May 30th - June 2nd, 2019 Eastern Townships and Montreal

May 30th, Round Drive on the Western Side of Memphremagog

We drove to Magog in the morning of May 30th and arrived there in the early afternoon. The first thing we did was visiting the local tourist office right beside the highway. After picking up some maps and talking to a person there we decided to drive a loop on the western side of Lake Memphremagog.

Our first stop was at the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-du-Lac. The abbey is a relatively modern building with a very nice modern church attached or inside it (dating from around 1990). There is a lot of agricultural activities related to the monastery but at least when we visited only the church and the visitor shop in the basement was open and nothing else was accessible. The abbey is located at a very nice spot above Lake Memphremagog. But again nothing is really made accessible for visitors (no walking trail around the abbey complex or a path down to the lake). So after visiting the church we ended up in the visitor shop buying some items produced by the agricultural department of the abbey: Several cheeses and an apple cider. So far I liked their Fontina cheese best.

Arriving at the Abbey Saint-Benoit-du-Lac.

Afterwards we drove along the lake towards Mansonville. Along the way we passed by the Owls Head ski place. Mansonville is one of the Beaux Villages in Quebec. We parked the car and walked about 15 minutes one way from one of the main street to the other end. It is a typical Canadian village with a nice park with picnic tables in the middle of the town and nice houses, schools, churches and some shops on main street.

In Mansonville

Then we continued to Sutton. Sutton is a small town with plenty of tourism activities in summer and winter and is again one of the Beaux Villages. It has a number of shops and restaurants. The houses on main street are all tidy and neat. Sutton has something going for it. We stopped there for about one hour and walked up and down main street and also entered some shops. The area around Sutton looks very much like Vermont: High hills with river valleys in between. On the drive there the road leads over open areas with good views and through forested areas as well.

Some Houses in Sutton

Afterwards we drove back towards Magog. We did not stop anywhere. But the drive back also lead through some nice places: Brome and Knowlton with its lake looked nice.

After we had moved into the condo in Magog we walked into downtown Magog for dinner. Magog is a decent sized town located at Lake Memphremagog. It has a nice downtown core with plenty of restaurants (tourism is for sure a major business there in winter and in July/Aug/early-Sept). Unfortunately during our stay the main downtown road across its complete length was under major reconstruction. On our first evening we had dinner at the micro brewery La Memphre.

On our Walk Way into Downtown Magog: Lake Memphremagog

"La Memphre" Micro Brewery: Vegetarian Fondue Dinner

May 31th, Round Drive on the Eastern Side of Memphremagog

The next day we drove a loop on the eastern side of Lake Memphremagog. Our initial destination was Georgeville. But this village was a bit of a bust for us. Access to the lake is all private and there is not much to see. We continued further over paved and unpaved backcountry roads to BLEU LAVANDE.

BLEU LAVANDE is a lavender farm with an attached shop. We are were out of season and the plants were not blooming. But there were a number of informative sign posts about the history of the farm and the ins and outs of growing lavender. The farm also had a nice shop with lavender related products. Daniella and Gongyu were happy to buy there.

BLEU LAVANDE: Daniella with the bag of items we bought. A lavender field is in the background.

We continued to Stanstead which is located right at the US border. We spend about 1 hour in Stanstead walking through its downtown core and also had a picnic breakfast at a public park there with benches. Standstead is a neat small town with houses surrounded by large gardens with trees.

We then drove through Ayer's Cliff (it is a nice small town with a lake but we did not stop there) to Coaticook. Coaticook is another Beaux Village. It is actually more of a decent small town then a village. We walked through the downtown core there (about 30 minutes) and then continued to the local milk creamery. We had ice cream there and the ice cream was as good as claimed in the Eastern Township tourism brochure, in short it was really good.

Fromagerie La Station was next on our list. I had in the past come across their cheeses at the Picton Cheese Festival. Beside their farm, they have a relatively new cheese making facility and a very nice shop. All of this is in the middle of nowhere. I tried a number of their cheeses and bought a kg of "Alfred Le Fermier" and "Hatley Road". Their shop also sells produce from other local farms in the region (maple syrup, asparagus and similar).

