Today is our final full day in Quebec City and we decided to begin by driving about 2 hours north(east) of centerville to a small town called Saint Aubert. But first, we stop at La Boite a Pain for our morning latte and chocolate crossiant of course.
Farmlands surrounding Saint Aubert, QC
Saint Aubert is a super small town in the middle of farmland. It is essentially one road that is mostly residential with one church, one grocery store/everything shop, a post office, a cemetery, and a dairy farm. We went into the shop but discovered they don't sell any postcards or any tourist souvenirs like that. This wasn't too surprising as I don't suspect they get many "non locals" in the town. The couple of people that we talked to were very nice, even though they didn't speak much English. We did manage to buy a special can of maple syrup that the shopowner got for us from the back room, which was super nice of her!
Below are photos from the Saint Aubert cemetary.
The Saint Aubert post office.
Below is some sort of Christmas village that we drove past on our way from Saint Aubert to our next destination in Rivere du Loupe.
Our next destination is a place I only found the night before while scrolling through the "Saint Aubert" hashtag on Instagram. The only way I had for us finding the place was the vague map screenshot from Instagram.
Right before we left Saint Aubert we went back to ask the shop owner if she knew directions to Rivere du Loupe, because we knew our next destination is in that town but we didn't have the specific address for the place. She tells us it is about another hour north of Saint Aubert. So with that we head on our quest. We see the highway exit for Rivere du Loupe and take it, then it's just up to me trying to make sense of of the street names I see on my map screenshot and compare it with the street names we are seeing in person. Suddenly, the streets match up perfectly and next thing we know we the sign reading "aux Fous de Brasserie".
Fous de Brasserie is a small microbrewery in Rivere du Loupe and I recommend you take the trip to try their beers and see the town! We split a flight of beers along with a small veggie pizza (as our snack). They have a range of different beers so there will most likely be something that each person in your group likes. And the town of Rivere du Loupe is a very nice town. It had a very different feel than the other places we had visited on the trip prior, in a good way. My mom commented that it felt the most like Wayne (or that sort of town) than any of the other places which were either cities or farm towns.
After our little snack break, we drove back down to the center of Quebec City and headed over a bridge to Ile de Orleans. This is a island that everyone tells you to visit while you exploring Quebec. We were thinking it was small island until we were driving around the perimeter of it and realized it actually quite big!
A single airplane wing on a truck - Mobile photo (edited in Lightroom)
"It's superman? It's rocket? No, It's a single airplane wing on a truck!"
After passing the plane wing on the highway a truck filled with bales of hay pulled in front us just as we crossed the bridge onto the island. This created a very long line cars behind us as the hay truck was only going about 15 mph (max). At last, though, we made it to the island just before sundown and were ready for round one of island exploring!
Traffic slowed up a bit entering ile de Orleans when this hay truck turned onto the road - Mobile photo (edited in Lightroom)
We started by finding the Cassis Monna de Filles, which proved a bit more difficult than intended as it took a while for us to match up the distances on our island map with the actual driving distances between places. When we got there we got and walked around the place but we didn't have reservations so we didn't stay to eat dinner or do a formal taste test of the cassis. Next up was one of the wineries on the island but we only ended up driving by to see it because they were closed. Third spot was a cidery. We found this place but as it was sundown when we arrived the cidery was closing, but the owner did give up a coupon to use since we said we'd be back tomorrow when they were open. We also got a great view of the spectacular sunset!
By now we were definately ready for dinner (or our next meal) so we found a sugar shack and after stopping to at least see what it is we decided to give it a try.
Sunset over Ile de Orleans - Mobile Photo (edited in Lightroom)
When we first got to this Sugar Shack there were a few bus tours inside already and there was an accordian player and people dancing. It sort of looked similar to an informal wedding reception when all the guests are on the dance floor for things like the Hora dance. A waitress seated us and handed us our prix fixe supper menu and we ordered a bottle of Maple beer to share.
We watched the bus tour folks dance which included a giant conga line roaming through the tables all across the room. Then our first course was brought out; this consisted of Canadian pea soup, pork rinds, and homemade tomato ketchup with bread. The main course included maple ham, maple baked beans, boiled potatoes, and a meat pie. For dessert we enjoyed a few Pancakes with maple syrup. Do you see why they call it a Sugar Shack now?
It wasn't the best food of the trip but it was a fun environment and a good experience to gain on our trip through Canada.
As the night came to an end we drove back to our campsite for one last night in Quebec City. Along the way spotted the Montmorency Falls and saw they are lit up at night - it looked cool!
Stay tuned for the post-Quebec City portion of the trip coming. Cheers!
