You should know that the natural way linking Quebec City and the beautiful Montreal (I will talk about soon) is the St Lawrence River ... the problem arises for those that do not move by boat
: D.
If, like us, you travel on four wheels, why you do not take the Hwy 20 which is located along the river?
The icing on the cake this Hwy and the Hwy 10 will take you to the wonderful Cantons de l 'Est!
Along the way we also met a famous Canadian rock band:).
Questa regione è un favoloso insieme di morbide colline, fitti boschi verde smeraldo e pascoli verde acceso, senza dimenticare i laghi splendenti!
This region is a fabulous set of rolling hills, dense emerald forests and green pastures, without forgetting the sparkling lakes!
The region begins in the south-east area of Montreal, about 80 km, and reaches to the border with Vermont and New Hampshire.
Here every season has obvious natural features and often tasty, in fact in the spring the sap is extracted from maple trees for the delicious syrup, summer is the time to go fishing and swimming in lakes, in autumn you are surrounded by the colours that trees are painted, it's produced the apple cider that you can sample the local pub; winter is a good time for skiing or snowboarding!
Do not forget that during the warmer months is widespread in cycling.
Also here is famous the production of ice wine, which I had already talked you while we were on the' Isle d 'Orleans, a dessert wine which is obtained from frozen grapes.
For further information please contact the local tourist offices, one of these (and they are many, you can find at least one in each town) is Eastern Townships Regional Tourism Office, Tel 450 375 8774 \ 866 472 6292; www.easterntownships.cc; exit 68 Hwy 10 , you can find practically at the output for Granby \ Bromont.
In short, we headed towards our new destination, the direction of Sherbrooke, the industrial capital of the region but also the largest city of Cantons de l'Est, and here we get to Lennoxville.
There is an extraordinary contrast between the French influence evident in Sherbrooke and Lennoxville very English town, situated only 5 km from center (you can catch buses, the number are numbers 2 and 5).
Are you wondering the reason of this major British influence? Surely one of the determining factors is the presence of Bishop 's University, where we stayed for a few nights.
You can contact it by telephone for example
Tel 819 822 9600;
Rue du College.
North Hatley si trova nella zona settentrionale del Lac Massawippi, a 17 Km, circa, da Magog; lungo la Rte 108. Se venite da Sherbrooke dovrete prendere la Rte 243 fino all' incrocio con la Rte 108.
North Hatley is located in the north of Lac Massawippi, 17 km, approximately, from Magog, along Rte 108. If you come from Sherbrooke you should take the Rte 243 until the junction with Rte 108.
It is no coincidence that it is considered one of the prettiest towns of the area, is really delicious, Americans with more economic opportunities, since 1880 began to build houses for the holidays.
Buildings' age have been turned into charming B & B and good restaurants for example.
Along a main road we came into a nice store, it seemed to be catapulted into a fantasy world and you will find rag dolls, cute clothes and many other things, then if you do the stairs you will reach upstairs, where appears a small art gallery, part of the bar \ restaurant \ pastry shop where I ate very well! I promise when I find the name of this place I'll write it, but it should not be hard to find.
Oh, almost forgot, you can leave the car in a parking entrance of the village.
This magnificent gazebo has hosted a really good local band, it was very nice to see how you can spend a beautiful afternoon in the village accompanied by good music and the lazy rays of sun that warmed further green meadows.
Wandering by car we have seen many landscapes, passing through cities such as Magog, located on the north side of Lake Memphremagog, a lake famous for being shaped like a banana and extended for about 44 Km.
I would still tell you something more about the university and Lennoxville. The town is small, the Bishop's University is really nice, there are rooms to suit all tastes from the most economical to the most luxurious.
The park is very big, there are football fields and we also saw a performance of the band and cheerleaders, really fun and beautiful especially 'cause we are not accustomed.
With a few minutes by bus you will arrive at local restaurant in town, all the time in which we were at Bishop's University we have seen many young athletes who were staying in rooms next to ours, but we also met a sweet newlywed couple, who made photos in the park and they would remain there for the weekend as the honeymoon.
The Bishop's University ( Anglican university) was founded in 1843 on the model of Oxford and Cambridge.
Just in the middle of the campus there is the St Mark's Chapel (Free admission from 8.30 to 17.00) full of decorations and wood carvings.
Lac Brome is the collective name for all those city taking site on the lake.
You must see them!!
Knowlton is located on the south waterfront, was founded in 1802, the atomsphere is absolutely British, and many buildings, that are used today, were built in the XIX.