Fromagerie La Station: Cheese Ripening Room

Our last fromagerie this day was Domaine du Courval. Their specialty is goat cheese. The place is very different from La Station, much smaller and tucked away in a forest area. But going there was worth it. Their various goat cheeses are really good and I bought several different ones. We also talked for a while with the owners.

We then had a lengthier picnic stop at a public park in North Hatley right on the lake. We munched a baguette with one of the goat cheeses and enjoyed the weather and scenery there.

Afterwards our intent was to see if we could hike up to Mt. Orford. However this turned out to be a bust. The ski area walkway to the top was closed off and signs stated that access was prohibited. Sepaq also had payment machines installed on the other walkways and charged about 9$ per adult person to use the hiking trails surrounding the base of Mt. Orford. It was already 4:30pm and this wasn't worth our while. I can see an access fee making sense if one uses this provincial park for a full day and especially making use of the swimming facilities or some of the other leisure facilities offered in the Orford park. So we wrote getting to the top of Mt. Orford off as a bust. The view towards Lake Memphremagog would have been really good.

Instead we walked the full length of the "Marais de Cerises" bog board walk and then fully walked into downtown Magog for dinner at "La Table Alain Rocher". Our meals there were very good and we walked back along the lake to our place.

Marais des Cerises Bog Walk near Magog

Marais des Cerises Bog Boardwalk near Magog

Magog: Lakeshore Park near Downtown

June 1st, Montreal

On Saturday morning we drove back to Montreal. On the way we had a very nice breakfast picnic at the public beach in Waterloo (another Beaux Village). We munched decent sesame seed bagels with our goat cheese. The bagles were freshly made by "La Fabrique de Bagels - Cafe Noir". Afterwards we continued our drive to Montreal. Our first destination in Montreal was the hill top. Daniella did not remember to be ever up there. Afterwards we spend time at McGill University and in the old downtown core at the harbor front. Margaret also joined us there.

Montreal: Hill Top

Montreal: Hill Top

Montreal: Hill Top

Montreal: Old Harbor Area

In the evening we had a superb dinner at "Nouilles de Lan Zhou" in china town. This is my first time that I tried fresh Chinese hand-pulled noodles. I ordered their Zhajiang noodles and they came with lots of fresh vegetables and a very good sauce. The others ordered various variations of Lan Zhou noodle soups. The restaurant is not very large and had a sizeable waiting line when we arrived and when we left. During the wait it is possible to watch how the noodles are made. I was impressed. We stayed overnight at a motel near the airport (nothing fancy or remarkable).

Lanzhou Noodle Soup

Lanzhou Noodle Soup

June 2nd, Montreal and back to Ottawa

On Sunday morning we visited the Jean Talon market and bought various items. We also had an early lunch there at Maison Premiere Boulangerie. It rained all morning. We also visited a neat shop ("Cactii en Ligne") for cactii and succulents in the area and bought some plants for Margaret prior to Jean Talon.

Getting from Jean Talon to downtown Montreal Chinatown turned out to be tricky. A large portion of Montreal streets were closed for cars because of a large bicycle event. Our intent was to visit the underground shopping malls of Montreal since it was still raining. We said goodbye to Margaret and then spend the next several hours in the underground (me mostly waiting, Gongyu and Daniella shopping). We had dinner in Chinatown at Kanbai (Kanbei is a decent restaurant away from the main tourism streets in Chinatown with plenty of locals going there).

Gongyu received a tornado warning on her cell phone during our drive back towards Ottawa. For a while we were driving towards a dark (thunder storm) cloud front. However after we received the warning we gave the cloud front a lot more attention but also recognized that the road was ultimately bending away from the inforno. After reading the news at home it turned out that some eastern parts of Ottawa experienced indeed a tornado with building damage.

Looking at the tornado area on the way back to Ottawa. For a while we were a lot closer to this area.