Final leg - Newmarket

This morning we left Brockville shortly after 10:30 and rolled into Newmarket shortly before 3:00, so the traffic was good. The car GPS wouldn't acknowledge it, but we took the new 412 to the 407 to the 404, which is a great Toronto bypass. Carole and Claude Zorzi greeted us and we immediately adjourned to the deck for refreshments. Their deck looks our onto their water feature which was the motivation for my stream addition. As the day wore on, the weather degenerated and we retreated to the great indoors. It's been a funny summer. Anyway, we had a great visit with the Zorzis and talked about future travel plans. Dinner was duck from the King Cole establishment in Newmarket and we felt like we were back in France. The evening concluded with a game of Bite Me and with that this edition of the blog comes to a close. See you in October.

Brockville alternate cruise

So, the original plan was to close off this version of the blog yesterday. However, due to peer pressure, I've decided to extend it today to the end of the trip. Although still warm, the weather was uncertain enough that Bill was reluctant to head out in the boat. An alternative plan involved a cruise of a different manner - a little excursion in Bill's new automobile, a Tesla. Curiously enough, Bill bought the car in Toronto last year because there are none available in California. The car itself is a computer, always connected to the internet and will drive itself, which we had the opportunity to experience. The next photo of the toy car on the armrest is the key. So we went down to Gananoque - pronounced Gan-nan-a-Q for the Americans - for lunch at a very nice restuarant called Riva. Then it was back to Brockville in the silent-mobile / the real zoom zoom car and plugged it in for the next couple of bucks worth of fuel. How cool! Lucky Bill and Brenda! We spent most of the rest of the day imbibing on the terrace and watching both the sailing regatta out of the yacht club and tanker traffic on the St. Lawrence. They have a truly fabulous location! We had a great stay in Brockville and wonderful visit with the Frasers.

Brockville

Today we left the foreign nation of Quebec and returned to our home nation of Ontario. That is clearly an exaggeration, but it did feel nice to have the challenging Quebec French behind us. It was a nice journey through the Gatineau to Ottawa and then down to Brockville. Maybe next time I would take the recommended ferry across the Ottawa River and avoid the city of Ottawa, but this route wasn't too bad and we made the trip in four and one half hours. Once in Brockville, we reconnected with Bill and Brenda Fraser at their river front condo. We dined out across the street tonight and then returned to their fabulous terrace on a sweltering hot night, ripe for a thunderstorm or two. This blog is now winding down for this journey as we have one more day in Brockville and then an overnight in Newmarket with Carole and Claude. It's been a great trip with some crap summer weather, but you get what you get. It will be nice to get off the road, out of our suitcases and back into our own beds in two days.

Tremblant Circuit

I'll start off today with an omission from yesterday's post and that's the amazing dinner we had last night, featuring this salmon souffle. Jenny continued to outdo herself this morning for breakfast with a berry souffle. The dining is certainly not shabby at this establishment. Today, our hosts, Craig Millar and Jenny Pearson took us on the la grande tour of the area. Their B&B is a short one minute drive from the north ski slopes of Tremblant. Then, working our way around to the south slopes, we passed the relatively new casino before stopping for a stroll in the Intrawest pedestrian village. This place may be more crowded in the summer than the winter with families looking to do the zip line, or slide down the luge course or just walk the village and trails, not to mention water activities on the lake. We then drove to the original Tremblant village for lunch at the hotel and encountered these guys gasing up. We then rounded off the circuit with a drive through Centre Ville - St. Jovite. Back at Plumes et Glisse we retired to our room on the second floor, one of three guest rooms, for a brief recess. The house is nicely laid out with a guest common area just inside the front door and the kitchen where the magic happens, off to the right. Because they are in the woods, they also have lots of song birds and these little guys. They really do have a great location and their B&B is doing good business, so la vie est belle! So as the afternoon wore on, a single 35 yr. old man from Lille in France showed up as Jenny and Craig's client for the night. As Jerome joined us now, we got the best work out with our French that we've had on this trip and this on our last night in Quebec. Jerome spoke very little English - actually only a few words - so most conversations converted into French to include him. Boy, you quickly realize how many holes there are in your base of vocabulary! Thank goodness for Google Translate! Anyway, Craig was on the BarBe tonight and low and behold what should appear at the end of their driveway, but this guy. Jerome was pretty excited, as were we all, but a deer showing up during dinner in France is pretty unusual. He was loving his new experiences with flora and fauna in Canada, like chipmunks that don't exist in France. We had fun during another exceptional dinner by the host discussing a miriade of topics in hackneyed French. Heh, we tried! Anyway, the weather has gone back to summer and we're heading south to Ontario.

North to Tremblant

We set out from our hotel shortly before 10:00 this morning on a quest to find the Rosemere SAQ. The skies , by the way , are now pristine blue. Thank the Lord! We found said SAQ and continued on to Saint Saveur for fuel and food. We arrived at Plumes et Glisse shortly before 2:00 and Jenny was there in waiting. We are now on the friends section of our travels - no more hotels. Jenny and Craig have a fabulous place on the edge of Tremblant skiing. We had a marvelous dinner courtesy of Jenny, a salmon en croute. Tomorrow, more exploring.

