On our way to the east coast, we stopped in Rimouski, Quebec. It took quite a long time to find a room to stay. It turned out Rimouski was hosting a big hockey tournament. And in Quebec there is another religion that competes with art. That, of course is hockey. The town was filled with hockey fans and parents of hockey players. The hotel was jammed. There were hockey players everywhere. It seemed like we got the last room in the town and naturally it did not come cheap.The players of course are hockey gods.
We stayed at the Hotel Rimouski. It was a large and nice hotel. The hotel restaurant was very large and completely filled with people who seemed to be having a great time. There is no doubt about it—Hockey is popular in Rimouski.
Pointe-Au-Père Lighthouse
In the morning in Rimouski, Quebec we headed right out to the local lighthouse on the edge of town. We saw it yesterday from a distance. Today we would get a much better look. I admit I got a bit ridiculous about insisting on seeing the lighthouses. For one thing there are 40 lighthouses in Quebec and many of them are on islands. No matter how much we meandered we would not see them all. And I always thought I was missing the best one.
Today in Rimouski Quebec I saw one of the most beautiful lighthouses I have ever seen. It was a magnificently sculptured lighthouse that stood out against a deep blue sky with distant fog in the background. This was the 3rd Pointe-Au-Père Lighthouse that was built in 1909 very near the edge of the city of Rimouski in Pointe-au-Père.
It is the second tallest lighthouse in eastern Canada and consists of 8 concrete buttresses that reminded me of the great Cathedral of Paris—i.e., Notre-Dame de Paris. Often it is just called Notre Dame. It was recently renovated after the great fire a couple of years ago. The buttresses here, unlike those in Paris, support a slender structure. Notre Dame de Rimouski perhaps.
The lighthouse is 108 feet (33 m) tall and its lines are pure. It looked very modern. Sleek, jutting out into the sky like a sliver of white and the original was replaced with an electronic light in 1975. The grounds have been declared a national historic site.
Did you know that the maritime regions of Québec are home to over 40 lighthouses? A few are still operational, but most have been replaced by more modern instrumentation. Witnesses to a rich maritime tradition, these lighthouses, which were once navigational aids, now have a new purpose: to remind us of our past. Each lighthouse has its own personality, history and legends, and every one of them is worth a visit!
And I saw so few. What a dreadful pity. Even though we meandered!