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