My Weekly Adventures #46!

 And we are back to another Weekly Adventures  segment! If things have gone as I wanted and you are seeing this post, I am currently away on vacation and have managed to keep up with posts. I’ll be home soon and will have another week of staycation so it will be fantastic to catch up on everything from personal projects, blog backlogs and Game Warp. 

Lets not get ahead of ourselves and look back at the second half of June. 

Pointe-Claire Half Marathon & Bakery Visit

My friend who runs all these half marathons I go to had his next one at Pointe Claire Village. It was by far the hottest weekend we had, hitting the high 30s Celsius in the late morning with the humidity. While I waited for him, I went looking for some much needed tea because I had an early 2am airport dropoff and found the bakery I went to the year before called La Mie Bio.

La Mie Bio is a cute and friendly bakery with a nice selection. There are lactose free and gluten free baked goods. I ended up taking these spelled croissants. They were really delicious. 

Magog Day Trip & Haul

We had our St. Jean Baptiste holiday (pretty much our provincial birthday). As it was on a Saturday, my office had Friday off so my husband and I headed out to the Eastern Townships. If you remember, we went to Festival des Vendanges last year and got a coupon book so we wanted to start checking out. Our first stop was Bleu Lavande, one of the first places we went to when we started dating. Above is our haul. Two of the sprays was a promotion free with our purchases. We bought the hand soap for my mother in law and kept the vase and soaps for us. It was rainy and the cooler weather meant the lavender hadn’t bloomed yet so onto the next stop.

Next stop was a free tasting of two chocolates at Chocolats Vanden Eynden. My husband tried two milk chocolates and I had these dark chocolate selections. 

We ended up picking up a few other chocolates. I even picked up a bag of dairy free chocolate chips for future baking projects (probably next week).

A few quick stops but still a lot of fun. Plus I had to get back for a dinner with my girl friends.

We had dinner at Zibo at Quartier Dix30 in Brossard. It was pretty good. We took a quick walk afterwards.

Family Hangout

Long weekend and birthday celebration for my husband’s nephew meant a family gathering. They wanted to head to our place so we hosted a quick afternoon and dinner gathering. There were hamburgers and hot dogs, some wine and beer for the adults along with soda for the kids. We had a passing downpour which was quite the adventure but the sun eventually came back.

I was off dessert duty so my sister in law got me some dark chocolate and everyone else had the ice cream cake as birthday cake. 

Overcooked Hype!

Following E3 and Summer low season for gaming here, Playstation had a lovely sale and we finally got Overcooked. It finally put our second controller to good use. Good, fun, hectic and awesome fun! 

Vacation!!!

Due to work deadlines, I had to start vacation midweek and only had a few days overlapping my husband’s vacation. However, as I said at the beginning of this post, we are on vacation at the moment and am heading home very soon. I’ll be posting up the travel posts next week once I sort through the pics. 

Cute Kitty Pic

Upcoming:

• TV Binges
• Travel/Vacation recap
• And more…Game Warp, gardening update..etc

Festival des Vendanges 2016 (Magog, Quebec)

Summer is slowly coming to an end. This past weekend started cooling down a little with some breezes finally making its way into Montreal. Saturday was still a pretty humid day as we waited for the rain to get here but it is perfect for a small road trip out from Montreal, about an hour and a half approximately to the annual Festival des Vendanges 2016. Vendanges means harvest. This festival features a lot of local Quebec business. We had a lovely deal on Tuango for a discount on the “Prolonged Discovery Package” which had 40 coupons to taste what we wanted. We tasted mostly wines and ice ciders and you’ll see it in this post. On the other hand, we also ended up picking up some of them as well and you’ll see which ones at the end as well. However, it wasn’t just wine tasting. They also have local cheeses, baked goods, a variety of oil, balsamic vinegar, foie gras, jams, spices, tea and much more.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

First of all, let’s look at the crowd and imagine how much heat was generated in this tent alone…it was a little crazy.

And they had these little basins to rinse out your tasting glasses.

Outside in other tents had restaurant terraces, seminars and little talks on different stuff.

