Canadian Lourdes And Our Only Rain

After our visit to the Wendeka village, we decided to head up north of Quebec.

First stop was La Chute De Montmorency. I live in Flanders, where we have no waterfall at all. Our southern neighbour Wallonia has a fall and it's one of the most popular tourist attractions of the region. I went to see it last year for the very first time and it took me 5 minutes to actually find it. Right in front of me!!!! That's how small it is.

I have seen falls before. In Costa Rica and in Yosemite, California. But this Montmorency fall was something else. It was huge. I was impressed. We got really wet just walking close to it and I loved the sound the falling water made. I was soaked, getting the closest possible, but I didn't care. Until it started raining, thundering, pouring down from the sky. Both my sis and I ended up having a cold the next day. It actually started to storm when we were about to cross the bridge over the fall. Pretty scary, but fun! We didn't stay that long there and headed for safer place where God would protect us: St Anne De Beaupré.

Now, in the Province of Quebec, almost 80 percent of the villages are called Saint.. something. It's hilarious. Think of a French name, put the word Saint in front of it, and it's a village in Quebec. Honestly.

Now in St Anne de Beaupré, there was this church where people seemed to go pray to when they were sick. And guess what? Some of them got cured after the praying and the place became a huge pilgrimage resort. Some guidebooks talk about the Canadian Lourdes, but -although I've never been in Lourdes - I really think it's Lourdes ultra light. Sure the church is awesome (really!) and you see the crutches of cured crippled people hang on the wall when you go in. THere's lots of souvenir shops and you can buy incredibly expensive candles and spring water. You even have a restaurant in the shape of a church and there's a Imax-like movie theater about the life of jezus. But the place itself is a bore really. The only thing i really liked was a path on the hill nex to the church that reprented the cross walk of Jezus. I had totally forgotten about that part of the bible, although i have seen The LAst Temptation Of Christ, but I liked the idea of doing that walk myself. Without a cross of course.