Trois-Rivieres, the Unexpected First Port

 We don't know how the town was going to react to us being here at the beginning of October, when we were supposed to stop for one day, but it certainly hasn't been anything special for us to be here a week early and for an overnight.

Trois-Rivieres seems like a typical small town. It was originally settled in the early 1600s as a trading post with the Algonquin first nations, and through its history became an iron-working and pulp-producing centre. There are museums for both in and around town, as well as an Ursuline Monastery established in 1634, the Old Prison, and a beautiful cathedral.

We didn't have a tour booked, and we're not sure if they were able to switch the original tours to the earlier date, so we spent a couple of hours each morning just wandering around town. Here are some of the highlights:

The main entrance to the Ursuline Monastery church

The Cathedral

Every window is stained glass. The interior 
of the cathedral is quite beautiful.

This community is across the St. Lawrence from Trois-Rivieres

The Military Museum - Larry found the
tanks very interesting

The Old Prison and outbuildings

A whimsical bench at Champlain Park

There are lots of pretty houses here with lovely
window shapes and stained glass. Many are two-
and three level with outside spiral staircases
to reach the upper levels.

It seems that the largest employers here are the governments - municipal and provincial - the pulp and paper mills that are still running, and Canada Post. There's a large postal building in the centre of town.

While we were at lunch today (Saturday), we found out that our new itinerary has been finalized. We won't be visiting Newfoundland at all, just Quebec, and will just barely reach the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. See the Our Itinerary sidebar to see the changes. We'll all just have to make the best of it, and hope Seabourn does the originally planned cruise again when there's no hurricane bearing down on us.

This afternoon we plan to take a few more photos around the ship for the next post. This evening is our 'formal night' and first opportunity to see the singers and dancers of the ensemble in a show based on Tim Rice's work. Last night the show was presented by Suzanne O Davis, a singer/pianist whose show was based around Carole King's Tapestry album. She was very good!