Now lets get back to what we tasted. Just saying, I might have missed out a few because I walked away without a picture…

Vignoble de l’Orpailleur

On the left is an aperitif wine and the right is an ice cider by this winery. This was our first stop and it was so amazing. The wine had this hint of brandy/cognac sort of taste and when they described it to have a vanilla and spice aroma, it actually did. We’ve fallen prey to many bad descriptions on wine bottles but this one by the lady helping us with the tasting was spot on. Loved it! 🙂

Vignoble Chemin de la Riviere

Rosé, 2015

I’m a huge fan of Rosé wines. I’m always looking to find some really good ones. My husband encouraged me to try out this one. This one is pretty dry and the aftertaste was not exactly one I enjoyed. However, if you do like dry wines, this might be a good choice.

Domaine & Vins Gélinas

Another ice cider next: this one was also really good. It had an original taste. The best ice ciders create a nice balance between the acid and sweet taste. This one does a super good job. I guess that is why its a Signature one. 😉

La Roche des Brises Vineyard

My husband tried this one. The distinct part of this is that it is a red ice wine. Its pretty original considering most are like apple juice colors because its either made by apples or pears. This one turned out to be very distinct in taste. The red texture made us wonder whether it was made with blackcurrants. There are actually a few of these at this festival.

Vignoble Morou

Another try here for the next Rosé wine by Vignoble Morou called Le Rose des Vents. So…what to say? Remember the last one, I said it was dry. Well, this one was extra dry but, it had a very pleasant aftertaste. I guess pros and cons, right? I guess I’d drink this one much better since the aftertaste lingers much longer.

Vignoble d’Oka

We tried the Ice Cider at the far left and the Rose Ice.

This place had really interesting sorts of wine. I kind of regret that I didn’t try the Rouge Berry Fruit Wine because that probably is my sort of thing. We tried the Rose Ice one and that one was on the dry side as well but it wasn’t quite as strong as the other ones. This is supposed to be served with ice and I didn’t have that so I wonder if it makes a difference. However, the ice cider blew our minds because it had this spice sort of smoothness to it.

Vergers Petit et Fils

This ice cider from Verger Petit & Fils is pretty awesome. I think this one wins on the balance they create. It is more on the sweet side but has this nice acidity to it that makes it very nice.

Domaine Cartier-Potelle

Another ice cider added to our tasting! This one is pretty good. Not quite as distinct as the previous ones.

Domaine Le Grand Saint Charles (Vignoble & Cidrerie)

A catchy logo, a nicely drawn out label for the bottle and an ice cider that wowed us. We both tried it and it just resonated in our minds. Its rare to meet a wine that not only has a really nice appearance but also has such a delicious taste. Unfortunately, this is one that we didn’t buy as you will see later because we didn’t have any cash on us and they didn’t take credit card, not to mention the line-up for the tastings was super long and there was just one guy super busy. Maybe we’ll visit the winery or check if we can get it on location if its not too far away.

That marks the end of the tastings! And for the haul…

We just came back from vacation or else we’d have bought almost all the ice ciders that we tasted but these ones won our hearts in the end, along with the last one that I couldn’t get at that moment. The tasting glasses came with the tickets so that is pretty cool. I actually already two from the year before last when I went to Le Grand Degustation. Actually this event was so fun that my husband is considering going to this year’s. That would be pretty cool.

Overall, Festival des Vendanges was tons of fun! Our Tuango coupon actually includes a deal for the coupon book as well as a discount on the entrance tickets.  I’ll be tell you all about the adventures to the different locations from restaurants to tastings and activities. It’ll be fun! It is valid for two years so tons of stuff to fill up our weekends gradually.

Vacation post tomorrow! Remember to drop by! 🙂

La Face Cachee de la Pomme: Guided Visit and Ice Cider Tasting!

Summer is when all the activities start happening. Its why we’re having more little day trip and stuff. I guess that’s the best opening for going on this little guided visit and Ice Cider Tasting to La Face Cachee de la Pomme in the Magog/Eastern Townships area of the province of Quebec. This was redeeming a Groupon deal that I had bought last year but we never ended up going until now.

I love La Face Cachee de la Pomme ice ciders a lot. Its my must-buy at the Salon des Metiers d’Arts  during the Christmas season.  I talk about my haul for the last two years already. Its just great gifts and nice for Christmas and New Year’s parties. Now, I’m going far away from the main point of this!

The guided visit and ice cider tasting! Let’s go!

I have no pictures from the guided tour but it was extremely informative to get how it all works. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed and it was super cold in some of the places. I only thought about it on the way there but then it was a hot day so I was in shorts and tank top. I guess it was my fault. Still, the place is incredibly impressive. The process is really intricate.

