The first week after coming home from a vacation is often the most difficult for the above reasons but also psychologically it’s a big transition from the day to day routine of travelling to that of, well, reality. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who thinks this when they’re back at the office soon after a long vacation thinking about how it would be nice to just be permanently on vacation and just travel from place to place. I’ve got to think that maybe even that might become stale at some point and that it’s the anticipation of travel with all of the planning and looking forward to the next one that Barb and I love as much as the journey itself. For those of you who are regular readers, you know that I am often talking about our future trips long before we go on them – often up to 2 years in advance. Barb and I have been planning our big Adventure for 2008 to Africa for over a year now and we have even had some discussion about something incredible for 2009 that I don’t dare mention to anyone yet. As I did for Our Excellent Italian Adventure two years ago, I am in the planning process of creating a DVD for our recent Eastern Canada Adventure and this will likely take me at least 1-2 months before it is completed. After working on the last DVD I learned not to underestimate how much effort it takes to produce what I have in mind. In the mean time, I’ll give you a taste of some pictures from our trip. Between Peter, Barb and I we took over 1000 pictures on our three cameras and the following are 85 of some of my favourites. The pictures can be see here.
Baden

In most cases I like to use the correct, local terminology for places (in this cases Cantons de l’Est) but I cannot help but use Eastern Townships as that is a name that is burned into my memory when I was growing up in Montreal. While I have personally never been to Knowlton before, nearby towns like Granby and Chambly are those that I have been to several times in my youth. Of course, that was all several decades ago and I expect that I will remember little of what they look like today.The area where we are in now in Knowlton was more from Peter’s background as he had worked in the neighbouring towns for several years in his early 20’s. He has been the first to admit how much things have changed from what he has recollected.I was familiar with the name Lac Brome long before we left Vancouver as it is famous for the ducks that are found here and Lac Brome ducks are available in most grocery stores in Vancouver although usually in frozen form only.

The Money Shot

When we were talking about coming to the Eastern Townships throughout the course of our trip, Peter and I have been talking about coming here to get the money shot. This term is what we have been calling the one killer photograph that will be taken on this trip and that years later we will look at and be the defining memory for the entire 22 days that we have spent here. Our expectations of the money shot are very specific: it involves a gorgeous background of trees in spectacular fall colours (with the bright sunshine perfectly at our backs) and ideally in front of a lake that is completely still and mirror-like which will reflect the trees in the water. This photograph will then only be complete if we could find a person paddling a canoe in the middle of the lake.I know, we have unrealistic expectations and disappointment is almost certain given that we had only today and tomorrow to capture this picture and the weather for tomorrow is expected to be rain. The money shot rarely includes rain. As such, we had about 2 -3 hours this afternoon with the sun shining to find a lake and the perfect fall colours in the trees. We settled on the person in the canoe being a bit unlikely. The following is the best that I could come up with given the circumstances:
^{(click on image to see full size photo)}

I guess, all things considered, I can probably live with this picture.Barb and I spent our final day in the Knowlton area driving around the countryside going to some of the local wineries and cideries where we bought some wine and apple cider. Apple orchards could be seen along the road of many of the places that we were to drive and without exception, all of the trees were rich with perfectly ripe red apples. We were tempted to buy lots of apples to take home with us but we figured that apples would not survive a plane ride very well and would likely arrive in Vancouver all bruised.

And Finally, Montreal

It’s day 19 and today we have left Knowlton and are on the road again to our final destination of Montreal. It’s been a long trip and the thought that we will only have to pack up our suitcase one more time has a certain appeal. By our estimates, we will have driven about 4500 km if we include all of the side trips throughout our journey. By any measure, it’s been a lot of driving.

All of this notwithstanding, I was really looking forward to seeing Montreal again. It has been close to 8 years since I was last here (on business) and the last visit gave me very little opportunity to really see any of the city. The time before that was for my cousin’s wedding and that also didn’t really afford the chance to explore the city the way that I wanted to. This trip will really be the first chance in the 29 or so years since we moved away from Montreal that I will have the opportunity to really explore the city.

We got into the Montreal area around 11AM as it was a relatively short drive from the Knowlton area. We knew that the room at our hotel was probably not going to be ready until later in the afternoon so we decided to consume up some hours by checking out some of the homes that we have lived in throughout the Montreal area and to also visit with our one remaining aunt who lives in Montreal. By the time we were heading into downtown Montreal to our hotel, it was getting close to 4PM and the traffic was becoming quite heavy but we were able to make it to our hotel before 5:00.

We are staying right on Sherbrooke street which is centrally localed right in the heart of downtown Montreal. By the time that we had settled in it was about 6:30 by the time that we were heading out to take our first look at Montreal together.

We were walking along Ste. Catherine street which was just a couple of blocks south of Sherbrooke and we happened to come across a place called Reuben’s Deli that I remembered from my last trip here that offered good smoked meat sandwiches.

I should explain that there are two types of food that are famous in Montreal and that are bagels and smoked meat sandwiches. Having both of these should be considered required eating if you are to visit here. Reuben’s is not the most famous of the Montreal deli’s that serve up smoked meat sandwiches but they have a good reputation and given that we were tired and hungry, we figured that we couldn’t go wrong.

