésie requires planning ahead. We booked the accommodation, got that right, but should have checked that its facilities were as advertised. On Tuesday morning we discovered that the promising on-site restaurant at Mon Joli Motel is actually closed this summer, because the management can't find enough staff. No matter, the restaurant at Le Gaspésiana, competently managed by Mme. Geneviève Raîche and upgraded in recent years from a mere motel to the status of a proper hotel offering une panoplie de services pour votre plus grand confort, was open and accessible a short walk away, so we breakfasted there for the duration of our stay. The restaurant has been thoroughly renovated, with panels in place to keep guests socially distanced. Here's a picture of us sitting at a window table there on our last morning in Ste.-Flavie:

We made a slow start to the Tuesday, strolling down the road to the Gagnons' Centre d'Art to see Le Grand Rassemblement once more, which includes some wooden rafts. 

My insides were slightly upset that morning, so I spent an hour or so lying down in our room, not eager to search for any lunch yet. Eventually I was ready to walk back up the hill to the airport with Chris so that we could pick up the car I'd booked online, and start exploring La Mitis, the local region. Unfortunately again, the car was not forthcoming: nobody was at the rental office and we hadn't received a message from the rental company either, although they swore they'd sent one. They're based in Rimouski, half an hour's drive away, so we couldn't walk there and complain. We had a none-too-productive phone conversation with their rep during which he asked for a photo of Chris' credit card to be sent. Chris was not willing to do that! He sent a message of complaint.

Well, this is not a bad place to be stuck, we decided. Mont Joli might be worth seeing too. We could get there on foot.

We could avoid traffic on Rte 132 by following the Rte de l'Aéroport and the Blvd Jacques-Cartier in a straight line towards the the imposing church on the hilltop, Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes. By this time I was beginning to recover my appetite for lunch, but there wasn't a restaurant to be found — sadly the places that used to be there have all gone out of business — and just past the Avenue du Sanatorium, when we were about to give up and go back to a Tim Horton's we'd caught sight of in the distance, I thought of asking for help from a shopkeeper. I went into an artists' supply store also selling pottery, Céramiques de la Mitis, where a nice lady recommended we either call a taxi (she kindly gave us the phone number) or walk for 20 minutes (it actually took us five minutes — drivers rarely estimate a walking distance correctly) down the Av. du Sanatorium towards a pub on Blvd Gaboury, called Le Frédérike. Chris used the Maps app on his phone for reinforcement. It was too late for lunch, too early for supper; we lingered there for a satisfying mid-afternoon meal; I ordered spaghetti with meat sauce from a menu with plenty of choice. The meat sauce had a good quantity of chopped carrots, onions and herbs in it, which I appreciated. The Olympic Games were showing on the TV screens, few people sat at other tables and a heavy rain storm went through while we ate.

A la croisée des chemins

The once lively town of Mont Joli now looks run-down. It seems to offer multiple car maintenance services but not a lot for tourists, apart from its murals, collectively called Les Murmures de la Ville, which are wonderful. The Ville de Mont-Joli lists 36 stopping points at which you can admire its works of art or heritage buildings.

Mont-Joli vous propose d'explorer ses rues, de rencontrer ses citoyens, de découvrir les richesses de son patrimoine, d'admirer les couleurs qui habillent ses murs ...

We didn't encounter many citoyens, but I took pictures of some of the captivating artwork. The painting below is by Marcel Gagnon's son, Guillaume Gagnon.

Le Château, phare de Mont-Joli

L'evolution des communications à travers les âges

La médecine de campagne

Hommage à nos héros d'hier et d'aujourd'hui

Then we walked the 4.4 km back to Sainte-Flavie and for future reference we note that there's no grocery store here, although we picked up some small snacks (they sell packaged drinks and locally-made nougat, baguettes, honey products, nuts, salad veg, sauces, soaps, T-shirts) at the Épicerie & Boutique annexed to Le Ketch. The rain storm cleared the air, giving way to a lovely evening and another limpid sunset across the water.