The tasting took a good bit of time with four types of local cheeses to match with nine products. I’ll have a nice little gallery  under and talk about it later. It’ll be in the order we tasted.

Bulle de Neige Rose (Sparking Wine)

Neige Methode Traditionnelle (Crackling Ice Cider)

Neige Inspiration (Ice Cider)

Degel (Still Cider)

Neige Premiere (Ice Cider)

Neige Reserve (Ice Cider)

Neige Recolte d’hiver/Winter Harvest (Ice Cider)

Neige Noir (Quebec Amber)

Gin de Neige

Here’s hoping that these pictures are correct. They should be from memory but regardless, below is the list of them and some thoughts:

1. Bulle de Neige Rose: One of the few here that I haven’t tasted before. I’m not a huge fan usually of sparkling wine in general with a few exceptions. I do like rose wine so this had a fair shot of being something I’d like. However, it was okay. I found it a little dry for my taste but it wasn’t bothersome at all. I would drink it if it was offered and it can probably be an acquired taste.
2. Neige Methode Traditionnelle: This one was definitely better than the Rose. Its still something like a bubbly but it was a much smoother taste.
3. Neige Inspiration: If I remember correctly, the way it was described was a mix of the Winter Harvest and Autumn Harvest Ice Cider. Autumn Harvest seems to not exist anymore but I do remember that it was a product before but then I don’t trust my memory all that much. I do remember thinking that if there was a mix of the harvests, it would be an interesting combination and voila! Here we have it! Inspiration is a decent ice cider. I liked it quite a bit but then it has a little bit of a taste that I can’t grasp which I’m not sure how I enjoy past one glass.
4. Degel: My husband and I had Degel once when we went to the one super fancy restaurant we went to before and I remember not being so impressed with it but its either my tastes have changed or its been improved significantly because Degel was the surprising find! I liked this one a lot!
5. Neige Premiere: Now we’re heading into the ice ciders I’ve tasted. Neige Premiere is really good. One of my favorite ice ciders ever! But..that was before I tasted the next one…
6. Neige Reserve: I get Reserve and Premiere every single year because its just so great. Its absolutely awesome! The taste is the perfect balance between sweet and tart and the acidity from the apples.
7. Neige Winter Harvest: I remember when I tasted this one at the Salon before Christmas, that it was described in some way like a more exotic experience. This one has a very different taste. Probably more exotic and more fruity. I still like this one quite a bit.
8. Neige Noir: We’re heading into the hard liqueur bit here. I think the best way to describe Neige Noir is that its like a Cognac. Its why we love to mix it. According to our guide, the last year’s batch was like maple syrup whereas this year’s batch will have maple syrup and adding hints of hazelnuts. That has us excited because we love maple syrup and hazelnuts.  Its more pricey but its really worth a try.
9. Gin de Neige: Ending this off with the strongest of the products and also one I haven’t tasted before. Honestly, I’m not a Gin person mostly because it smells super strong and its not something I enjoy because it would just knock me out in a sip. Its not far from how I felt after I drank this. It burnt down my throat and then made me a little dizzy for a few moments.

Luckily, ending the tasting with Gin de Neige was too much for me, but it was also offset with some Ice Cider Sorbet.

This is a sweet idea on top of it tasting amazing. I believe this was with the Crackling Ice Cider. I’m going to try and make some of this.

That was the end of the tasting and tour! Time for some shopping and picture taking! The decor is something to admire also. The interior design is beautiful and actually a funny bit was that a former employee dropped by for a tasting or something with friends and they beelined for the washroom because apparently its super pretty so of course, we checked that out also. It is done really nice. Look at it!

Outside Decor and Plants

Haul & Gift Bag(with Groupon)

The gift bag is with the Groupon deal. It has a 375ml bottle of Neige Method Traditionnelle, Sample bottle of Gin de Neige, two wine glasses with the Neige logo along with a recipe for Sangria Verde (using Degel) and what I assume is the place that provides the cheese samples. I’m sure we’ll be hunting down some of the cheeses because my husband can’t stop talking about two of the four cheeses.

After that is the haul!

To wrap this up is our little haul. Its a little cheaper to buy from the main facilities of La Face Cachee de la Pomme than in the SAQ (our wine distribution stores). We ended up getting our faves and because we had a decent purchase, we got a little coupon for our next purchase.

Overall..this was really fun! I’ve always wanted to do wine routes and I figured this would be a nice way to see if my husband would like to in the future and he had a lot of fun also. I think maybe we might plan for a wine route next year or something.

