Trois-Rivières – 1 October 2025

Last night, our ship was delayed transiting through locks 6 and 7 which resulted in our schedule being changed this morning. The ship’s arrival time at Trois-Rivières has been changed from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM. This morning, I am just enjoying the sights along the shore. Compared to yesterday, much more populated and light industry. This city is halfway from Montreal and halfway from Quebec City along the St. Lawrence Seaway.

This city was first named by the French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1535, For thousands of years, the Algonquin and Abenaki peoples camped, gathered food, and traded here in the summer months. Based on the temperature this morning, it isn’t a place I would camp in the winter. Much cooler than yesterday – 41 degrees at sunrise rising to 59 later today with lots of sunshine!

A bit more history since the word Ursuline is on many places in this city. Why? Ursuline nuns first arrived at the Trois-Rivières settlement in 1697, where they learned the indigenous peoples language and then founded the first school. These nuns also helped local missionaries to Christianize the local indigenous people. A school started in Quebec City by the Ursuline nuns is the oldest educational institution for women in North America.

My excursion this morning is to Bartiscan Park…a provincial park not too far from the city – 30 minutes. Our tour guide describes some of the history of the area. There was a fire in the early 1900’s where most of the wooden buildings in town were destroyed. Now, most of the buildings are made of stone or brick. Driving through the downtown reveals several old buildings that survived and the town square with monuments memorializing their history.

At the park, we are provided with an overview of our hike.

The park is along the Bartiscan River with one of the oldest Hyrdro electric dams built during the British empire (yep, the British were here at one time!) Built in 1897, this hydro electric dam did the job until they had to build another one to handle the need in 1926. The 1926 one operated until 2020 when the amount of power required for the population in the winter could not be handled by dam. Now, because of the demand for electricity, another one is being built further North in Quebec. Yep, progress requires electricity – solar won’t work here.

The colors are beautiful, the hike is easy, the views are spectacular. A dam built by the local beavers, the dam gushing water into the beautiful river, and let me repeat the fall colors!

The afternoon excursion is to the oldest church in the area built in 1720. https://www.sanctuaire-ndc.ca/en/about_us/visitez-le-petit-sanctuaire-en-3d/

When this church became too small, they built a new church. Because of two miracles at the original church while they were building the new church, thus, it has become a pilgrim location in the province. It has very beautiful stained glass windows. We were not provided with more information and only had 10 minutes to walk around, The stained glass is memorable for the amount of windows and the colors made more vibrant with the sun.

This excursion is combining religion with quirky Canadian known product – Maple Syrup. We travel to something they keep calling the “Sugar Shack.” https://www.cabaneasucreduboise.com

A man who has been growing maple trees and harvesting maple syrup for over 35 years takes us into his ‘sugar shack’ to explain how maple syrup is harvested. Quite interesting and unique! We get to taste his maple syrup and experience something called maple toffee. A product created by freezing maple syrup and then giving you a stick to make something like a sucker of toffee. Quite tasty! A woman sitting across from us tells us here mother, who grew up in Quebec, use to make this for her as a child (70 years ago!). What a beautiful memory for her and now we have one.