While we were waiting for our meal, I was recalling the last time that I had eaten smoked meat and that was at Siegel’s Bagels in Vancouver. In fact the past 10 times that I had eaten smoked meat was at Siegel’s. In my opinion, Siegel’s has some of the best smoked meat and bagels in any city – which I realize is sacrilege to say that a food that is always called Montreal style smoked meat (in Vancouver) could be as good as the original.

Sadly, (in my opinion) I cannot say that the smoked meat sandwich that we ate at Reuben’s yesterday night was particularly good and I’m certain that this was not the best that can be found in Montreal. The search for the best Montreal smoked meat continues.

It’s day 20 today and that means that we only have 3 more days left in Montreal including today. After breakfast, we took the Metro subway and head out towards Vieux (ie: old) Montreal. I had actually never been to old Montreal ever before so for me it was a unique experience. Vieux Montreal (as well as Vieux Quebec), have the appearance of a European town with the 18th and 19th century look to most of the buildings. As it is located right in the middle of a large metropolitan city, it offers a charming view of the city’s past. However I have to stress the word appearance as I cannot help but feel that Vieux Montreal exists primarily as a place for tourists. There seems to be a lack of any sign of people who live in these historic areas and mostly seem to be comprised of restaurants, shops and galleries.

Please don’t get me wrong, Vieux Montreal is certainly worth visiting of you happen to come to Montreal. Just don’t confuse this with Europe.

On our way out of Vieux Montreal, we walked by the Notre-Dame Basilica. From the outside, the basilica is not particularly imposing but on the inside it is quite a different matter. Notre-Dame is quite spectacular and ranks quite highly even when compared to many cathedrals in Europe (it probably ranks in the top 20 churches that I have ever seen).

After spending some time at the basilica, we were getting a bit of an appetite and found a nice restaurant called Crêperie Chez Suzette on Rue. St-Paul where we stopped for lunch. All of us had a delicious savory crêpe and Barb had the Crêpes Suzettes (pictured above) as a follow-on for desert. We had to help Barb finish the Crêpes Suzettes and I can confirm that they were as good as they look. Crêpes Suzettes are made with orange juice and Grand Marnier liquor – both of which account for it’s unique and wonderful taste.

Outdoor Markets and Underground Shopping

Day 21 started off with us heading out to the Marché Jean Talon (Jean Talon public market) by Metro and spent a few hours there exploring the produce fresh from the farm.

Barb and I have spent our fair share in farmer’s markets in Vancouver and by and large there are similar types of things in most markets. However, it’s interesting that when you’re in a different city and in a market that everything seems to look and smell so different and seems so much better tasting!

Barb and I went for lunch separately from Peter and Liz and we happened to stumble across this small bistro called Le Grand Comptoir located in Place Phillips.

Given that it was about 12:30 on a weekday, we weren’t surprised to see that the restaurant was nearly full with people – likely those who work downtown on their lunch hour. The place was buzzing with conversation and excitement and we were lucky to find a single table empty where we were able to squeeze into just inches away from the adjacent tables.

I remember dining at restaurants in Paris where the tables were almost right next to each other and contrary to how it sounds it is actually a very pleasant dining experience as you are almost sharing the meal with your neighbours. Of course they are having their own conversations but it’s all very casual and open.

Barb and I both had salads and both came with a plate of a delicious carrot soup. To enjoy the meal a bit better, we both shared a carafe of sangria which I must add was particularly good and just the thing to have at lunch … well, when one is on holidays anyway.

Barb and I spent the rest of the day shopping downtown. Along Rue. Ste. Catherine there are large number of small stores in addition to several department stores. One in particular that stood out is called Ogilvy. Ogilvy is one of those high-end department stores that one has heard about for generations. In my case, I have heard about it since I was growing up as I remember that my mother used to shop at Ogilvy’s (the store had the ’s in those days).

The Last Full Wet Day

With all of the relatively good weather that we have been having over the past three weeks, it is not unexpected that we should expect at least one really bad day and today was it. We had seen the forecast for today and knew to expect the 8 degrees and steady rain most of the morning.

Undeterred, we drove up to Mount Royal and visited L’Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal (St. Joseph’s Oratory). The Oratory was something that I had always heard about while living in Montreal but had never visited so it was a good opportunity to do so today. I read that the dome of the oratory is actually the 2nd tallest in the world only taller than the one at St. Peter’s basilica at the Vatican.

Compared to virtually every other church of it’s size that I have ever visited, the Oratory is surprisingly modern and stark inside but considering that it was completed in the 1960’s the modern style makes sense. Apparently the stairs leading up to the front of St. Joseph’s are used by devout pilgrims and they climb the stairs on their knees. Barb and I climbed the stairs the normal way and it was enough of a workout that way.

We drove around Mount Royal and stopped by Lac aux Castors (Beaver Lake) which is a beautiful lake set in the trees at the top of the mountain. Under better weather conditions it would have been a great time to be there and stroll around the park but as it stood it was really cold and starting to rain hard so we left after about 20 minutes.

