After a lovely wedding weekend, we headed north back to Canada. We didn’t turn on the gps, just drove north, following a map. We figured we’d end up somewhere between Montreal and Quebec, preferably not on the main road.
We did find a tourist information stop, where a few towns were recommended. We missed the fort, but found ourselves in Beloil, buying chocolate. The friendly sales girl wanted to know what the heck a couple of Los Angelenos were doing in a small town in Quebec, just exploring. Since she was from Quebec City, she gaves us a very good tip on what to do there, more on that later.
We have some wonderful florists here, with amazing window displays. How nice that in summer, Martin can have this beautiful display outside.
There are many beautiful churches here, unfortunately, these days many are no longer in use. This one in Beloil still is.
There was a large cemetery next to the church, of course I had to check it out. Joel went and took a walk by the river, there are only so many cemeteries he can visit. One marker really stood out from the rest.
I went to check it out.
An eight year old boy, sad, very sad. I didn’t check to see if in later years his parents were buried nearby. If they are still alive, they would be very very old.
Another church across the river. I could have just taken pictures of churches there were so many.
In Beloil, a 100 year old business, this old town isn’t very big, but it now has restaurants and that gorgeous florist. 
I like the paint job here, reminds me of colorful New Orleans. Other than this old town, most of Southern Quebec looked dull, main drags that could have been anywhere in Canada or the US, just all the signs are in French.
For some reason we decided to bypass Drummondville which is quite a large city and go on to Trois Rivieres, which is on the main highway. So we drove through driving rain, by the time we got there, we were tired. We drove to the old part of town, the one or two hotels didn’t look good, so we kept going. All we could find were old 1950s motels that looked like they hadn’t been updated at all. So back to town we went, we found an Italian place for dinner. The food was pretty awful, but they kindly directed us here:
I took the picture the next morning. We waited half an hour for the owner to come over from her restaurant. Turns out we got a very nice room for the night. Since we had to wait, she even took $5 off our bill, which wasn’t expensive to begin with.
While driving through Trois Rivieres I saw a lot of this, outdoor circular staircases going up to the second floor of buildings. Later in Quebec I got the explanation that was very common throughout the Province. Rather than waste space inside on staircases, they are outside. I get it, 100 or 200 years ago people simply lived in weather. They didn’t control it like we do today, so exiting to such a staircase would be normal. I understand that these kind of flats are popular in places like Quebec or Montreal – until you have a baby and need to schlep up and down them with a baby and stroller, especially in winter.
Then we headed out on the Chemin Du Roy towards Quebec. We were expecting to find a coffee shop, no luck, a few towns in, we stopped at a gas station that had a convenience store. The coffee and croissant were fine, but this is advertised as a scenic day trip. Scenic yes, amenities, not really.
Yes, a beautiful church among the cornfields.
We arrived in Quebec to a whole new adventure.