Souris is a small fishing port on the eastern end of Prince Edward Island, and its name is French for mouse. The story goes that early French settlers, in the eighteenth century, were plagued by mice that devoured their crops, and the name stuck. Today the town has no such troubles. It has a working harbour, a handful of shops and restaurants, a red sandstone cliff, a sandy beach, and one thing that none of the island's other towns can offer, a ferry to another province.
The ferry runs from the wharf to the Magdalen Islands, a remote archipelago in the Gulf of St Lawrence that belongs to Quebec, and its large white hull is a constant reminder that the sea is not far away. You can stand on the breakwater and watch it come and go, or imagine the long crossing to a landscape of red cliffs, dunes and French-speaking fishing villages. Souris itself is a place of tidy houses and a few churches, with a tradition of fishing and farming that goes back two centuries.
For a rider, Souris is an easy and pleasant stop on the Points East Coastal Drive. The roads around the town are quiet country lanes, with fields on either side, gentle hills and a surface that is mostly decent. In the morning the light is soft and the sea has a silvery sheen, and the farmland is full of the green of potatoes and barley. The tourist season is short, and on weekdays outside summer, you may have the roads to yourself. Be careful of farm machinery, deer and, on warm evenings, clouds of insects that can spatter your visor.
There is a good range of services for a town of this size. Fuel is available, and there are grocery stores, a pharmacy and a few cafes. Local seafood dominates the menus, with lobster rolls, fried clams, mussels and chowder, and a wharf-side chip stand is a fine place for lunch in summer. Fresh bread and baked goods from the bakeries are inexpensive and good.
The cliffs at the beach show the island's red sandstone in layers, and the sea is cold, though a few brave swimmers go in at the height of summer. Birdwatchers will find gulls, terns, herons and eagles along the shore. Plan to arrive with a little time in hand, since it is a place where the pace slows to match the tide.