By the time we were leaving the top of Mount Royal we were thinking about lunch and decided to give Montreal smoked meat another try. This time we would be going to the place that according to all of our research had reported to have the best smoked meat in Montreal: Schwartz’s Deli.

Although we arrived at Schwartz’s at around 1:30, there was still a lineup of about 20 people in front of the store (located on Boul. Saint-Laurent). It only took about 15 minutes to get seated but it was all worth it. Schwartz’s was the real deal.

We started our meal with a drink that was said to be “the usual” thing to drink with smoked meat sandwiches: Cott’s Black Cherry soda. I remember the Cott brand from my youth with their slogan It’s Cott to be good. The smoked meat sandwiches were really quite unique and had a distinctive (spiced) taste that was really the best part of the meal.

As the deli was packed and every seat filled to capacity, you sat elbow to elbow with your neighbour at the next table. It was well known that once you had eaten your meal you were not expected to chit-chat but to pay your bill and leave so the next group (likely standing on the street waiting) could be seated. Schwartz’s has been around since 1928 so I figure that their formula for great food, good prices and whatever customer service they may want to give you works quite well.

Schwartz’s is one of those dining institutions that the experience of eating there is half the enjoyment. This is definitely a must-see if you visit Montreal.

Delivering the Goods

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Sidebar: I wanted to add some words on the subject of photography as it is a significant subject for me and always has an impact onto the day to day workings of our Adventures.

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In addition to “the money shot”, there is a second phrase that I bandy about when I’m talking to Barb about our trip planning and that is delivering the goods. This term refers to the ability of my camera to produce great photos under a variety of situations that I may come across on our vacations.

Photography has been a passion of mine for over 20 years and as a hobby it goes hand in hand with our shared passion for travel. As we have travelled to a number of places over the years, we have enjoyed being able to view the pictures from those trips for years later and remember all of the things that we have experienced. Of course, this blog that I write also helps a lot in that area as well.

For me, just taking a bunch of random pictures when I’m travelling just isn’t enough and as such the camera that I use gets a lot of thought about if it is meeting my needs or not.

Since we have been travelling together, I have gone through four different cameras. Barb will probably say that “gone though” means abandoning a perfectly good camera and replacing it an expensive new one. Of course, I never attempt to get into this no-win discussion as the subtleties of camera technology are usually difficult to explain. Suffice to say that every time I have changed cameras I have done so for a good reason.

About two months before leaving for this trip that we’re on now, I bought a new Nikon D80 digital SLR camera. Under ideal conditions, buying a new camera this soon before a vacation isn’t the best option but I felt that it would be enough time for me to learn most of the features. In hind sight, I’m glad that I made the purchase because many of the pictures that I’ve been able to get with the D80 would just not be possible with any other camera that I had (except my original Nikon film camera). A good example of this is the picture at the top of this page with Barb, Peter and Liz looking at a map. I saw them in this position across the street from where I was and was able to switch on my camera, zoom in and shoot the picture (in between two passing cars) all in about 2 seconds.

With any luck, the D80 that I am using now should be one that I use for a while but especially on our trip to Africa next year this camera will be really be put through the paces. Judging from the pictures from this trip that I have been previewing on my laptop, this camera has definitely delivered the goods. Now, there’s just the issue of that new zoom lens that I need to get

…All Things Must Come to an End …

Just about every night for the past three weeks I have looked at the pictures that Peter, Barb and I have taken on the laptop computer that I am carrying with me. I should add that between the three of us we have taken about 2000 pictures. Of course, all three of us carrying digital cameras means that there are lots of duplicates of every scene so the number of “real” pictures will be much less. It seems that owning a digital camera encourage you to take 3-4 pictures for any scene knowing that you can delete them later at no costs.

When I look back at the first part of the trip in Halifax and then other parts of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, it all seems such a long time ago – almost like it was on another, separate trip. I think that this is indicative of the fact that we have seen so much and driven so far (almost 4500 kilometres in total) since we started three weeks ago today.

Today is day 22 and it’s the last full day of our Excellent Eastern Canada Adventure. Tomorrow we leave for home and as usual, that thought has a mixture of sadness and anticipation. It’s sad that the trip will be coming to an end but it’s also (for me) good to know that after tomorrow I won’t be living out of a suitcase anymore. Much more than any other Excellent Adventure, this trip has stood out in the fact that we have have lots of one night stop-overs and relatively few days in one spot. As a general rule Barb and I have found that we like to stay in about 4 different places on a 3 week trip. That gives us plenty of time to get familiar with a given destination before moving on to the next leg of a trip. On this vacation, we had six one-night stops.

Out of all of the many different places that we have visited on this Adventure, Prince Edward Island and the Gaspé area (especially Percé) will bring the most memories for me when I will think about this trip in the future. Having spent so many years travelling to other countries, I’m really glad that we took the time out to see a large part of our own country. I really encourage everyone to come here and visit the these provinces as there’s so much to see and the people in every place that we have been to could not have been more friendly.

