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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

1st Glance of Charlevoix

Yesterday was a complete experience of all that the Québec region has to offer.

We decided to leave Québec City in the morning and travel to I’lle d’Orleans, a little island off the coast of Québec that is known for its produce and fresh farms. It also happens to be a cyclist’s paradise. We took a drive around the entire island, which is only about 45 miles and we passed more cyclists on the road than cars.

We stopped for breakfast at a little bakery called La Boulange where we had 2 types of brioche: maple nut, and chocolate almond. The brioche was perfectly flaky and had just the right amount of filling to make it sweet. It is great being in a place with a more European culture because they know how to make a great cup of coffee. The latté and cappuccino were excellent as well, with a touch of chocolate dust sprinkled on the top for some extra sweetness. We sat in the bakery and sipped our coffee and ate while talking and listening to the locals have conversation that we could not understand, but was beautiful anyway.

After breakfast, we drove around I’lle d’Orleans and bought some fresh strawberries at a local stand where the woman spoke beautiful English! Well, French is her native language, but when she found that we only knew a few phrases of French, she happily helped us buy our strawberries. We took them to a table behind her stand that looked out onto the strawberry fields and the chicken coop to enjoy our treat. After a few moments after sitting, she came out from the back with a book about I’lle d’Orleans and proceeded to tell us about all the great places and growers she recommended we visit. We made a fun new friend!

The lady at the fruit stand also told us about a cider producer just down the road and encouraged us to visit and sample their hard cider. This place is called Bilodeau. The cider here was excellent and we couldn’t help but bring some home with us to remember our excursion.

After I’lle d’Orleans, we took a drive east to see the region of Charlevoix. This was the highlight of the trip we had been looking forward to ever since we left Colorado, and pulling into the region let us know why. As we drove into the crater created by a meteor thousands of year ago, it actually reminded us of home. Beautiful mountains and rocky terrain made us feel perfectly content while the region is right on the St. Lawrence River that feeds into the Atlantic Ocean. It is a safe haven for many species of whales. They come into this bay to calve. It’s beautiful landscape is breathtaking as it has the best of both worlds: mountains and ocean.

We found a brewery in Baie-Saint-Paul called Restaurant Le Saint-Pub MicroBrasserie that was magnificent. When you think of a brewery in the States, you think burgers and fries, maybe a steak that is about as good as you could do at home on the grill, and fried foods. This brewery was completely different from all those. For an appetizer, we ordered the guinea fowl, with apricot and pistachio terrine, and cranberry chutney:

We also ordered the Thai Mussels, which were mussels cooked in red curry and coconut milk:

Everything we tasted at this place was amazing! I think our American breweries can learn a thing or two about great food.

Charlevoix had been incredible up to this point, but we decided to stay another night in Québec City to witness the magic of Cirque du Soleil. Every week in the summer, the city puts on a free Cirque du Soleil show on the street under an overpass 5 nights per week. We couldn’t pass this up, so we drove back to the city to spend another night and watch the show.

On the walk down to the overpass, we stopped at a pizza place called Piazzetta. They specialize in very thin crust pizzas with many unusual toppings. Nadene had the Westphalia Ham pizza: cepe mushroom sauce, Westphalia ham, mozzarella and swiss cheese, mushrooms, green onion, five pepper mix, and as a special extra, camembert cheese. This pizza was so creamy and delicious. The waiter offered to put the camembert cheese on it as well and it was the best part of the pizza! Very subtle in flavor, but creamy and rich at the same time.

I had the Cugina pizza: tomato sauce, chicken marinated in lime juice, cumin and coriander, mozzarella and cheddar cheese, red onion, marinated red pepper, green pepper, hot pepper, green onion, sour cream, and fresh coriander (or cilantro). This pizza had a bit of heat to it from the hot peppers, but tasted like a Mexican dish on a pizza, which was exactly what I was going for.

After an excellent dinner, we headed to the overpass for the show. What an incredible production! An amazing hour and a half of incredible feats of flexibility, strength, daring and skill. Having never seen the Cirque du Soleil, we were quite awe struck! It was fun to see it here and be a part of the local pride in these athletes – Cirque du Soleil was founded by two residents from Baie-Saint-Paul in Charlevoix. Check out a sample of the performance below.

Another full and fascinating day here in Quebec. Today we are starting our journey on “La Route du Fleuve” – The Flavor Trail. Good eats ahead!

Salut,

Caleb & Nadene

The Epicurators

1 comment:

  1. This has been a fun time just reading your blog!! Thanks for taking the time to talk and share pictures. I ALMOST feel like I have been there.
    MOM

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