Louise Penny is an author who has written several mystery novels set in the fictional village of Three Pines, inspired by villages in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, about 70 miles southeast of Montreal near the border with Vermont. Carrie is a big Louise Penny fan, as are our visitors, Chris and Reed. We took a day trip to explore the region. We began at a tourist information office in the village of Sutton, about 8 miles north of the Vermont border. They had lots of information on Louise Penny, as her novels have become a focus of tourism in the region. The attendant in the office said we might actually see Louise in our wanderings and that we should say hello, as she is very friendly. Alas, we didn’t see her.
We stopped by a nearby picturesque village church that had been mentioned in the novels, and then we moved on to the village of Knowlton (called Lac-Brome in French) for lunch. After lunch we visited the local book store, Brome Lake Books, which has an entire section devoted to Louise Penny. The bookstore also appears as a fictional setting in the books.
Later in the afternoon we visited the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-Du-Lac, overlooking beautiful Lake Memphremagog. The priests at the abbey specialize in making cheese and we purchased some to have for dinner later that evening. The cheese from here is also served at Gabriel and Olivier’s bistro in Ms. Penny’s books.
We finished the day with a visit to the Domaine Bresee Winery. There are quite a few wineries in the Eastern Townships. Their wines are not great by California standards, but they are quite good considering the harsh winter conditions in the region.
Perhaps most importantly, we enjoyed beautiful crisp and sunny autumn weather, and the fall colors were stunning throughout the day. For a bunch of Californians we experienced the most spectacular fall colors of our lives.