Our Excellent Eastern Canada Adventure has come to a close and as most readers know Barb and I are planning our Excellent Africa Adventure for the fall of 2008. Who knows, we may even be able to sneak in a short trip somewhere else some time before that.

Until then.

Baden

For some reason I was of the impression that Rimouski was some kind of industrial town with big smoke stacks and factories but it’s nothing like that.

Nonetheless, we head out of town and took the main highway and in a few hours we were to arrive in the town of Montmagny and the place we will be staying for the next few nights the Manoir des Érables.

I was really anticipating our visit to the Manoir des Érables as Barb and I had been here last February while we came to Quebec to visit the Winter Carnival and we had really enjoyed our stay here (see: Barb and Baden’s Excellent Quebec Adventure – Part 6). As you can see from the picture above and the picture from last year’s visit, there has been a fairly substantial weather difference since the last time that we were here. In fact I recall that on our last day of our visit last year I had to chip away about 1 inch of ice off the car as there was a ice storm the night before and pretty much everything was covered in ice.

In contrast, today (day 14) was around 24 degrees and sunny the entire day in Montmagny.

The Manoir des Érables is suitably named as érables means maple trees and the entire area around the manoir is full of the trees as is much of the countryside. Interestingly, many of the maple trees on the property are completely green and have not changes colour. This is likely due to the fact that the average temperatures in the area have been 5-10 degrees above normal and most trees require the cold night time temperatures to start their colour change. Nonetheless, we have driven around the small tows within 50-100 kilometers of Montmagny today and we were not disappointed with all of the incredible yellow, orange and red colour in the forests.

When we arrived in Montmagny yesterday we checked into the manoir then went into vieux (or old) Montmagny and had lunch at one of our favourite cafes called the Café Breton. Vieux Montmagny is really only a few streets but it adds a real old world charm to the town. Speaking of which, it’s almost incomprehensible how old many of the things are in this area. For example, the original house that the Manoir des Érables was built on was built in in the mid-1600’s. Montmagny and many of the towns in the vicinity were similarly started 300-400 years ago.

We had arranged to have dinner in the dining room at the Manoir on the first night that we would be staying here and from previous knowledge from our previous visit to Montmagny we knew to expect a first class meal and were not disappointed. I had ordered a venison dish labelled a “red stag” that turned out to be a succulent piece of meat that barely needed a knife as it could have been cut with a fork alone.

Our second day in Montmagny we spent initially going to some of the neighbouring towns in search of snow geese. October 5th is the start of the Festival de l’oie blanche (translation: Snow Geese Festival) which takes place in Montmagny every year. The festival usually coincides with the arrival of several hundred thousand snow geese on their migratory route from the arctic to warmer locations in the southern USA. Unfortunately, the geese seemed to be late this year and the indications are that the warmer than usual temperatures have delayed their migration south so we ended up only seeing a handful of the geese and not the huge flocks that were expected. As a result, Barb (who was the one of us who was most anxious to see the snow geese) ended up being disappointed.

For the rest of yesterday we drove around the neighbouring towns just enjoying the colours in the forests. We ended up picking up some local cheese, a baguette and a bottle of wine and made ourselves a picnic in one of the small towns called Ste. Apolline that we had come across. Barb and I remembered that the last time that we did this kind of picnic was in Paris about 6 months ago. Of course, Ste. Apolline isn’t Paris but the cheese, baguette and wine tasted just as good.

View of Old Quebec

Day 15 started with us checking out of the Manoir des Érables and moving on to our next destination which would be Quebec City. Barb and I had been here last February as we had started our Excellent Quebec Adventure in Quebec City and ended in Montmagny. As with Montmagny, the weather that we were experiencing in Quebec could not have been any more different than last year. Today we were enjoying sun and 25 degrees so we are certainly able to see the city without having to worry about wearing thick scarves and hats as we did last time.

One of the other big differences that we have seen as soon as we arrived in town is how many more tourists there are than before. The streets are clogged with tour buses and as there was a cruise ship in the harbour, several thousand additional tourists were in town today. We have been told that the cruise ship leaves tonight and there are none in town tomorrow so we will have to see how things go.

As we had arrived relatively early in Quebec City from Montmagny, our rooms were not yet ready so we dropped our luggage with the front desk of our hotel which is the Hôtel du Vieux Quebec and went out for lunch we went out for some lunch. Right next door to our hotel was a restaurant called Les Frères de la Côte and it happened to be pretty much full. This would be indicative of how the rest of the day would go.

When we were finally able to get a table at Les Frères de la Côte, we all enjoyed a round of beer then several of us ordered some pizzas. Mine and Peter’s was a Marguerite pizza which is a simple one with just cheese and a fresh herb topping. This also happened to be one of our favourite pizzas that we would usually order in Italy. The only difference is that in Italy this pizza is spelled slightly different and called a Margherita.

