Madeline and Pierre who live across the road came first to offer us the use of their apartment that is below their house, despite being slightly swayed at the prospect of a cosy clean bed, tv and a shower we stood firm and thanked but said we prefer the caravan, they looked a little surprised but accepted that maybe we were as crazy as they thought. We did pounce on the idea of a shower and said we would call over later that day. We do have some hygiene standards and swam in the lake everyday, even washing our hair in the sink of the public toilets by the lake but a hot water shower was too good to turn down! They had come earlier in the day but we were still asleep!!
Ten minutes later we had progressed the getting ready to PJ bottoms and bikini tops, when our next guest came driving up the lane. Jean Guy, a neighbour from 2 houses over appeared looking a little embarrassed as he handed over a handful of papers with a note attached. He speaks very little English and when his wife Rolande heard we were hoping to get the train to Toronto she printed out all the timetables and prices and maps etc and send him to deliver it all with a cover letter explaining all of this and inviting us to come to dinner that evening. The sweetest touch was that she had also affixed a posit RSVP note with 2 options to tick Yes we will come or No thank you which we were meant to check off and give to Jean Guy to return home with. We managed to muster up enough pigeon French to accept ourselves in person.
5 mins later our third caller arrived, Joseph a young local guy who lives up the mountain with his girlfriend and son. He didn’t have much English but we attempted to invite him and Isabelle to come for a drink round the fire the following evening unsurprisingly he didn’t seem to keen so suggested we come to his place instead. So that was grand he headed off saying he’d pick us up the next day.
But then we had a problem, we had planned to go to Mont Tremblant National Parc that day but as it was now after 1 and we were expected to dinner at 5.30 but had to all have showers before hand as we had arranged with our first callers BUT we realised it’s pretty poor form to refuse someone acceptance of an offer to stay but come just to use the shower before heading straight to somebody else’s house for dinner. We drove to Saint Donat and had a quick swim and sunbathe down by the lake instead.!
We raced back to use the neighbours shower but had only arrived and were one person in the shower, 3 to go when Joseph and a younger guy came bounding in and announced ‘BOAT?!’ Jean Philip was 17 and spoke very good English so we gathered they were offering us a trip on a boat. But we were due for dinner in an hour so had to decline. No such thing, they rang our dinner hosts and told them we would be late because we were going on a boat! Suddenly the showers seemed like they were no longer happening but we held firm and had to explain much to our mortification that it had been a number of days since our last shower so if they were happy to wait for us to finish we would go then! We still weren’t sure what was happening but we were led to a massive black jeep/truck all climbed in and drove to the mysterious ’boat’. Now we hadn’t a clue who owned the boat or who was going to drive the boat but it was an adventure anyway! Turns out it was the home of another of mum’s neighbours Denise and Marc, who has a really lovely house right on the lake so after a quick tour around the lake on a super snazzy speedboat we had a drink in Denise’s (After they insisted and rang our hosts again to explain in French why we were late!) Then dropped us up for dinner. Rolande had cooked a lovely spaghetti Bolognese and we were so happy to have a home cooked meal. They are both very sweet and we made a special effort to speak in French so Jean Guy could understand. But once it started to get dark we headed back up the road to our humble abode.
Back at the ranch, the Cabbage Town Quartet sang a few songs and drank a few beers before squeezing into our wee beds!
We slept late again the next day and woke to discover we had missed more callers due to excessive sleeping, a little note was attached to the car door from Joseph and Isabelle telling us they would collect us around 5 for dinner that evening and to bring our bathing suits and towels!
So we legged it over to Mont Tremblant parc drove around for about 53 minutes getting out every few minutes to stretch our legs and take in a view. We missed one of the star attractions Chute des Rats because as we were driving along following the signs to it, I think I saw an actual rat so we decided to give it a miss.
So we were in and out of the parc in less than an hour- rapid transit sightseeing at it’s best!
Now usually in irish socialising times, around 5 means half 5, or so… Well we had planned to get back to the caravan at quarter to giving us 15 mins to get changed and be ready to go when they arrived- around 5! We passed Joseph and Jean Philip aka TeLou as we drove past the stables near my mum’s driveway and gave them a wave but unfortunately this implied to them we were ready to go so they followed us up the driveway in the truck but we were tearing around inside the caravan desperately trying to improve on rough new look! Yet again they had to wait for us to get ready- it made us seem like enough more girly girls but ah well we’re the same every where we go…ALWAYS late!
Eventually we piled back into the truck and took off with the country western music blaring. Thinking we were going to Josephs house, we had bought a case of beer for himself and Isabelle to thank him for setting up the caravan for us, and digging a hole in the ground for the chemical toilet to be emptied into at the end of our stay. Obviously we didn’t understand that and used the hole as is so it was a pretty silent moment when he asked had we found the hole and how was the toilet working out! We just smiled.
So we had the beer for him and then a bottle of red and a bottle of white for dinner. But the truck pulled up outside Denise’s house and then we came in with a crate and 2 bottles of wine and just seemed like the biggest booze hounds ever. We couldn’t take the beer back and say no that’s for Joseph as it was already lifted out of the truck so it just seemed like we had brought lashings of booze with us.
Turns out there was a change of plan and we were actually having dinner there instead. And oh my…what a dinner!!!! Meat fondue with Moose, Deer, Chicken, Rabbit, Beef, Pork, Scallops, Tiger Prawns…the works. It was fab and with 12 of us around the table we made for a great atmosphere eating plates of beautifully flavoured meats. They are a lovely family really friendly and warm and the dinner went on all evening. Thinking it was drawing to a close we made some Irish coffees which went down a storm and then suddenly everyone was in swimming togs and the outdoor hot tub was bubbling away, the gas fire lighting the path to it and they set the underwater lights to green just for the Irish guests. Denise produced some santa hats to wear in the tub and we all squeezed in! After a little while Isabelle full of dutch courage from the massive glasses of wine marc was pouring suggested jumping into the lake. So out we climbed in the cool night air walked down the private jetty at the end of the garden and we jumped into the black dark lake! It was freezing especially coming out of a roasting hot tub but such a beautiful sight to float in a late in the pitch darkness and see all the stars! It is a certain time of the year now where you see more shooting stars than normally but we didn’t get lucky!
After a few more jumps off the jetty it was decided that a spin on the boat was in order, with an impressive built in sound system on the go we went roaring around the lake with Anna and Hannah getting drenched up the front. We had a fantastic night, such fun and such amazing hospitality over those few days that we all felt sorry to be leaving Quebec.
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