Driving New Brunswick – a road trip
through Atlantic Canada, part I
Anna Maria Espsäter explores the
little-known Maritime province of New Brunswick in eastern Canada, in this
two-part mini road trip feature.
Taking
a road trip across one of Canada’s smallest provinces arguably doesn’t qualify
as an epic journey, but luckily there’s no need to cover huge distances to get
closer to nature and enjoy the scenery here. New Brunswick, one of Canada’s
three Maritime Provinces, tucked away in-between Nova Scotia, Québec and Maine,
in the U.S., was to prove a positive revelation in terms of options for scenic
drives, with plenty of out of the ordinary sights.
Clambering
off the night train from neighbouring Québec, in the small town of Campbellton,
me and my driver went in search of our hire car and got ready to set off.
Campbellton is in the far north of the province, right on Chaleur Bay, an inlet
of the Gulf of St Lawrence and the early morning had provided some splendid
waterfront views from the train. Finding our car, we realised much to our
surprise, that it had Québecois number plates. This turned out to be very
useful indeed, as we could pretty much drive in any way we liked and everyone
just assumed it to be normal Québec-style driving.
Apart
from aiming to check out as much of New Brunswick as possible during our 4-day
journey, I was on a separate mission to research Atlantic Canadian handicrafts,
focusing on woodcraft – a mission that was to take us on some interesting, if
scenic, detours and backroads. But before the backroads it was time to hit the
highway and soon we were cruising at a leisurely speed heading south. The landscape
alternated between picturesque fields and quiet countryside, followed by vast,
hilly forested areas. Communities were few and far between, but suddenly I did
a double-take – the house we just drove past was no. 29809! Admittedly this was
a very long highway, but clearly there were more houses here than met the eye.
The
vistas offered plenty of pretty distractions, but more surprisingly, throughout
New Brunswick there was excellent entertainment to be found in the simple signs
along the roads. How about the supermarket sign advertising “24 hours – bananas
only”? Poor you, if you came to buy milk. The place names as well, had me
chuckling and making up stories as we drove – went right past Glenlivet without
a sniff of a whisky and didn’t even dare imagine how one place got the name
Adams Gulch.
New
Brunswick is the only province in Canada to be constitutionally bilingual, English
and French (the remaining provinces have one or the other as main language) and
in the northwest French rules the day, but everyone is happy to switch between
the two languages. After a good few hours we came out of the forests and found
the next sizeable place after Campbellton, the town of Edmundston, in Madawaska
County. French-speaking Edmundston is
waving distance from Québec and Maine, situated on the Saint John River and the
Trans-Canada Highway – both of which we would be following the next day.
After
a hearty breakfast we set off, again in lovely sunshine, towards the first stop
of the day, the not particularly modestly, but entirely accurately, named Grand
Falls on the Saint John River (www.grandfallsnb.com).
It was springtime and the very best time to see masses of water drop down
falls, whether steep or gentle, and we had a good amble round to look (and
listen) to them. Then of course we had to find a loo. I call it "the waterfall
effect"…
Suitably
relieved we continued south, all the while following the border with Maine,
marked by Saint John River (it took me awhile to finally grasp what all those
signs to “ME” were referring to), through “potato country”. Nearby
Florenceville – Bristol, known as French Fry Capital of the World, is the
headquarters of McCain’s potato chips and other potato products – they even
have a Potato World Museum, for those interested in finding out more about
spuds (www.potatoworld.ca). The more I
saw of New Brunswick, the higher up on the quirkiness scale it went…
The
province has a number of unusual sights, not just of the potato kind – it’s
also well-known for having the world’s longest covered bridge and an abundance
of such bridges in general. There are a number of “exotic explanations” for
why exactly these were covered – one of my favourites being that it gave people
some privacy to smooch. Our next stop was Hartland (www.town.hartland.nb.ca), home to
said long bridge and apparently suffering from something of a loitering problem
– there was a nice-looking picnic area overlooking the bridge, bizarrely with a
large sign proclaiming “No loitering” (best to sit down to that picnic straight
away, or you will be in trouble), and the same sign could be found outside the
public library. We did our utmost not to loiter while checking out the 1,282-foot
bridge, dating back to 1901 and covered since 1922, before hopping in the car
and driving across it. There was only one lane and no traffic lights, but
luckily drivers here are infinitely more polite (and rather fewer and further
between) than in London.
Next
up on the agenda was some handicraft sight-seeing in the villages of
Jacksonville and Grafton. Signposting often leaves something to be desired, but
the locals are very helpful. The elderly gentleman we approached told us that
“Jacksonville was 8 clicks away and then turn left”. Hmmm… We must eventually
have gone “8 clicks”, since we found Jacksonville and father and son enterprise
Hayward Creations, selling fabulous wooden furniture, sadly much too large to take
home, but I did get a look at what purports to be the largest wooden burl in
New Brunswick. Pleased to say the local maple syrup was much easier to pack (https://woodstocknbtourism.com/art/hayward-creations/).
Sight-seeing
and woodcraft investigating can be thirsty work, but luckily one place combines
arts and crafts with refreshments. O’Toole Gallery and Celtic Fox café, in
Grafton, run and built by Mr O’Toole himself, is a lovely place to stop for a
coffee or lunch and check out the varied items on display in the café, on the
lawn and of course in the gallery (www.otoolegallery.com).
Kerry O’Toole creates beautiful furniture, sculptures and carvings in his
studio on the premises and he also works with a variety of other artisans whose
creations are for sale in the gallery. Winding down at the end of the day, I
concluded that this road trip was unlike any other – wild scenery, grand
waterfalls, even a place paying homage to the humble potato. Surely this was an
epic journey after all?
To
be continued in part II…
Further
information:
Getting
there:
There
are direct flights from the UK to nearby provinces Nova Scotia and Québec with
connecting flights to one of New Brunswick’s four regional airports. It’s also
possible to arrive by coach or rail from either neighbouring province.
Where
to stay:
Covered
Bridge Bed and Breakfast, 2651 Route 103, Somerville nr Hartland, T:
506-324-0939, www.coveredbridgebandb.ca.
100-year old home overlooking the world’s longest covered bridge and the Saint
John River.
Coté’s
Bed and Breakfast/Inn, 575 Broadway Blvd., West Grand Falls, T: 506-473-415, www.cotebb-inn.com. Comfy inn near the
Grand Falls waterfalls. Activity breaks and packages available.
Auberge
Les Jardins Inn, 60 Principale Street, Edmundston, T : 506-739-5514, www.lesjardinsinn.com.
4,5-star country inn with gourmet French cuisine.
By
Anna Maria Espsäter
First
UK Rights
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