As we were walking around Quebec that day we noticed how many more people there were on the streets compared to our last visit last year. When I say “many more people” I’m talking about 5-10 times more people. As it turned out, there were two main factors for this. First, there was a cruise ship in town so there were probably about an extra 5 thousand people from this alone. In addition to this, we observed at least 10 tour buses driving through the streets of vieux Quebec adding lots of other people. If this is what it is like in October I can’t imagine what it will be like in the summer time. The crowds at that time of year in Quebec City must just be insane.

The next morning we continued to walk around the city and spent a bit of time in the Quebec Public Market on Rue Saint-Paul which is officially known as Le Marché du Vieux-Port de Québec. As we did before, we bought a selection of some great tasting cheeses, baguettes and also some delicious apple cider (as apples were in season in Quebec and with plenty of selection in most of the vendors) and with our food in hand found a nice secluded park bench to enjoy our lunch. The weather today was starting to cool down and it was no warmer than about 17 degrees and we only saw sun for portions of the day. Nonetheless, we thoroughly enjoyed these kinds of casual picnic lunches as much as in any restaurant.

The funny thing about our choice of a “secluded” spot for our lunch was that half way through our meal a film crew came by and started filming what looked like a television commercial about 10 feet away from us while we ate.

On the Road Again

Tomorrow morning we will be leaving Quebec City and heading to our next destination in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec. A few days after that we will be in our last destination of Montreal. My final chapter of Our Excellent Eastern Canada Adventure will be posted some time during our stay in Montreal.

Baden

We had talked a lot about how New Brunswick was really getting very little attention on our Eastern Canada Adventure. With the exception of spending time last Saturday looking for a tire shop that was open and seeing a few sights like Cape Enrage and Hopewell Rocks, we were really blasting through the whole province. I want to point out that there was nothing that we disliked about New Brunswick but we really just didn’t find too many must-see things in our travel research. Well, certainly not of the caliber of the PEI Potato Museum, anyway.

Once we had crossed into Quebec on Sunday which was day 10 of our trip, we started to head east on highway 132. We were heading towards Percé (pronounced pear-say) as our first major destination in La Belle Provence. We knew that we would likely not make the approximately 200 kilometers from the bridge into Quebec to Percé on Sunday as it was already about 4:00 when we got into Quebec so we decided to look for a suitable place to spend the night along the way. We ended up finding a really nice gîte (which is a bed and breakfast house) in the small town of Maria called Gîte Le Martin Pêcheur (which roughly translated into the B&B of Martin the Fisherman). We were shown incredibly hospitality by our hosts Régis Audet and Francoise Lemieux and stayed the night at their gîte and had a wonderful breakfast the next morning consisting of peppers stuffed with omelets (they had cooked the omelets inside of the pepper’s shells).

Perhaps the Most Beautiful Place in Quebec (or How our Car Got Stolen in Percé)

With only a relatively small distance to go from Maria to Percé, we arrived in Percé around 12:30 and after finding a suitable place to stay for the night we found a nice place to have some lunch. Before I say anything else I have to say that the Percé rock is simply one of the most stunning things that I have ever seen. Between Peter, Barb and I we have probably taken easily 75 pictures of the rock today alone. You simply have to see this in person before you die.

Ok, let me get back to the part about our car getting stolen.

We parked the car in front of the restaurant and as Barb had suggested that we take a boat tour of Bonaventure Island so we had arranged to do so after lunch. Peter and I had made a detour to take some pictures while Barb and Liz were going to check out some of the places to buy tickets for the boat tour. While the three of them were buying tickets, I said that i was going to take 5 minutes to drive back to the hotel to pickup an extra sweater for the boating.

The only problem is that the car was no longer in front of the restaurant when I got back to get it.

My first thought was that the car was towed but after trying to translate this question to the waitress at the restaurant at which we ate, she basically said that nobody ever got towed from their parking lot. This left only one other possible situation that made sense at the time – the car was stolen.

Several things were running through my mind while I was speaking to the police on the phone at the restaurant:

1. How badly was our Eastern Canada Adventure screwed and how long would it take to get another rental car?

2. Was there anything of value in the car (we had luckily removed all of the luggage from the car when we checked into our motel)?

3. Hopefully Barb, Liz and Peter had not already bought tickets to the boat tour.

4. Will our insurance cover a stolen rental car? That’s going to cost a lot if it doesn’t.

Meanwhile, while all of this is happening, Barb, Liz and Peter are standing on a boat wondering where I am as the boat is going to leave in 2 minutes without me.

So I’m walking back to the pier and see Peter in the distance waving his arms at me and I was thinking “I hope he’s waving his arms at me because he knows where the car is” but in reality it was more of a Where the hell have you been? The boat’s about to leave without you. kind of wave. When I told Peter that I was late because I was talking to the police and that our car had been stolen, he had what I would call a typical reaction when one is presented with this kind of news. So we headed back to the boat as at that particular time, I wasn’t thinking much about enjoying a leisurely boat ride and wanted to get everyone together and figure out our next steps.

I’m going to quickly skip through the next few steps because these key events took place all in about 30 seconds:

1. Barb explains to me that she moved the car and forgot to tell me that she did this when I went back to the restaurant to get the car (where we originally parked it).
2. We have a quick discussion about how much trouble this has caused.

