We
were enjoying the meandering drives, so we continued that on the way to the
Charlevoix region. We stopped at cheese place we noticed enroute, buying some
very fresh cheese curds there. And we stopped at the Musée de l'Abeille,
as we knew from last time that they made amazing
honey products. But we arrived at the same time that a school group was there,
and oh my! I went to the washroom at one point, then came out and there were
kids everywhere! Jean had managed to escape, but I was trapped. Nothing to do
but wait for them to be herded out again. Which didn't take that long, really.
Then we bought honey, and chocolates, and continued on our way.
Jean noticed that there was a National Park on the way, so we decided to stop in there and go for a hike. (As was typical for this trip, it was a beautiful day.) We took a route that brought us in view of a heron's nest. A telescope was set up such that you could easily spot the nest, but we couldn't see the birds, though they had apparently hatched. Oh well. We then continued into the wooded part, and saw that the warning about bears wasn't just rote—there was a lot of bear poop! But we didn't spot any of those actual critters.
On the way out, Jean got some pictures of hummingbirds.
We stayed at the Auberge des Peupliers, which is up in la Malbaie. We liked the Auberge. For one, they have an excellent restaurant. We ate there the first night, have the seven-course dinner. Again, really excellent food. Jean had the duck, I had the quail. The included cheese course was a definite highlight, with every single one being just fantastic. Another was the Cote du Rhone red we had—wow. A private reserve, no point in noting what it actually was, but it tasted amazing. (Finally making us forget that Chardonnay.) We had breakfast there a couple times as well, and that was a feast. Fresh muffins, your item (crepes or eggs) with two sides (bacon or ham or cheese or baked beans...), fresh juice and coffee...
We had selected the cheapest room, and it's an older place, so no great shakes there, though it was a good bed with big puffy pillows. But they did have a hot tub and sauna area we could reserve just for the two of us, so that made for a couple nice evening enders. But the one downside was its location in La Malbaie, which doesn't otherwise have that much to offer, if you aren't into casinos. We spent the other two days just driving back down to the Baie St Paul area, which interested us more.
So
on that... Our first day's drive we decided to focus on items on the way to
Baie St Paul. That included stops at many artists galleries in Les Eboulements.
We found that many focused on Charlevoix scenes, which we kind of got bored
with. But there were a couple more adventurous artists, included one who had
a 3D style, including paintings that could go in the corner. Very interesting
to look at.
We had lunch in little St Joseph sur la Rive, visited the quite interesting Papeterie there—works of art created with and on fine paper, basically—and took the ferry over to Iles aux Coudres again. We were a little less rushed than last time we had been there, so were able to visit the mill, the cidery, some art shops, and take a little hike.
We did have dinner in Baie St Paul. The restaurant we had wanted to go to didn't appear to be operating, so we just selected Au 55, and it was great. We had the table d'hote, had to stick to wine by the glass (as Jean was driving), and had a really nice meal. I believe I was in a vegetable mood this day, and actually had a ratatouille type of thing (though it wasn't exactly ratatouille).
The next day was devoted to Baie St Paul itself, and started with many gallery visits. And here, the artists were much more varied, and very talented, and Jean found plenty he liked. And OK, I found some I liked, too. And occasionally they were even the same pieces. But we continued to have price tag issues.
After lunch at Cafe des Artistes, we focused on more food! We had chocolate-covered soft ice cream. Not that Dairy Queen stuff—real chocolate, 70% cocoa, thick coating. It was delicious, but so messy! I'm not sorry I tried it, but probably won't have it again!
Then we drove to the Ecomusée du fromage, where you could purchase a little sampler plate of their cheeses. We did, and found the one that we really liked was made with la Canadienne, an original but now rare breed of cow.
Next: More cheese, this time at Maurice Dufour cheese shop. We already knew that we liked their blue cheese (my favourite blue cheese from anyone) and their classic migneron, but we also tried new ones they'd developed, like this really creamy goat cheese, and quit enjoyed those too. So we picked up a bunch. (And we also found out their restaurant was closed for good, after the chef's departure.)
Then we visited our foie gras farm. We went on the tour again, finding out the changes in the three years since we'd last been, and noting that, once again, these ducks seemed pretty happy. (The owner is quite charming, as well.) We bought duck products in many varieties.
I now felt we needed to walk (and yes, it was nice again), so we took to part of this trail that actually runs the length of the Charlevoix. Though pretty well indicated, we somehow managed to go slightly off-route, but not enough to get really lost. It's quite a good trail, at least the bit we did of it.
We selected a place called l'Orange Bistro for our last Charlevoix dinner, eating out on the patio. It was kind of fun watching the street scenes. I had the duck special. Jean had osso bucco. We were both happy with that. We did wine by the glass again. They had an interesting approach to that here—opening three bottles of each colour, various price ranges, that you could select from that day.
We did a bit of meandering on the way back home, also. We had determined to stop at yet another cheese shop—the one that makes the Sauvagine, one of our favourite Quebec cheeses. The GPS helped us find it, and we located a number of cheeses we liked, including the Cendré de lune.
We meandered a bit less afterward, hoping to not be home too late on the Sunday. Still, we decided to dine in Ottawa. We went to Mama Teresa's on Somerset for another patio dinner in the sun. Jean had osso bucco again, the special this day, while I went with an appetizer platter to start (recommended), and gnochi with tomato sauce for main. Quite fine.
Then it was back on the road. When we decided we wanted to stop, there actually weren't that many hotels about. (We were off the main highway to make the drive more pleasant.) But we did find this little motel. A bit dodgy, maybe, but OK for one night.
Not too much to report about the rest of the way. We took the 407 through Toronto, which was much more pleasant than the 401 on the way in had been. (Just got the bill, though.) And we got halfway through the audible book The Song Is You. Guess we need another trip to find out how it ends.
More photos available at Picassa.