From Saint-Paul to Saint-Jean it is only about 10 miles. 10 lazy miles in clear, but crisp weather. We approach hoping to find dockage at the City Dock. Yes, Braveheart (whose owners hail from Indio in the winter) and another Looper boat, High Spirits. We squeeze in behind them and go to look for the lock. We want to make sure that we have all of the right information about the Parc Locks and fees.

I was very impressed with the friendliness of the locks men the New York Canal system through Champlain Locks; but these people are Parc Rangers and they want you to have a good time and be safe. They believe you are on vacation. I also think it is Canada’s way of employing more people. In NY, the people that run the locks are with a union. Perhaps the Parc Rangers are unionized, but there are 2 at this small lock. At the NY locks, one person and he only pushes buttons. We had to hold on to dirty lines or tie to bollards. I like this better. There are clean lines hanging down for you to hold on to. All we will do is approach, grab hold of lines, drop, and leave when the gates open.

We are buying a season pass for both the lock systems in Ontario and Quebec and also a mooring pass. This pass will let us tie up at lock walls during the day or overnight for free. Free that is after paying $9.80 a foot. But, we figure if we use it 10 times that is only $45 a night and there isn’t anything that cheap around.

Tonight we will go into town and have a simple meal. I like hearing French being spoken. I also like knowing that most of the people speak enough English to help us. This town is cute. It is in much better shape than the northern towns of NY that seem to be dying. Where we are there are many restaurants and taverns. We are wondering if it will be noisy tonight; it was suggested that we go through the lock and tie on the other side, but we wanted to wait until tomorrow.