I didn’t end up going on the boat ride but Peter, Liz and Barb did. I felt that I needed some time to cool down and took that opportunity to climb up a hill near the rock and take some good pictures. The good news is that the guy from the Quebec police thought that the whole story was pretty funny when I called later to cancel the stolen car alert.

With all of the excitement that took place about the stolen / moved car, I forgot all about the great lunch that I had at the place called the Restaurant Cabastran (127 route 132 Ouest, Percé). I had ordered a truly Quebec dish called poutine which just a few years ago was relatively unheard of outside of Quebec. Of course when several fast food chains such as A&W in Canada several years ago, it became much more commonly known by the general public.

The most common version of poutine is made with french fries, gravy and cheese curds. To me, the cheese is the most important component of poutine. The poutine that I had at Cabastran was perfect in every way but most importantly the cheese curds were just right and were not stringy or gooey. Along with the gravy and fries, it was a completely satisfying part of my lunch.

Driving the Gaspésie

It’s day 12 today and we left Percé to continue our trip along the edge of the Gaspé peninsula (or the Gaspésie as it is known locally in Quebec) heading towards our next destination of Montmagny where we intent to arrive tomorrow. Tonight we will be making it to the town of Rimouski where we are staying tonight as I write this chapter.

The drive along the northern edge of the Gaspésie was truly spectacular as we have really gotten our first taste of the changing colours of the trees in this area. In comparison we saw only a small percentage of the trees in Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick with the hallmark yellow, orange and red colour of the leaves. When seen in large numbers in a forest and in the sunshine, the colours of the leaves at this time of year is a sight to behold. So far we have been seeing intermittent sun and clouds (but so far only one day of rain). We’re hoping that by the time that we get to the Eastern Townships in about 5 days from now that the we will see plenty of sun as this area of Quebec is expected to be one of the best in terms of visible colour on the trees.

Tomorrow we will arrive in the small town of Montmagny where Barb and I stayed last year for a few days when we attended the Winter Carnival (see: Barb and Baden’s Excellent Quebec Adventure – Part 6). I’ll post my next chapter of our adventures in Montmagny and Quebec City in a few days.

Baden

The best of thing about French toast in Quebec is that it isn’t called French toast at all but is known as Pain d’ore (or golden bread). I think that the Quebec version makes it sound a lot tastier.

One Horse Open Sleigh

This morning after breakfast we wanted to firm up some plans for the next two days as we will be leaving for home on Sunday morning. One of the other things that I had scheduled through the Manoir was to go for a horse-drawn sleigh ride. Overall the people at the Manoir des Erables have been very helpful in making bookings for us as well and just making many phone calls to places to see if they were open or had the facilities that we were looking for. We definitely give them all top marks for hospitality.

We had dinner on Thursday night at a local place called the Auberge Belle Epoche and from the looks of it, Belle Epoche and Manoir des Erables seem to be the two places in town that regularly compete for the honour of the best restaurant. On the walls of both establishments are honours and commendations from all kinds of organizations like the Canadian Auto Club and the Quebec Tourism board. Barb and I had an excellent dinner at Belle Epoche – both of us having an extremely well prepared duck dinner but we both agreed that the deserts may have been the highlight of the meal. Barb had a crème brulée which came in three separate cups – one “regular”, one chocolate and one café flavoured crème brulée. My desert was a delicate chocolate mousse with just a hint of Gran Marnier liqueur.

On Friday morning we woke up to find that the blizzard from the previous week had returned again. The only difference was that it was a lot warmer and as a result it was really just wet snow that was coming down. After breakfast we head out towards a small town called Cap St. Ignace which was about a 20 minute drive down the road. According to the directions given to us from the people at the front desk at our manoir, it was to be in Cap St. Ignace that we would find the farm where we would have our sleigh ride through the country.

Finding the farm of Monsieur Guimont turned out to be much harder than we thought. We were to make a series of lefts and rights down this country road and then find “the first green and white house”. We ended up finding what we thought was the right house and after getting no answer moved on to subsequent houses and was redirected two or three times by various neighbours.

Sidebar: we have learned first hand that a rare Quebecois dialect exists with many of the neighbours of M. Guimont. This dialect is so rare that none of our limited French skills were of use to communicate with them.

In the end, we found M. Guimont in the very first farm house that we went to and found him to speak very good English. M. Guimont dusted the snow off of his red sleigh and went into the barn to bring out his horse Bella and proceeded to hitch her up. By this time Barb and I were pretty much soaked as the wet snow had taken its toll but nonetheless we proceeded out on our country sleigh ride with enthusiasm.

During our sleigh ride through the woods around M. Guimont’s farm, he talked to us about all kinds of things like maple syrup harvesting (popular in many parts of Quebec) and in general life in a small Quebec town. He was a personable guy and we both enjoyed listening to him talk about how things were in this part of the country.

After we got back to his farm, he unhitched Bella and she immediately went back into the barn on her own – obviously familiar with the routine.

