Farms
Fruit picking.
giggel — CC BY 3.0 · Hayden Soloviev — CC BY 4.0 · Hayden Soloviev — CC BY 4.0 · Hayden Soloviev — CC BY 4.0 · Marc-Lautenbacher — CC BY-SA 4.0
Île d'Orléans is a rural island in the St Lawrence River near Quebec City, with fields, strawberry and apple farms, old stone houses, churches with silver steeples and a single road circling it along the water. It was one of the first parts of the province settled by the French, and a large share of French Canadians trace their ancestry to its early residents, so it is called the birthplace of French speakers in North America. About 7,000 people live in six villages. A bridge from Beauport links it to the mainland, and Route 368 loops round it. From Sainte-Pétronille in the west you look across to Montmorency Falls and Quebec City. You drive round the island, stopping at farms to pick fruit and buy ciders, juices and jams, visit the churches and old houses, and sit on the shore by the river. It is about 25 km in a straight line northeast of central Quebec City. Summer and the autumn harvest are the best times to visit.
Fruit picking.
Along the road.
Across the river.
St Lawrence River, east of Quebec City
By car over the bridge from Beauport.
Summer and autumn.