seyChelles Charlevoix - Office du tourisme de Québec

january/
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Carnival in the sunny
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Carnaval de Québec + snowy
charlevoix
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charm on the farm + slopes
by the saint Lawrence river in
charlevoix
snow + ice,
skiing + spa-ing
farm-to-fork fare + contemporary chic
in a winter wonderland
just east of Québec City
story + photography by barb sligl
January/February 2015 Just For Canadian dentists
33
I
travel at home
barely visible from my perch within this therrolling hills and postcard-pretty valleys are
mal cocoon. The fields and river seem to be
part of a rich World Biosphere Reserve that’s
one, a vast and roiling sea of wind-sculpted
like a massive bowl holding all this natural
waves of snow.
beauty. And, in fact, this biosphere bowl is an
I’m here to decompress after some revelry ancient crater from a meteor crash some 350
at the winter party of Carnaval de Québec
million years ago. Today, descending into this
(see page 5). And while there’s plenty going
bowl on a winding road, I get glimpses of the
on a short walk away in the village of Baiemighty St. Lawrence River around each bend
Saint-Paul, long an artists’ hub, it’s also an
and rise, with the odd fishing hut punctuating
escape to rural simplicity…without sacrificing
its icy shores.
urban panache.
This is quintessential rural Québec.
It’s the same mix La Ferme manages to
Trees alternate with church steeples (after
pull together seamlessly—historic and
all, Charlevoix was named for New
modern, rustic and refined, rural
France’s first historian, Jesuit
and urban, tradition and innovapriest François-Xavier de
tion. It’s also a sign of the quiCharlevoix) and every vilif you go
etly charming Charlevoix
lage seems the epitome
For more on the Charlevoix
region. Set in the heart of
region: tourisme-charlevoix.com/
of quaint. Downriver
the Canadian Shield, its
en. Make Baie-Saint-Paul your base
is La Malbaie, once
and stay at La Ferme {lemassif.com/en/
a playground of
hotel} and ski Le Massif {lemassif.com/
the rich—Canada’s
en/mountain}. And take the train: lemasoriginal vacation
sif.com/en/train. To discover more
spot, where Scottish
about the province, from Carnaval in
landowners hosted
Québec City to Charlevoix, go to
bonjourquebec.com.
visitors at manors in the
late 18th century. La BaieSaint-Paul has lured painters
(Saint-Jean-Baptiste street is lined
with galleries and sculptures of artists
who’ve come here), poets, writers, musicians, thinkers (US President William Howard
Taft built the “summer White House” in La
Malbaie) and performers like Daniel Gauthier,
co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, which had its
beginnings here. Gauthier is now the owner
of La Ferme and at the forefront of the movement to revitalize the region.
La Ferme was once, as its name suggests, the farm that belonged to the Little
Franciscans of Mary—and faithfully stands
on virtually the same footprint as what was
once Canada’s largest group of free-standing
wooden farm structures. Hôtel La Ferme is
modelled on those bygone structures (lost
in a fire): La Basse-cour (the barnyard), La
Bergerie (the sheepfold), Le Moulin (the mill),
Le Clos (the cloister)… It’s a serious nod to the
past, and yet there’s nothing fusty in the new
interpretation. My room is spare yet sleek,
previous page The otherworldly view of Charlevoix’s snowscape and a wintery
echoing history with a bucolic photograph
St. Lawrence from Le Massif train. this page, clockwise from above Pizza aux
of cows grazing on these very grounds.
pommes avec fromage Migneron et lardons, paired with local brew, Dominun
Agricultural artifacts and old photos are
Vobiscum blanche. > One of the region’s signature cheeses, brie-style Le Fleurmier,
from Laiterie Charlevoix, just outside Baie-Saint-Paul. > La Ferme’s modern take
found throughout the hotel—there’s even a
on traditional farm architecture includes big red barn-like doors that reference the
striking diorama of the original farm. And a
site’s agricultural history. opposite page, clockwise from top Steaming thermal pool
big red barn door slides open onto the hotel’s
at Le Spa du Verger. > Boarding the train at Le Massif Mountain base station after
courtyard. Gauthier describes La Ferme as
a day on the slopes. Next stop: après-ski at La Ferme. > A room at La Ferme,
the “anti-resort” and has made it as much a
showcasing sleek, modern design while also channeling the hotel’s farm history
part of the local community as when it was
with an old photo of cows grazing on this very site. > The gondola at Le Massif de
an actual farm, incorporating sustainable
Charlevoix Mountain, rising high above ice floes of the St. Lawrence River. > Ski hill
initiatives (geothermal energy, rainwater) and
with a view: the wide expanse of the mighty St. Lawrence is seen from every run. >
using local suppliers and produce.