One the way back to the manoir to dry out, we ended up getting stuck in the snow in the driveway of the manoir. On two or three occasions either Barb or I ended up having to get out and help push the car to get out of the snow. To say the least it isn’t something that we normally have to do living in Vancouver.

A Full Winter Resort Day

On Saturday morning we headed south after breakfast towards the town of Sainte Paul-de-Montminy. This small town (about an hour away), was the location of a winter resort called the Appalaches Lodge. As the weather had turned warmer and was now about +1 or 2 degrees, it made for an easier time getting there although there was still lots of ice on the road so it still required lots of caution.

Once we got to the Appalaches Lodge, we had a quick bite to eat then found the building where all of the equipment rentals were done. The first activity on our agenda was to do some ice skating on their outdoor rink.

Both Barb and I hadn’t had a pair of skates on for almost 10 years so it was pretty tough going for the first while – each of us not sure if we were going to fall and pull the other one down with us. What made matters worse was that with the warmer weather the ice condition had a lot to be desired and there was lots of soft ice if not slush altogether. Doing any sharp turns or stops on these rough patches would almost certainly end up with you falling on your butt.

Nonetheless, Barb and I had a good time on the ice and since we were the only ones there, didn’t have to worry about how good (or bad) we looked and just were able to have fun.

After we returned the skates we picked up some snowshoes (or raquettes as they are known in Quebec) and did some hiking though the woods around the resort. Many of the marked snowshoe trails go back and forth over this frozen creek across bridges covered with snow. Again, as we were pretty much by ourselves, we were able to really enjoy the serenity of the outdoors.

By the time that we returned our snowshoes, Barb and I were pretty tired from hiking up the hills in the deep snow. Walking in snowshoes takes a lot more energy than walking regularly but it was still lots of fun as the weather was good and the scenery amazing. Since it was only about 3:00 by this time and we had made dinner reservations at the resort for 7:00, we decided to drive back to the town of Sainte Paul-de-Montminy to see if we could find a café or something to get something warm to drink.

As it turned out, finding a café or something turned out to be much more difficult that expected. Sainte Paul-de-Montminy was probably a town of a few thousand people (if that) so finding anything other than houses took some doing. We had to drive around for about 20 minutes until we finally found a small restaurant open by the side of the highway. An order of chocolat chaud and frites (hot chocolate and French fries) later, we were ready to get back on the road again.

We got back to the resort and hung around by the fireplace for a little while until we were ready for dinner. Dinner at the resort was kind of self-serve cafeteria style with a fixed menu. To be honest, while the dinner was ok, it was probably one of the less memorable meals of our Quebec Adventure.

After dinner we had a few drinks and watched the entertainment of a local Quebecois singer who performed a number of traditional songs. What was interesting was when we were listening to him sing how pretty much everyone else in the room knew all of the songs that he was singing. He played his music using either a guitar or fiddle while seated and would stomp his feet on a wooden platform all the while to keep the beat. During some of his songs he handed out some wooden spoons that are typically used to keep rhythm by tapping them between your thigh and hand. All in all, the evening was a fun and entertaining end to our Quebec Adventure as tomorrow morning we would be returning back to Vancouver.

An Icy Goodbye

As we got back to the manoir quite late on Saturday night returning from the Appalaches Lodge, we woke up earlier to pack up and get ready for our return trip home.

I had heard rain against the window all night long but wasn’t prepared for what I saw when I first looked out of the window on Sunday morning – everything in sight was covered in ice. Everything.

Not only was the entire place completely covered in ice, but it got worse when about 5 minutes before we were planning on going down for our last breakfast the power went out. Apparently the power going out is not that unusual in an ice storm as the weight of the ice on the power lines typically cause them to snap.

We were able to have our breakfast as normal (by candle and daylight) and had to settle our final bill “manually” as all of the manoir’s computers were down. All in all, everything went by without too much problems and we said our goodbye to the great people at the Manoir des Erables for all of their hospitality.

Getting into our car to leave, on the other hand, took some work. Just getting into the car alone took about 20 minutes as I had to chip away the ice just to get the trunk and doors open. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t pouring rain at the same time and in those few minutes I got totally soaked.

The drive down the highway started off well enough as the highway was clear and really just wet conditions to deal with. This situation seemed to worsen with each kilometre as we headed back towards Quebec City and the snow started to fall. And fall. And fall.

At some points during that drive along the highway we couldn’t see more than a few car lengths ahead of us with the driving snow blinding our vision. We had to bring our speed down considerably for most of the trip but we made it to the airport without any issues. Our return flights home all went off without any problems although the airline did manage to lose Barb’s luggage when we arrived in Vancouver. Hopefully they will be delivering it today and of course not having luggage for the return flight home is always less of a problem than when going on a trip.

Our Excellent Quebec Adventure Summary

With very few exceptions, our trip to Quebec was a great experience and Barb and I had lots of fun. Being from Vancouver, it is likely that most people who live here have a certain impression about Quebec and the Quebec people – mostly obtained from the news about political matters. Contrary to this impression, there was never anything other than warmth and friendliness that Barb and I experienced from the Quebec people. I think that a lot of the political situations that create a negative perception about Quebec are in the most part just that – create by politicians and the day to day lives of the people that we have met with do not portray any of this.

