Délices

We flew back to Trois-Rivières, this Labour Day weekend, and slept last night at the same gîte as before, on August 4th: Le Fleurvil, in the quietest, most historic part of town. Our four friends who came with us this time found the place as attractive as we did.

It was by sheer luck, apart from the weather being perfect for this trip, that this time our visit to Trois-Rivières coincided with a food-sampling event on the waterfront, Les Délices d'Automne. What fun. From the rue des Ursulines it was a short walk through the convent gardens and the Parc Portuaire to the booth where we could queue for coupons allowing us to sample the delights and delicacies ("délices" means both) of the regional harvest, which, to stretch a point, included some Swiss produce, such as Tête de Moine cheese crumpled into rosettes by a special kind of scraping tool and served with a dob of jam (I happily gave up two coupons to try this) and the Dôle wine Chris and I used to drink 28 years ago when we lived in Bern. Ah, nostalgia! Although tempted by the wild boar sausages and wapiti(!) terrine, the crêpes, the pies, the homemade icecream and the wonderful, fat, red tomatoes, I spent my other coupons on a tasting of ice-cider from a cidrerie and a tub of fresh raspberries, my favourite fruit. Elva acquired a large bagful of ground-cherries which she was still passing around back in the clubhouse at Rockcliffe airport this afternoon. Carol and Don came home with several bottles of Quebec cider and Chris spent all five of his coupons on a beer from the Microbrasserie Nouvelle France, manned by two young men in tricorne hats.

As if we hadn't seen enough food we then repaired to Le Grill on the rue des Forges, as recommended by our host at the gîte, and very good it was too; although noisy and crowded, this place was run with impressive efficiency. From there we walked back to the riverside where the alcohol stalls were still in business.