Farm chic at La Ferme; old-school tractor seats add colour to the hotel’s courtyard.
Agriculture is still important and farm> Breakfast at Restaurant Le Bercail at La Ferme, with sirop d’érable, bien sûr!
to-fork fare is simply part of the everyday
t’s cold. So cold my breath comes out
in an almost-opaque haze. Or is that
the steam coming off the thermal
pool I’m lounging in? I’m soaking up
the hot waters outside in February,
submerged up to my chin yet wearing a toque, and watching the fuschia
hues of the twilight sky dissipate over
the mountainous ridge that hems the snowwhipped fields surrounding me. I’m at Spa du
Verger at La Ferme in Charlevoix, Québec, and
I don’t mind the cold one bit.
I can’t quite imagine this landscape having the same effect at any other time of year.
The stark beauty and intense silence—just
an hour east of Québec City—is almost
overwhelming. The fields of what was once a
working farm for the Little Franciscans of Mary
stretch far to the edge of the St. Lawrence,
34
Just For Canadian dentists January/February 2015
travel at home
January/February 2015 Just For Canadian dentists
35
travel at home
here. I visit Laiterie Charlevoix to check out the
local cheesemaker’s Le Fleurmier and Hercule
cheeses, and the semi-firm, washed-rind 1608
made from the milk of Canadienne cows.
Brought here from France in, yes, 1608, those
first cows were bred into a hardy distinctive
Train tracks lead through snowy
fields near La Ferme station at twilight.
above
bovine that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Sadly,
there are only some 500 Canadiennes left.
I sample the cheeses in a bistro in BaieSaint-Paul (along with crêpes and artisanal
Pedneault cider made on L’Isle-aux-Coudres,
just offshore in the St. Lawrence), as well as
at La Ferme’s Les Labours restaurant, before
local lake trout from Pisciculture Charlevoix
and pudding chômeur (“poor man’s pudding,”
which tastes anything but). At La Ferme’s
other restaurant, Le Bercail, I have the woodoven pizza aux pommes avec fromage Migneron
(another local cheese) et lardons—paired
with local microbrew Dominun Vobiscum
blanche—a lunch I could eat everyday, but
that’s particularly pleasurable with windowside
seats as a skater makes her noontime rounds
on the hotel’s courtyard ice rink. I listen to the
rhythmic swish, swish as I munch and gulp.
I get in on the snowsport action the next
day, fortifying prior with a stack of pancakes
avec sirop d’érable, mais bien sûr! I take the
train—another element of Gauthier’s Le Massif
trifecta, alongside the hotel and ski hill—right
from La Ferme. The 40-minute ride glides
through snow-crusted fields, past surreal ice
formations on the St. Lawrence and the village
of Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, before depositing the bundled-up ski set at the base station
of Le Massif de Charlevoix Mountain. We
waddle out onto the pristine mountainside—
no cars in sight with this new take on ski-in,
ski-out—to ride the gondola to the Summit
Chalet and top of the ski runs.
And topside the views don’t stop. Ice
chunks choke the St. Lawrence and flow by
far below—as seen from the highest vertical
east of the Canadian Rockies. From easy run
L’Ancienne to double-black-diamond Le
Charlevoix, I have 52 trails and glades over
more than 300 acres at my disposal. I don’t get
anywhere near through a third of them, but if
that wasn’t enough, I could hike up neighbouring Mont-Liguori for another 99 acres of
off-piste skiing (I’ll save that for the guided
backcountry cat-ski packages that are starting
this year). There’s even a European-style 7.5-km
sledding run. Instead, I opt for an après-ski pint
at Le Coteilleux Pub before taking the longest
and easiest route (some 5 km) down to catch
the last train back to La Ferme.
The train ride back is even more
breathtaking, if possible. Those surreal
ice formations are now tinged with the same
fuschia hues I looked upon the night before
from the outdoor pool. By the time I get back
to La Ferme, the light has faded to an inky blue
and the stars are out. I disembark and watch
the train leave the station to dock on the other
side of Baie-Saint-Paul for the night. Its lights
illuminate the sea of snow and become a sort
of beacon in the quiet, still dark. I follow the
train tracks for a while until I feel I’m at the
edge of these roiling waves of white. And I let
Charlevoix’s winter embrace envelope me.
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