La Luciole, Ste-Irénée

Luciole means "Firefly." The name was chosen by a previous owner, Lucie. In the chest of drawers in my bedroom at this old inn by the railway line that skirts the shore, I found a poem by Janique Watier which has a Baudelairean rhythm about it:

La Petite Auberge la Luciole

Auberge qui veille, volets ouverts sur le fleuve sans âge,

Dans le soir émeraude où folâtrent les saisons

Tu tends l'oreille à ceux qui t'habitent, le coeur vagabond,

Un instant tu écoutes tous ces gens de passage.

Tu leur souffles sur le coeur une étoile nouvelle

Une force sereine qui respire comme des printemps.

Tu déploies en eux de magnifiques ailes

Les chants fabuleux qu'entonnent les océans.

Tu chantes en silence une musique que l'on entend à peine

Qui s'installe doucement au creux de nos voyages.

Tu rêves paisiblement dans l'aube qui s'amène

Tu penches le front sur de purs rivages.

Petite Luciole qui scintille sur le fleuve de velours

Tu sèmes en nous de doux bouquets d'allégresse,

Le parfum de l'été, la mer et ses promesses

Tes pas s'avancent jusqu'au bout de nos carrefours.

Tu veilles doucement blottie au creux de sublimes saisons

Et de douces tempêtes te coiffent de leur blanc frimas.

Octobre t'auréole de ses lumineux horizons

L'été s'endort à l'abri sous ton toit.

I told one of the two ladies who shares the ownership of the gîte nowadays that I had discovered the poem and commented on what a feeling for poetry people have in this province: here was a good example. To my delight she said, "But of course, this house has a real soul!"

It also has five very comfy bedrooms and a balcony from which you can contemplate the "luminous horizons" of that "velvet river". Downstairs is a living room, a verandah on two sides of the building where you can also sit peacefully (there are seats in the pretty little garden too) and a long table for breakfast in the country kitchen where you are served an excellent breakfast either by France or Debbie, depending which of them is in charge of the house during your stay (they hand over the management to one another once a week). The breakfast was so appetising that for the first time in our married lives I saw Chris eating yoghurt without demur!

They do not offer suppers there, but there seems to be a good bistro up the hill, or you could barbecue something on a beach bonfire because La Luciole has a cauldron for charcoal dug into the sand dunes a few steps across the railway line with driftwood conveniently placed for sitting around it.

On the beach you can have a pony ride during the daytime, or in the evening you can watch the mist begin to swirl along the headland and see the little waves lapping in front of you, as darkness falls.