Bonjour Hi! Bienvenue a Quebec
July 1 - 10
With the car stuffed to the gills with everything we might want for a summer of fun we took off on Canada Day on our Canadian road trip extravaganza.
Our first stop was less than 3 hours away, with a weekend at Jas and Chantal’s cottage to soak in the Ontario summer cottage life. Cards, games, good food, drinks on the dock, canoeing on the lake, fire roasted marshmallows, testing the limits of Chantal’s car on a back country road as we scoped out Jas’ next ‘Sufferfest’ canoe route – everything summer should be. And all this in just two action packed days - this holiday-ing is hard work! But not to worry, we will be seeing more of Jas and Chantal in a couple of weeks when we meet up in Quebec. But in the meantime, our next stop beckoned.
Our first week of our Eastern Canada adventure was a tour of
visits with friends from our days in Japan. James had been back in Canada for
less than 48 hours when we invited ourselves to his cottage just west of
Ottawa, and suggested Dave and Nori meet us there as well. A feast of Japanese
food on the deck was a great way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon while we
caught up on news and plans for the future. The next morning, we provided some
moral support for James while he bought a new car (!) before forging further
east, crossing the border into Quebec for a month of je-ne-sais-quoi.
The vague plans for our month in Quebec included lots of hiking, some camping and plenty of sampling of Quebec food.
Montreal
Our first stop was in Montreal, where our Japan-festival
continued as we caught up with both Sarah and Ivan. More catching up on past
adventures and future plans, over some great local food and drink. Unfortunately
my camera was out of film so we didn’t get pictures of either night (???) so
you’ll just have to trust us that they’re both looking and doing great.
The rest of our two days in Montreal we spent exploring. We’d visited before on a cold fall weekend when we’d been told by many people to come back in summer when the city comes alive. And it certainly does: streets closed to traffic, festivals, music all around.
We rented bikes and did a long ride along the canal and the old port, and had our first look at the mighty St Lawrence River, or ‘Le Fleuve' (pronounced like Lurrrv). Fun fact – in French, they differentiate between fleuves (which empty into oceans) and rivieres (which empty into fleuves). We’re going to be spending a lot of time with Le Fleuve over the coming weeks, as we follow it all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Jazz Festival also happened to be on, so we caught a couple of bands. And Michelle got us a table at a restaurant that our friend Liz had given her a recipe book from. All locally sourced ingredients, with many of them foraged from the local forests. Delish!
And the kitchen appeared to have a delightfully macabre sense of humour as well…
The taste of the Eastern Townships
From Montreal, we momentarily left Le Fleuve and headed to the ‘Eastern Townships’, a handful of small towns east of Montreal and south of Quebec City, in the hopes of finding some Quebec food, wine and outdoor fun.
On our way through the Townships we made a quick stop at a local cheese shop to pick up some squeaky-fresh cheese curds and other cheeses and we were ready for a picnic at a local winery. Who knew there was a thriving wine region just east of Montreal? Even one that makes vermouth, our new favourite drink from Spain.
Our base to explore the Townships was Magog. Just 50km from the US border and in the foothills of the Appalachian mountain range, Magog sits on a large lake that stretches down across the US/Canadian border, Lake Memphremagog. This lake is home to the terrifying sea monster known locally as Memphre. We were lucky enough to snap a shot of the horrible beast. Sorry for the grainy quality – my hands were shaking badly as it reared up in front of us.
To calm our nerves, we went to taste some craft beer at a local microbrewery in an old train station.
We also went and tasted some sea buckthorn. Who knew that you could make so many different products with sea buckthorn? Oils, vinegars, soaps, spices, syrups, jams… in fact, while we’re at it, who here even knows what sea buckthorn is?? Apparently it’s a shrub second only to Moses’ burning bush for its miraculous powers. Anyway, the jam is pretty darn good. We also picked up some white balsamic which – apparently – goes extremely well in a gin and tonic. We will be exploring those miraculous powers in the coming days.
Since the Romans didn’t manage to make their way to North America, Al’s obsession with aqueducts has had to be put on hold until we’re back in Europe. Hydroelectric dams have had to serve as a poor cousin. Luckily Quebec has dams to spare. If Quebec was an animal, no doubt it would be a beaver, and a prolific beaver at that. If there’s a river in Quebec, there’s a dam on it – and usually more than one. And if you’re looking for a river, just follow the high voltage power lines and you’ll find it. Quebec is the largest hydro electric power producer in Canada, and 94% of its electricity comes from hydro.
Which is a lengthy preamble to our day trip to Parc de la Gorge de Coaticook. We were drawn to the parc because of its footbridge, which back in 1989 was the world’s longest. Alas it has been beaten out many times over since then. The longest one is now in the Czech Republic, which opened just 6 weeks ago and is more than 4 times longer. In fact, this one isn’t even the longest in Canada anymore. Technology in foot bridges has improved a lot in 30 years apparently, and apparently the footbridge engineers are a competitive bunch. Anyway, it seemed like a nice hike, and it has a pretty cool waterfall as well. Which, of course, has a dam on it. So we learned a little bit more about dams.
We took a day hike up Mont Mégantic, which seemed like a must do for the name alone. The view at the top was a little anti climactic as we emerged for the forest to find a 70m tv tower and people who had driven up and parked just around the corner. Luckily it was a very nice walk in the forest.
The First Francophones
We headed to Ile d’Orleans, a small island in the St Lawrence River within sight of Quebec City. We’d spent a great 5-day city break in Quebec City a few years ago so decided to see something a little different this time. The island is very proud of its French Heritage. It is the site of the first French colony in Quebec and many Francophones across North America are apparently descended from the families that first settled here.
It’s a great place to visit with a nice vibe. It reminded us a lot of Prince Edward County back in Ontario. It’s the kind of place where people don’t lock their doors, or their electric bikes.
For dinner
the first night we decided to walk down to the local pub for a meal. On our way
there we heard some live music playing. We discovered a live cover band playing
on the steps of the local church.
We had stumbled across the final part of the ‘Fest Nautique’… whatever that was. Never mind – we kicked back, ate some poutine and listened to some Leonard Cohen and other covers.
One of the claims to fame of this little island is the landing of the first cows from Europe to the North American colonies. They’ve been making cheese here since 1635. Strangely we didn’t see any evidence of cows but there was an excellent fromagerie doing a great trade in Paillasson (a cheese that is fried like halloumi) and iced cheese (ice cream made from their fresh cheese, faisselle).
From the Ile we drove north to Saguenay fjord to once again meet up with Jas and Chantal for 10 days of hiking, sea kayaking as well as cheese, gin and beer tasting. And games – lots of games. Canasta, Hearts, Spades, 500, boules, Clue, Pool….all will be revealed in our next post, Of Parks, Fjords and Caves.
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