We made an unexpected pit stop in Drummondville as I wanted to see the house that Veve grew up in. A quick drive turned into a 2 hour visit. Veve stopped to get a look at the house and ended up knocking on the neighbor's door. It turns out that the neighbor from all those years ago still lives in the house. Christianne used to babysit Veve's younger siblings and was good friends with his parents. We spent about 2 hours catching up with her and meeting her fiance, Jacques. It was a great unexpected stop.
Once we were back on the road, it took us a little longer than we thought to get to La Malbaie. When we showed up at the campground at 7pm, we were surprised to find that it had closed for the season (they should put this kind of information on their website)! We both were starting to feel the flu coming on (thank you Desjardins) so we drove 500 feet down the road and found Gite Bellevue! A cozy little place where we could sleep in comfort! We met 2 couples from Toulon, France and one man from Paris, France the next morning at breakfast and it turned out the 2 gentlemen had worked on nuclear submarines and one of the owners had worked on submarines as well.
We spent some time taking a tour of La Forge Cauchon and got a demonstration on blacksmithing.
We stopped at a great little boulangerie called Pain d'exclamation! If anyone gets up to La Malbaie, you have to go. We had a great lunch and fantastic coffee!
Then it was off to Baie Saint Paul but first we stopped at La Chocolaterie du Village in Les Eboulements where we picked up dark chocolate infused with lavender, sichuan peppers and salt. They all tasted scrumptilitious and I don't normally like dark chocolate.
Once we had a taste of the Gite and me having the flu (how Veve didn't manage to come down with it, I am not sure), we decided not to camp again so we found this wonderful facility that is up in the hills surrounding Baie Saint Paul called Le Balcon Vert. It is like a campground/cabins/youth hostel kinda place. We had a cabin with a bed and a small sink. We had a bathroom, showers and a community kitchen about 150 feet away. It was quiet and relaxing.
We spent the next day on the Isle aux Coudres. It's a pretty little island just north of Baie Saint Paul. We toured Le Moulin de Isle aux Coudres. There are two mills on the site - one a wind mill and one a water wheel mill. The water wheel mill is actually functioning with all the historical equipment and they are hoping to get the wind mill functioning by next year. We actually had the opportunity to see the mill at work which was amazing.
We also went for a walk into an intertidal zone at my insistance - just had to play in the water. The only problem was that the intertidal area was sand and mud. It only took about 20 feet before one of my sandals got sucked off! Veve, being my shining knight in armour, saved me and cleaned off my sandal so it was wearable again!
We also found a boulangerie that made Nun's Farts (or in Quebec - Pets de Nonne). Not only did they make them individually, but they made some kind of pie with them in it! Very strange. My Mom used to make these but I think she got the recipe from our family friend Lorraine Moncado.
On Friday, we went cheese crazy and visited two frommageries. Not so good for us but tastes so good!
Unfortunately, because the summer season was over, the Famille Migneron frommagerie didn't have any tours but they were selling their cheeses. They have two award winning cheeses, their Le Migneron (a semi-soft cheese that was creamy on the palate and had a wonderfully subtle taste) and Le Ciel du Charlevoix (The Sky of Charlevoix - a beautiful blue that was creamy and light). Although we didn't get a tour, we did get to go to one of the barns and see the sheepsies! I love sheepsies!
Then it was off to Laiterie de Charlevoix where we got an intensive 2 hour tour of not only the frommagerie operation but a methane plant that they use to power parts of the operations and a milk museum.
The methan plant is very interesting as the methane is derived from the by-product whey, from the cheese making process. The whey is basically fermented which produces methane, the methane heats two giant water tanks (cheese making is water intensive). The by-product of the methane process is a gross kind of water and bacteria that is then put through a bio-filtration system (ie: 7 large vats of tropical plants) to clean it up. This cleaned up water, although not fit for humane consumption, is used to water the grounds of the property and excess is pumped into the river. It is quite an amazing system. There is a muddy substance as a by-product as well and it is used as fertilizer for their farm fields.
From this frommagerie we got a cheddar that had been aged 7 years - wow, it was sharp! Thankfully, we bought some port jelly that tasted great and cut the sharpness!
Then it was off to Granby to visit with Phillippe and Michelle.
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