We had a great time in Quebec City for the Winter Carnival and its European flavour was just icing on the cake to us. The Manoir de Erables in Montmagny was an incredible find and being able to spend some time outdoors in the Appalaches Lodge skating and snowshoeing was a great treat. We will always remember the wonderful dining experiences that we had in many different places throughout our trip.

Barb and I have already talked about retuning to Quebec some time – probably to Montreal and maybe in the fall to view the changing colours of the leaves in the forests.

Although this was one of our shorter Adventures, we will rank this trip up amongst our favourites.

Baden

Our destination that we are heading towards is the small town of Montmagny (pronounced moh-ma-nee) and the place that we will be staying for the next four nights called the Manoir des Erables.

When planning this trip, I didn’t really have any predetermined plans to see the Chaudière-Appalaches region or Montmagny in particular but it was by finding the Manoir des Erables that all of the above became part of our itinerary. To contrast the time that we would be spending in Quebec City, I thought that it would be a nice idea to spend the other half of the trip in more of a country setting. Through searching many of the Quebec tourist web sites and doing Google searches on things like “Quebec winter vacation”, I came to learn the term auberge which is French for country house or inn. It was this type of accommodation that led me to find the Manoir des Erables as it seemed to fit the description perfectly.

We picked up a rental car in Quebec City for our 1 hour drive to Montmagny. On the drive through Quebec City, I couldn’t help but contrast this drive with the last time that I drove a rental a car in another city: in Florence, Italy last October. In comparison to the streets of Florence which in many cases were so narrow that my rear view mirrors were rubbing against parked cars and mopeds, the drive through Quebec City was pretty uneventful. Although I feared that the snows covered streets and steep hills of Quebec would be a problem, our rental car was outfitted with good winter tires so this was never an issue. In addition, the blizzard that we experienced on Monday had all but gone and it was actually (dare I say) warm when we left Quebec City – probably about -1 or so.

The drive out of Quebec City went well enough and after we crossed the Pierre Laport Bridge over to the south side of the St. Lawrence river we headed east on highway 20 towards Montmagny.

Compared to what we’re used to around Vancouver, the history of the provinces on the eastern half of Canada takes on a whole different meaning to the term old. Montmagny, for example, while being a relatively small town of about 10,000 people, was founded in 1678 and the original structure of the Manoir des Erables was built in the 1800’s. Added onto several times, the manoir is larger than the original building and now encompasses many additional buildings spread across the estate.

To the Manoir Bound

When we arrived at the manoir yesterday, we were warmly greeted by one of the smartly dressed staff at the front desk. She gave us a run down of all of the activities that I had booked and confirmed with us our dinner reservations for that night.

Oh, I forgot to mention that she only spoke French.

On the subject of language, I had this impression that Quebec City and the area around it was the hotbed of Quebec nationalism and that speaking anything other than French was considered beneath them.

Sidebar: I’ve also hear this of the people in France too.

Politics aside, I can’t say that Barb or I have ever had any negative encounters with anyone in our Quebec adventure so far and this includes people who spoke no English at all. The same goes for our two trips to France and other countries where English is not the primary language. Without exception, the people of Quebec have been some of the most friendly people we have ever met.

While Barb and I both speak a little French, we are by no means fluent but we have a simple approach that seems to work in virtually every non-English speaking country or region that we have gone to. First, don’t expect that everyone will speak English to you and you should be grateful to them if they do. At the bare minimum, have at least the following local words in your vocabulary in the other person’s language: hello, please, thank you, goodbye and only when you have used all of the above word first, only then use do you speak English?.

I have seen time and time again when someone uses do you speak English? (or worse) saying this in English at the very start that the reaction from the other person goes down hill from that point forward. We’ve learned that courtesy, respect and a sense of humour are the cornerstones of having a good vacation experience.

Last night we arrived in the manoir for dinner (as we’re staying in one of the side buildings called the Pavilion) and were shown to the incredibly elegant dining room. You have to imagine an 19th century mansion that has beautifully made wood finishing on the walls and ceilings at every turn. Everything about the manoir evokes elegance and charm of a previous era.

We were seated by the dining room fireplace and with dinner we had a glass of an extremely good local Quebec wine called Le Closeau. The area around Montmagny is known as the goose region of Quebec and as such it seemed fitting to order the goose for dinner – an excellent choice.

After dinner we retired back to our room to relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow, Barb will be experiencing the first of the activities that I have planned as I have her booked most of the day in the manoir’s on-site spa. With a combination of exfoliation, essential oil baths and massage, I’m sure that Barb will be a new woman by the end of the day today.

As I had some time on my hands before Barb is finished, I am sitting in the manoir’s Cigar Room writing the last of this update. Around me on shelves sit about 30 different bottles of whisky, scotch and port. However, by far the most interesting items in the room are the four stuffed animals hanging from the walls including the huge moose head looking down on me.

As you can see, the Manoir des Erables is definitely not lacking for atmosphere.

Baden

Continue reading the final article in this series