Île d'Orléans

The Garden of Québec

Île d'Orléans is a large island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, just east of Québec City. Early French settlers were attracted to the island because of its rich soil and abundance of wild grapes. In fact, Jacques Cartier named the island Île de Bascuz (Bacchus) because of those grapes. The island was later renamed after some forgotten son of some forgotten French king, as was common back then, and the new name stuck.

Île d'Orléans is roughly twice the size of Manhattan, but slightly less populous (6,711) and with fewer traffic lights (1). Today, the island is known as "The Garden of Quebec" because of the numerous farms that produce most of the locally grown fruits and vegetables for the city. Strawberries in particular are incredibly abundant on the island.

​Alison and I spent our 13th wedding anniversary today on a leisurely, self-paced tour around the island. Here are some of the photos.

The Selfies

Alison thinks that we're improving. I'm just trying to figure out where to look.

The Panoramas

I love this feature of the iPhone.