My lovely friend Hélène and I have been planning a meetup for many months, and it is wonderful that it finally happened. Hélène has been sending me plans and suggested itineraries and one of the proposals was to visit the Eastern Townships in Quebec. We, of course, were open to any suggestions.
We left Montréal early and drove to Sutton, which is the most delightful little town. On the way I couldn’t help but to admire the local countryside and gorgeous farm buildings. This field was supposed to have Canada Geese in it, but I obviously missed them completely!
I kept looking for the famous “sugar shacks” which produce the maple syrup and we did see some, but I didn’t manage to get a photo of one. They are really cute buildings with big chimneys.
Hélène took me to her favourite wool shop, Mont Tricot in Sutton, and it is such a beautiful shop, full of interesting and unusual yarns. 
We saw many pretty spots like this, which made my heart sing.
We stopped at the Vignoble Chapelle Ste-Agnes and couldn’t help admiring this charming little building.
and I continued my obsession with barns – I took so many photographs of them, but I find them so interesting in a social history context.
I’m also rather partial to covered bridges, and this one in Coaticook (pronounced Coe-at-icook, four syllables, not three – nothing to do with cooking coats apparently!), is really quaint.
The Parc de la Gorge de Coaticook is described as the First Wonder of the Eastern Townships. The gorge itself is 50m deep and has a wonderful waterfall, which is used for hydro electricity and also ran a knitting mill.
The gorge is home to the longest suspended footbridge in the world, so of course we had to cross that! A photo of Hélène and I doing the crossing, but as to who is supporting whom? Ah, what happens on the bridge, stays on the bridge!!
And here is a photo which is supposed to prove that we crossed the bridge – except, the sign was at the beginning of the crossing, so we could have cheated; but we didn’t!
I thought I would post this lovely photo of Hélène and Richard, who made all this possible.
The Park is also home to the Foresta Lumina, which is a night-illuminated pathway, creating a whimsical walk using stage lighting, sound and video mapping. I include the sign because I think it says it all.
This little device performs the same function as two tin cans strung together. It would be such fun at night time.
We climbed the observation tower in the park so that we could stand on top of the world, and the views were spectacular.
After the park we wended our weary way home, thinking about the fabulous day had by all.
Your travel journal is so fun to read, Sue! How wonderful to remember this balmy day spent with you and Mark. Yep, what happened on the bridge will stay on the bridge, but you were definitely the brave one. Just one thing to amend about the gorge depth: it is 50 m (not164 m), which is impressive enough for my vertigo. You now have to come back to hike mont Pinacle with us and attend a night performance of Foresta Lumina. C’est un rendez-vous!
Oh, oops. I fixed it! 50m doesn’t sound very high does it?? I will definitely have to come back at some point!
Well, 50 meters is quite high in my books: about 15 stories or 165 feet or 30 midgets in real life.
Lol!!!
Tim has taken over my blog reader so he can lap up your Montreal posts. He spent lots of time in the Eastern townships as a child. It’s a gorgeous area. You should see it in autumn! Also, I notice that you and Helene are the same height. I’m wondering if she is a MIRL?
Lol! Twin MIRLs!! I envy Tim a childhood in this area.
Megan please! Don’t tell every body that I am also *Marvelous in real life*. Anyhow, we had the most marvelous day together and I would love to live it again and again. And you should come with us!
You looked gorgeous!!
Yes, you did look gorgeous. Two marvelous MIRLs xx
You are going to love a photo I’m putting in a new post!!
Mmmm… Merci mon amie! xx
Just wanted to say, that I read and enjoyed all of your posts, though I don’t have time to comment in them all! Thank you do much for sharing your experiences and taking all those beautiful pictures, that must have taken a lot of time and work and I appreciate your posts a lot!
Thank you Katharina, I really appreciate your comment, and I am so pleased that you are enjoying the blog.
Another lovely day! I love the bricks of that little building and the covered bridges. I still trying to decide if I would walk on the suspension bridge!
Yes, you would do the suspension bridge, otherwise you would always live in regret!!
Gah!