Visiting the Marine Museum in Rimouski, Quebec

One of my favorite parts of Canada is the rugged St. Lawrence River coast.

A few years ago, Terry and I first traveled in this region en route to Matane, Quebec, where his family used to spend summer vacations when he was a child.

His grandfather was the chauffeur of Mrs. Molsen, matriarch of the well-known brewing family, and every summer Mrs. Molsen would bring her household staff with her to her summer home in Matis Beach, near Matane.

Last spring, while doing his research for our Prince Edward Island trip, Terry read about a marine museum at Pointe-au-Pere, near Rimouski, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence.

We stopped in to see it on our way home from PEI in late May, but the museum wasn't open yet for the season.

We decided to return on this trip - even through it was a further 3-hour drive east of Quebec City.

I'm glad we did!

(This is the view through the window from the lighthouse keeper's former home.)

We were able to climb the 120 stairs to the top of the lighthouse...

(This is the light at the top of the lighthouse.)

We toured the submarine, discovering interesting facts about a submariner's life.

It's always astounding to see how cramped everything is on a submarine. The crew of this sub - back in the day - was over 40 sailors!

(You'd have to be a "people person" to work on a sub!)

A submarine has a number of watertight compartments. We crawled through their round doorways on our tour.

I learned that, on a submarine, an attempt is made to follow the natural rhythms of life on land.

For example, when the moon and stars are visible in the sky, a pale red light illuminates everything inside a submarine.

If there is no moon visible, all lights are turned off - except for the lights on the instrument panels.


The audio tour was very interesting!

A third building at the marine museum tells the story of a 1914 shipwreck that occurred not far away.

Sitting in a ship-themed theater, we watched a movie about the shipwreck. It was interesting - but also very sad...

To break the melancholy, the museum had a few fun surprises... Like seeing ourselves on screen, before the film...

Also in several of the museum's video displays.

Definitely fun place to visit!