The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Laurentians lure foodies, outdoors lovers
Laurentians lure foodies, outdoors lovers to road trip in countryside near Montreal in Quebec
The Laurentians is a sublime and beautiful destination for a warm-weather road trip.
The Laurentians, a huge natural area in Quebec just northwest of Montreal, is a sublime and beautiful destination for a warmweather road trip.
Although I’d made its acquaintance from ski trips earlier in my life, I had the great good fortune to explore it with a Frenchspeaking friend last summer after enjoying the Montreal Jazz Festival.
A diversity of ecosystems exists in this nearly 900-square-mile area, while 22 lakes, more than 100 rivers, two national parks and 20 resorts make recreation of all sorts possible.
But we both were foodies eager to see what’s being produced in the sprawling agricultural southeastern Laurentians, quite distinctive from the mountainous ski resort area I’d known in the past.
Crossing the river by ferry to Oka made it seem much more distant from busy Montreal than its 15mile separation. Since 1909, the Traverse Oka-Hudson ferry has made the crossing of the Outaouais River near its mouth with the Lake of Ten Mountains just beyond the western limits of Montreal. The ferry carries about a dozen vehicles — fewer when trucks or motorhomes await passage — and rarely requires reservations. In winter, an ice bridge takes vehicles across the expanse.
Oka ferry from Hudson takes 10 minutes and departs every 15 minutes from both shores, so if the first ferry is filled, just wait for another.
Arrive in Oka to become immersed in a tranquil countryside with abundant fresh produce sold from roadside stands and farmers’ markets.
The village of Oka is famous for the soft rind washed cheeses carrying the Oka name and known all over North America. They were originally made here by Trappist monks.
In fact, a visit to the cheese factory is a great initiation to the Chemin de Terroir, a 140-mile driving trip connecting rural farms and other producers of everything from cheese to maple syrup, lavender, honey, cider and extraordinary vegetables.
It was just the first cheese producer we visited. We tasted as we went,
and my friend Pierre carried an ice-filled cooler on his back seat so we could
shop among perishables and put together picnics. That’s a great idea for anyone
visiting this area with orchards, wineries, cider mills, sugar shacks, gardens and pick-it-yourself farms, orchards that await down country lanes and byways.
A diversity of ecosystems exists in this nearly 900-square-mile area, while 22 lakes, more than 100 rivers, two national parks and 20 resorts make recreation of all sorts possible.
If you stop at Tarterie du Verger de la Musique, as we did, you will be unlikely to be able to resist the homemade apple bread until lunch.
Here can be found North America’s oldest water driven flour mill, established in 1762 near Saint Eustace and still grinding out wheat and buckwheat flours the old-fashioned way.
Check out the Buckwheat Cake Festival at the end of September in this charming town and learn about its heritage.
Not far away are a pair of alpaca farms, a couple of regional museums and lots of great restaurants to experience.
It helps to know a smattering of French or have a French-speaking friend to meander with, but English speakers are not difficult to find.
An annual farm open house, this year on Sept. 9, will find dozens of farms open for tours and tasting.
I especially enjoyed Route des Gerbes-d’Angelica near Mirabel, with its 14 themed gardens framed around the angelica plant, an herb used for culinary and medicinal purposes from its roots to its seeds.
The huge La Maison Lavande near Saint-Eustace has built a thriving business around lavender, with dozens of places to lounge or picnic around the fields, including an adults-only area outfitted with hammocks. It has more than
a million lavender plants, many of them used in the preparation of foods available in its visitor center restaurant, along with perfumes, soaps and creams found in its shops.
I bought a roll-on mosquito repellent that did the trick when we got to forests farther north.
Intermiel, near Mirabel, takes one into the fascinating world of bees and also has honey and products such as liqueurs and mead
wine that are made from it. A tour here includes the opening of a hive by a beekeeper, tastings of honeys made from a variety of flowering plants and an education into the many healthful properties of honey and its byproducts.
As you head north, you’ll note fewer farm fields and more forests, with villages marked by church steeples. The Route 15 freeway will speed you to the ski resorts, including bustling MontTremblant,
but there’s a more pleasant way to go.
Many of the area’s towns and villages have populations of 5,000 to 10,000 people, a few of them connected on the popular Le P’tit Train du Nord Linear Park. It’s a 125-mile bicycle trail created from a turn-ofthe-20th-century rail line that took skiers and others to mountain villages. Many of the former rail stations have been converted for cozy lodging and restaurants which serve cyclists — and cross-country skiers in winter.
Those craving golf, ziplining, hiking, canoeing and whitewater rafting can find them in the Laurentians, where it’s even possible to arrange a helicopter tour. Most of these things can be found at Mont-Tremblant, which is idyllic in both summer and winter. Its landmark 314room hotel, the Fairmont Tremblant, recently completed a renovation that transformed its spa and public spaces, as well as its rooms and suites. It’s at the edge of a leafy pedestrian village best seen in a stroll around town. There you’ll find a casino, restaurants, shops, lodging and gondola lift, which will whisk you to the mountain top for spectacular views.