That was the end of the visit and time to go home!

Have you gone on wine routes? Have you tasted ice cider?

Summit Drive in Quebec’s Eastern Townships

The past weekend was the Canadian Thanksgiving.  My annual activity is to go for a nice hike with my boyfriend however, this year he ended up hurting his foot so we had to look for an alternative.  He had suggested for a drive on one of the many scenic routes so after a little research, we ended up leaving in late morning on Monday and heading to the Summit drive in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

The Summit Drive is 157km in length and goes over a series of that area’s mountains to see the beautiful views.  Although there aren’t any actual viewpoints (unlike the Charlevoix River Route that I had done last month), it was quite nice to see the beautiful mountainous and colorful scenery full of colorful trees 🙂

The route looks like this:

It starts at La Patrie and Notre Dame des Bois (where this picture was taken) and then to Piopolis, Lac Megantic through to the granite houses in Lac Drolet and then to Stratford in the core of the Eastern Townships area ending in St Adrien.  Thats the short version of this drive because despite its many stops, we drove through the landmarks because most of them were closed due to Thanksgiving holiday.

With that said a lot of the pictures are in the car so excuse the reflections in certain pictures 😉

On the way to Summit Drive starting area

Eastern Townships

Over the treetops

Heading into the Magog area

Colorful tree all around us on the highway

Beautiful sunny weather: blue skies, slightly cloudy

In the lovely small towns

Viewpoint at Notre Dame des Bois

Lac Megantic crash site (extends for a pretty long distance)

I need to pause a little and talk about this.  I’m not sure how many people know about the Lac Megantic train crash but I actually left for vacation in the US  (the day of) a year or so ago when this happened, so I didn’t get to see the footage on how extensive the damage was.  Seeing it in front of my eyes while driving through was pretty intense.  Its a tragedy to see this beautiful area being affected like this and the distance that it covers.

On our way home

Lac Megantic was the middle of the Summit Drive but we always forget that Thanksgiving is literally the last weekend for seeing these colorful trees because wind and rain usually takes away most of the leaves.  Next year, we have to mark it down to go at the end of September or early October to get even more colorful pictures 🙂

Still, it was a nice drive out with my boyfriend and we had a few laughs and sang to songs on the radio. It was the quality time we wanted together. Plus, we came home to make a lovely meal: our breakfast style dinners 🙂

Whats on the menu: Sweet Potato Fries, Fried eggs, Bacon, and Lettuce with a delicious rose wine called Beringer 🙂

That was my Thanksgiving event (along with dinner with family but I’ll talk about that in another post).

How was your weekend? Did you celebrate Thanksgiving? 

Hiking: Marais de la Riviere aux Cerises

Thanksgiving weekend usually also means going for a nice hike to catch the last of the colorful palettes that cover the forest from the maple trees that change their colors. The drive is beautiful and the walk is calm and comfortable.  We definitely chose the best day to go for our hike this year.  It was mild weather, sunny, colorful leaves and it was in a beautiful area of the province of Quebec of approximately an hour drive over.

We went to Eastern Townships in the Magog area. Eastern Townships of the beautiful Province of Quebec is one of the many places known for its impeccable scenery.  I’ve been there a few times for Bleu Lavande which is lavender fields, one of the biggest in North America, and I’ve been for the Magog Winter Fest.  However, I’ve never done the hike there.  We chose a relatively easy hike which felt more like a walk on Marais de la Riviere aux Cerises.  Its pretty much a flat area with a few trails that run through the forest and then onto a boardwalk for a good length and that makes this one very special because we haven’t done one like that before.  My boyfriend and I were both recuperating from lack of sleep from the past weeks so it was easy enough for us to get some fresh air and for me to do some photo shooting.

Bat made from scrap

Cute Catepillar venturing onto the path

Dragonfly

Bird hotel

Squirrel

Cherries

Colorful maple leaves

The longest trail there is the Pioneer Trail which is 2.5 km.  With all the stops and detours we took to see observation points, we took about 2 hours or so to finish it up.  I’m sure we’ll be back to hit some of the other trails in the future, maybe at the other national parks to get some mountainous hiking in. This time around, it was amazing fun and very family friendly if ever you want to head there for a relaxing walk :).  I can imagine how equally beautiful it’d look in the summer when all the flowers are blooming and the marsh lands looking more moist than it was this time around.

Do you like to take nature walks/trails? Are there any around you that you’d recommend?