Visiting the Charlevoix Region

Added 2 January 2006. Pictures and stories from our trip to the Charlevoix region, the week of October 22-30, 2005.

First stop: The nation's capital

Out the night before at a play (Oleanna), we decided it was just unrealistic to have an early start. So we really didn't—we didn't get on the road until about 11 AM. The ride to Ottawa was relatively dull and uneventful. Naturally, we arrive too late to do much more than take a walk into downtown (our hotel is near the downtown) and have dinner at Clair de Lune—a very acceptable but not outstanding meal.

The next day is more active. Because Jean admires the building, we visit what used to be the Museum of Civilization but is now being transformed into a Museum of Nature. Displays are few at this stage, but what they have is quite interesting. Then we drive to Orleans to have lunch with Jean's brother Pierre, his wife Monique, and her daughter Renelle. It's the first time we've seen their house—quite nice.

Next is a visit to the new War Museum. It takes you through Canada's whole history of wars, in date order. Exhibits are well-done, but in the end, you are a bit tired of war and thinking, "Can't we all just get along"? But that's probably a very desirable outcome, when you think about it.

We have dinner at Domus, which specializes in using Canadian ingredients in its food. We are quite impressed! Jean has his first foie gras of the trip. Jean eats foie gras very slowly—so slowly, in fact, our next course arrives before he's done. But the highlight could be the crème caramel for dessert—the first Jean feels comes close to the one he had in France on our honeymoon.

After breakfast the next day, we go to Stubbe Chocolate and stock up on various goodies. Truly, these people make the best chocolate...

Next destination: Québec's capital city

Again, we don't arrive super-early, but do have some time to walk around the Old City before we go for supper. I think we tried La Crémaillère this time, which is a restaurant that Mom and Dad brought Jon and Joanne to last summer. That was a nice experience. It's a very attractive room, excellent service, very good food, and slightly lower prices than many of the other high-caliber restaurants.

View from our hotel (Chateau Laurier) in Québec City

The next day we go looking for a mall, as the weather isn't so hot. And this proves surprisingly difficult to locate (which does wonder for the mood, when you haven't had coffee yet). Anyway, we do eventually find a mall, get a mediocre breakfast, but then things improve as I buy the apple green coat that I've been getting compliments on ever since. Added bonus: It's much warmer than the coat I had brought, so it's better for walking around in.

And that's what we do, now visiting the various little shops of Old Québec. Jean picks up a nice cardigan at a Tristan Amérique store. We decide to have lunch at Le St-Amour, a restaurant with just a beautiful interior, and food to match. For supper we go for Thai at Aspara.

Le Charlevoix

The entry point to Charlevoix is only about an hour from Québec City. On the way, we stop at a Honey Museum, which shows the whole lifecycle of honey bees. They actually make honey there, so the exhibits feature real bees. We pick up a few honey-based products there—they end up being so good, I wish I'd bought more.

The drive then gets particularly interesting as we go through a mountainous region and actually encounter snow at the higher points. It's quite remarkable how quickly and how dramatically the weather changes.

But the snow clears again, leaving drizzle, when we arrive at Baie St-Paul, the entry-point city to the Charlevoix region. Two things quickly became evident, and would become recurring issues during our visit here:

• The scenery was lovely, even though fall colours were a little past their peak and blue skies were relatively rare (see images below).
• Being in low tourist season, between summer and skiing, a lot of things were closed or open only on weekends—but we were there during the week.

So at Baie St-Paul, for example, we found that Chocolaterie Cynthia was open, but was not serving the ice cream dipped in real dark chocolate that I had read about, nor the crepes advertised on the wall. (We sighed and bought a few truffles.) The three-star restaurant we really wanted to try was open only on weekends. We are able to visit and buy cheese at La Maison d'Affinage Maurice Dufour (they make two wonderful cheeses—the amazing blue Ciel de Charlevoix and a nice, milder cheese called Le Migneron), but their restaurant is closed.

We have similar experience in trying to visit art galleries La Malbaie—they're nearly all closed, even those whose sign claims they are open (which is just rude). We are able to visit the small but interesting Musée du Charlevoix, which has a nice little shop in it. And we finally find an open store called La Folklorique Boutique. Turns out it's the last week of opening before its fall closing break, so everything is on sale. We do buy an original painting by a Charlevoix artist who was born somewhere in Northern Ontario, but has lived in Québec most of his life. (At left. Click it to see a larger version.)

The auberge we stay at is Auberge Beauséjour. It's large and nice with very friendly proprietors. And, we are absolutely the only guests (beginning to understand why everything is closed). We had signed up for the breakfast/sleeping package only, but with the difficulty in finding open restaurants, we end up having both our dinners there as well. Not that it's a hardship. Despite being the only guests, we have a full menu of à la carte and specials to choose from. And the cooking is very good—I recall shrimps in anise sauce, grilled trout, and tarte au sucre (lost my trip notes, so I'm going on memory here...).

The second day we get ourselves to La Ferme Basque du Charlevoix by calling ahead to make an appointment. This duck farm, run by a woman formerly from France, specializes in foie gras and other duck products. We got to tour the area and meet the ducks at various stages of life. She pointed out how they had more space and individual care compared with larger operations. We also bought various foie gras products there.

We also took the ferry out to Isle-aux-Coudres. After stopping at the Verger Pedneault, and buying several of their cidars and ice wines, we drive around the rest of the scenic island, stopping for some extra pictures at a windmill.

             Auberge Beauséjour                                                                                  Windmill on Iles-aux-Coudres

More Charlevoix pictures and comments from Jean

Visiting Montreal

We decided to spend the final weekend of our vacation in Montreal. This also proves to be the best weather of the trip—it gets sunny and warmish. We take a wrong turn on the way in to Montreal, and end up taking a slow route to Joanne's. So that's a bit irritating, but we get there. Joanne is still at work at this point, so we visit with Jon and three cats. We have dinner there (once Joanne gets home) and just have a quiet evening.

The next day we head out for a little shopping. At a Jacob outlet, I get some pants and lingerie. We then head into Old Montreal to visit its shops and art galleries; we also have lunch at one of the restaurants there. And, we visit a museum there that we hadn't been to before, presenting the history of Montreal, and also featuring a special exhibit on jazz. Nicely laid out.

A stop at Joanne's to change, then we head out for dinner to Laloux, one of our favourites in Montreal. It's Saturday, though, so it's busier there than we've ever seen it. We meet up with Gerry (a respirologist Jean is friends with, in Montreal for conference), his wife Phyllis and their son. We all enjoy our dinners, from the orange mussel soup to the Grand Dessert.

The next day we take Joanne and Jon out for breakfast, then head back home.