...Rougemont apple
crumble was as
sweet and warm as
the lazy afternoon...
particularly maple syrup, honey and cranberries. In addition
to educational displays, the centre offers a maple syrup
tasting bar, gelato and pastry counter and a boutique
stocked with locally made gourmet foods.
The charming little village of Sainte-Élizabeth-de
Warwick is home to one of Quebec’s premier artisanal
cheesemakers — Fromagerie du Presbytère, housed in the
former parish church. The pews are gone and in their place,
a robot washes great wheels of cheese and places them on
racks to mature. Cheese tasting boards are available at the
presbytery next door. I loved Laliberté, a bloomy, soft
cheese and washed-rind Louis D’Or. You’ll pass the farm
that provides the mik for these award-winning cheeses on
the way out of town.
Parc Marie-Victorin in nearby Kingsey Falls is named for
the monk who founded Montreal’s botanical garden and
first documented the botany of southern Quebec. There’s
plenty to see here, including giant mosaicultures, a tropical
greenhouse, edible plantings, evanescent flower gardens
and a gift shop with botanical themed merchandise.
In Drummondville, I was fascinated by the Village
Québeçois d’Anton, which recreates the history of Quebec
in the period from 1810–1930. An artfully updated traditional
meal at the village café captured the bounty of the season.
I sampled a delicate vegetable soup, a just-picked salad with
grapes and saucisson; boulettes (meatballs in gravy) and
osso buco, with home-made pickled beets and a chunky
fruit ketchup on the side. I had always imagined Canada’s
first European settlers surviving on stodgy peasant fare
and I was delighted to be proven so deliciously wrong!
My last stop in Centre-du-Quebec was at Rose
Drummond, a sweet little shop offering coffee, cakes and
gorgeous flowers, grown in Quebec’s only cut-flower
greenhouses, which occupy two hectares out back.Montérégie
On to Montérégie, a hilly region lying between the island of
Montreal and the Appalachian Mountains. This idyllic
landscape is intersected by the Richelieu and Yamaska
Rivers, important trade routes in earlier times. OverlookingPHOTOS THIS SPREAD
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT
Delicious directions;
Mural at Le Relais,
*+3(0+*Ďƫ
! *ġ 1(ƫ
Scieur in his vineyard;
Temptation galore at
Musée du Chocolat;
Vintage cookstove at
le Fruit Defendu; Le
Fruit Defendu.60 TAST E&^ TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL^ APRIL–JUNE 2019
C A N A D A
ROAD TRIP QUEBEC