The shops and pubs where you can eat really delicious, walking we have found beautiful shops about house's object or clothes that seem drawn with colored pencils, they are so cute!
Not to mention a great antique shop, where we could not resist and we bought a wooden Canadian duck, characteristic of Canada and produced here.
Taken by surprise by a strong storm, just when I had finished one of my drawings, we took refuge in a nearby bar where we had and we still had a snack and breakfast sometimes thanks to the goodness of sweet and savory pastries.
After a chat with the local resident, we enjoyed this simple and beautiful natural scenery at the same time, with the noise in the bottom of a lake nearby and in the company of pets in passing that it wanted to play a little.
Near the bar you will find several shops, not least a good book shop and provided, at least for the books that I have chosen, also quite convenient.
L 'Auberge Knowlton is a Victorian age hotel has been in operation since 1849, and despite the fact that the city is thoroughly modern, the magic of that age did not disappear, rather it is transmitted by everything that surrounds you.
The phone number is 450-242-6886
The site www.cclacbrome.qc.ca / AK
Address: 286 Chemin Knowlton
Double rooms with breakfast will have prices starting at $ 110 Canadian dollars.
Questo è l' albergo dove ci siamo fermate, la finestra della nostra camera dava proprio sul terrazzo, un posto piacevole dove rilassarsi e bere qualcosa. Non avendo la cena inclusa nel nostro pacchetto, davvero molto spesso siamo andate in un ristorante greco a un paio di minuti da qua dove, i simpaticissimi proprietari ci hanno divertito con le loro storie mentre attendevamo le nostre cene take-away (eravamo talmente stanche che ce ne tornavamo in camera a mangiare ma se volete potrete cenare tranquillamente a ristorante).
That 's thw hotel where we stopped, the window of our room gave on the terrace, a pleasant place to relax and drink. Not having the dinner included in our package, very often we went to a greek restaurant, a couple of minutes from here, where the very nice owners tell us fun stories while we waited our dinners take-away (we were so tired that there returned to our room to eat, but if you want you can have dinner quietly at the restaurant).
In another of our half-day trips we are coming to Sutton, very important station for winter ski and summer destination for many hikers. Walking through the main street you will see many shops and places to stay a bit to eat and drink.
It's at 18 km south of Knowlton along Rte 104 and Rte 215.
Since you are here you must not miss the chocolate factory, delightful in every way!
Cakes of all shapes and sizes, the lab exposed and information on chocolate that many people do not know!
After the trip to Sutton we went back to the hotel, we changed because we had met a little rain, and once the sun came out we took to explore Knowlton.
There are numerous places to visit ..
One of the ladies who worked there, seeing my photograph passion especially for nature photography, she showed me this sweet newborn chicks in a pot hanging from the porch, so I climbed on a chair and I have done a photo unfortunately I can not use the flash and finding myself in a precarious balance to say the least, I could not do better.
Just the night before a bad storm had done a lot of damage in the city, many very tall trees, some huge, had fallen on homes and cars, causing several damaged.
Volevamo arrivare alla spiaggia e passeggiando abbiamo notato molte persone che lavoravano per smaltire la legna degli alberi caduti.
We wanted to get to the beach and walking we noticed many people who worked to dispose the wood of fallen trees.
Il passaggio più breve per arrivare alla spiaggia era bloccato dalla caduta di molte piante, anche chi simuoveva in quod aveva dovuto proseguire a piedi per vedere il paesaggio.
The shortest passage to the beach was blocked by the fall of many plants, including those went by quod had to walk to see the landscape.
We decided to take the long way ..
Davvero grazioso il locale sul lago dove simpatiche famigliole prendevano il sole e un divertente cane di nome max si faceva coccolare. Cosi abbiamo passato un po di tempo, prima di andare a ricercare la nostra spiaggia.
Really nice the local on the lake where nice families took the sun and there was a funny dog named Max who was pampered. So we spent a little time before going to seek our beach.
Although some boats were sunk.
Finally we get to the beach but we did get just because we wanted to see the landscape for 5 minutes, since even there many trees were fallen and it was not possible to stay.
The last afternoon we went to see a plant nurseries plants where they cared exclusively lavender, and lavender were the basis of all products sold, such as soaps.
Pronti ad una nuova partenza? Ad altre fermate lungo la strada incontrando rock-band in limousine? Bene!! Allora domani si parte per Montreal!!!
Ready for a new start? To other stops along the way meeting rock-band in their limo? Great! So tomorrow we leave for Montreal!