35 km, 2h30min
Last night, we stayed at the Stacey House bed and breakfast in Louisbourg. Becky was delighted to discover that the shared-bath had a huge soaker tub as her muscles desperately needed a soak. We were a bit uncertain of our welcome at first as the young person welcoming us was more interested in her boyfriend than us. Becky was wondering what breakfast would be like. In the morning we met the owner of the B&B and she put out an amazing spread. There was a wonderful fruit salad with fresh fruit and the best omelet we’ve ever had, with wonderful fresh vegetables. A welcome change from Newfoundland and Labrador!
After breakfast we were headed to L’Ardoise to meet up with our friend Tanya, who was home from Ottawa to visit family and attend a wedding. When we figured out that we would be on Cape Breton at the same time, she invited us to join her at the Ceilidh after the wedding and to stay with her parents.
In the discussion over breakfast Becky mentioned that we had an appointment to attend a ceilidh in L’Ardoise. Becky used Scott’s pronunciation of L-are-dwa, instead of her pronunciation of L-are-doose. When Becky said it was near St. Peters they said “Oh! Lord-ways!”. So much for Scott’s insistent correction… The other couple at the B&B are from Quebec, so they corrected Scott’s French pronunciation to be “L-are-dwa-z”, as the s is not silent. Along the Acadian coast of Cape Breton many of the French names have been anglicized in various interesting ways (Framboise is Fram-boys).
In the morning, Scott realized that we didn’t do our homework properly yesterday and our planned route from Louisbourg to L’Ardoise is actually 10 km further than going all the way back to Sydney (oops!). Either way, it is well over 100km and a little too far for us with loaded bikes if we want to function at the other end. Scott called Tanya’s parents (Nancy and Gerry) and asked if they didn’t mind coming out to get our bags at some point, such that we could make it in time for dinner and the ceilidh. It turns out they have a pickup truck, so they came to pick us up instead. Thanks!
The ride on the fleur-de-lies trail was quite pleasant. The road is in terrible shape from a car perspective, but was pretty good for our bikes. The rain mostly held off, with only the occasional drizzling now and then. At 2 pm Scott stopped to pick up a message on the phone. Tanya had called because her parents were looking for us. We were not expecting them until 4 pm, so we were quite a bit further out than anticipated at our earlier call. Funnily enough, as Scott was talking to Tanya about where we were, Nancy and Gerry pulled up – we were found.
We had a wonderful lasagna supper thanks to Gerry and afterwards joined Nancy and Gerry for a trip out to the St. Peter’s yacht club to see the annual parade of boats. This year, the there were not very many boats, so the parade was not particularly interesting, but we had a great visit with Tanya’s brother Jay and his wife Michelle. Jay and Michelle are from PEI and they sailed their boat (a 30 foot Benetteau) over to St. Peters to visit. They were on a 3 week sailing vacation. Becky was quite envious of their ability to sail to so many places. What a wonderful place to own a sailboat!
After the parade of lights we headed over to the ceilidh to arrive just in time to see the groom leave (the bride was already in the car). The ceilidh had pretty much ended and things were being cleaned up, but we did get to enjoy some music from a few of the people remaining.
Download GPS Track in GPX format
It was wonderful to meet you both, and we will be watching your travels. We were thinking of you yestersday as it rained so hard at times. We checked out your link to your PEI vacation last year. There is a photo of Becky on the trail in St.Peters, PEI which was taken immediately in front of our house. We can just see the trees from our front yard in the photo! It is such a small world. Safe travels.
Michelle and Jay
joe remember mom dads 40th annerversary sept 2