Vieux Montreal

Well, our wishes mostly came true today. It was still overcast, but only random sprinkles persisted and therefore we had an enjoyable stroll through Old Montreal. From a touristic point of view, the old section of Montreal doesn't hold a candle to old Quebec City. If you want that old world charm, then drive the extra distance to Quebec City. Having said that, they are doing a fair bit of restorative work here in the old town and perhaps the charm factor will go up in a few years. From our Hotel LaBelle, shown above, it is a meer 10 minute walk to the old town and about 10 minutes to the Latin Quarter and only minutes off Rue Ste. Catherine, so we're pretty happy with our hotel choice. We entered the old town from its eastern end and decided to walk the old town's length to Notre Dame de Sacre Coeur at the westen end of the old town. This is the Basilica where Celine Dion was married and her husband's funeral was held. Immediately across the street from the Basilica is the first branch of the Bank of Montreal, built in 1817. Working our way back in a circuitous manner, we passed both City Hall and the Chateau Ramezay, built by a French Governor. The old town is not far from both the '67 Expo site and the Olympic park, most of which is long gone. The original market at Bon Secours is now a tourist marketplace with lots of Quebecois goodies. The building to the right in the last picture is the Bon Secours Chapel from the water. The front of the chapel was also right across the street from our choice for lunch. The Calvet House was built in 1725 is attached to our retaurant (the red building) called Les Filles du Roy. These buildings were almost torn down in the 60's to build a highway. Let's then applaud the campaign to save the history of this area. This was the beginning of the renaissance of this locale. The rooms in both Auberge and restaurant are extremely ornate and interesting and lunch itself was excellent. They also have a menagerie of exotic birds. The only thing we've missed so far is a Montreal smoked meat sandwich, so on the way back to the hotel we dropped into a SAQ and IGA for dinner delights. We also had an extremely helpful employee of SAQ find and reserve a special product, which we'll pick up tomorrow on our way north. Final assessment: Montreal was worth the visit, but we would have enjoyed it more if the weather had been better, given IT IS JULY!

To Montreal

The day started off dry enough, so we took one final nostalgic visit, this time to Dawn's English High School to which the military delivered her for high school. She had no idea that the school was a mere two kilometres from the historic section of old Quebec City. The school is looking a little tired, so either there is a new English High School or there are not many English students anymore. The short travel leg today-under 300 km- was mostly rainy and when we arrived at our Hotel LaBelle hotel and Suites, our room wasn't ready, so we drove downtown to the underground shopping concourse where Dawn found herself a new outfit. We then drove to the Latin Quarter for lunch a 3 Brasseurs, a popular pub chain in Quebec. The fellows at the next table seemed to have their beer needs under control. This container held 3-5 litres. Later in the afternoon, we finally got into our room, parked the car in the hotel garage and settled in. Since we have a kitchenette, we next visited an IGA a short walk away on a pedestrian Ste. Catherine St. What a fabulous downtown grocery store! That will save us from eating out every meal. We are hoping for two things tomorrow. No or at least less rain and a nice walk through old Montreal.

Quebec City

Although the day started out cloudy and cool, by mid afternoon the sun has come out and Quebec City started to feel more like July. Our slow start to a carless - not careless - day started with another trek down into the heart of old Quebec. Construction at the ramparts stopped us from going up to the Plains of Abraham and then down the boardwalk to the Chateau Frontenac. Also, the main stage for the Summer Music Festival is set up smack in the centre of the Plains. Our prime objective was to find a way to the lower town without all the steps. On this route we stopped in at Simons Dept.Store where Dawn worked as a teenager. Our route eventually took us along the lower ramparts with its guns still pointed out over the St. Lawrence, protecting the city from those nasty English. We finally comingled with all the other tourists in Lower Town. As it was once again time to put on the feed bag, we stopped at the Cochon Dingue (Crazy Pig) after also contemplating Lapin Saute (Fried Rabbit). We shared a substantial poutine with all things pig - sausage, bacon and pulled pork. Yum! Stairs to return to the upper town were still not an option, so a quick trip up the funicular took care of that. The summit was at the foot of the Chateau Frontenac where an avant grade statue of Alice in Wonderland by Salvidor Dali was on display. Then it was time to waddle our way back to our hotel for a rest. On the way we found a new restaurant in the place of the Cafe de la Paix that had been on that site and a favourite of the Wilsons for many years. On this excursion through French Canada, we have noted that compared to previous journeys, just about everybody we encounter will readily speak English to us, even though we always start off in French. It's certainly great for most tourists. For happy hour today, we went about fifty metres up la Grande Allee to the Hotel la Concorde, then up to the roof and their revolving restaurant called Ciel. In the 90 minute revolution, we got some pretty spectacular views of the city. For our one revolution, we started off with a Grey Goose martini and finished with a glass of rose Cremant de Bourgoyne. We had some crudités including this dish. We also got a good look at the roof of our hotel. It's the gray peaked roof on the right. Also a look at the major concert venue from the back. What a good choice for cocktails! Then we returned to Louis Hebert for dinner and shared three appetizers - a mixed salad; foie gras on a bed of cripsy rhubarb; and veal sweetbreads with wild mushrooms. Yes, I did say share. Dawn quite enjoyed the sweetbreads better than the foie gras. She was certainly a good sport and I do applaud her. Then it was back through the throngs to the hotel as the city continued to vibrate. What a fabulous city!! By the way, the crudités? Cheese curds in olive oil and basil. How Quebecois!