Bonjour!

Welcome to the route des vins!

We were certainly looking forward to this part of Canada! The wine producing area on the outskirts of Montreal is so pretty. Its all winding roads with vines either side, orchards filling the air with their lovely perfume and the crazy silos filled with everything from milk to wine to maple syrup. We drove through some gorgeous little villages (and when I say little I quote ‘population 41’!) with quaint little churches and people that stopped in the street to see the strangers in their chugging old van pass.

This is what we wanted came to see, not highways and hotels.

From Freligsburg to Dunham to Bedford to Sutton we sampled home grown wines and ciders at 8 different vinyards, even stopping at the house of the inventor of ice cider which is a stunning drink!  We bought a bottle of 2007 pressed apple cider and Louise ‘Clos saragnat‘ asked that we take a picture of the bottle somewhere on our world travels and send it to her! We asked would it be ok if the bottle was empty and she said not, so we may have to hide it so we are not tempted to drink it! She had pictures of the unopened bottles in Japan, Rome, Australia…she might be getting one of it in her back yard if we cant wait that long to drink it!

We had an amazing port at Vignoble Domaine de l’Ardennais in tiny handmade dark chocolate cups, a mouth tingling apple juice cider at Val Caudalies. We bought a lovely lightly oaked 2004 Seyval from Les Trois Clochers whose owner had pet CanadianTurkeys in the yard!

We learned about the grape varieties here in Canada, the Vidal and theSeyval grape and also one called the Frontenac. They are all hybrid grapes made in nearby American colleges to withstand the four seasons in the very close Canada. With the grapes having very little sun and being hybrids, the wines were unlike anything we’d ever tasted. The whites were dry and fruity and low in alcohol and the reds so earthy yet beautifully light.

The ice wines were another world all together.

Anyone that knows us, knows we have a penchant for sweet dessert wines and this place was good at producing them! The hybrid grapes are made to withstand the amazingly low temperatures and are harvested frozen for the ice wine. The ice cider is made in the same way only with apples obviously.

Anyway, I digress, the point is it was a wonderful couple of days in the sunshine tasting some fabulous wines and….wait for it….possibly finding our next wedding location!!!!!!! I wont give it away where it is yet as it has not been confirmed but the clue is in the blog. All I will say is that we have our fingers and toes crossed for this one as it will be a perfect location for us! I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Tabitha (the wedding dress) has been cleaned super quickly by Johnsons in Beverley (thank you so much for your amazing service  Heidi Foster and Colette Bramwell and also for the fab tips!) and is packed away ready to be collected to be shipped to us at the drop of a wedding hat! (big thanks also Mum Janet for doing this for us!)

We have just arrived in Quebec city this afternoon, worn out, wet through and grumpy from the torrential rain that has followed us for the past few days…Manchester has nothing on this place! The rain comes down in bucket sized drops and soaks you to the bone instantly! We have endured the last two nights trying to stay dry through the night as Peggy sprung a leak!

I woke up to a stream of water running across my back and jumped up shouting ‘Piggy we’re leaking’…as though the three of us (Alex, myself and Peggy)were one entity! (‘Piggy’ is Alex’s nickname by the way! We were only joking earlier in the day that I would probably shout ‘Piggy’ instead of Alex in an emergency!!! The proof is in the pudding!)

Alex sprung out of bed and passed me bowls and pans while getting dressed and spinning around half asleep all at the same time. When we had the bowls in situ we armed Alex with a carrier bag on his head to stay dry, a headtorch to hold the bag in place and obviously provide light and 2 carrier bags to stuff into the broken seal around the back door.

The racoons sat and watched him block the leak from outside and I looked after the bowls inside. They filled so quickly it was unbelievable how much water was coming in! Eventually my knight in waterproof armour had saved the day and stopped the leak and we slept on half of our 3 foot wide bed squeezed tightly together for the rest of the night to avoid the flood on the other half!

I can honestly say it was not the best night of the trip so far but we have survived to tell the tale.I’m sure there will be plenty more like it before we are done!

Lets hope we get some better weather and some news about wedding number two! Keep your fingers crossed!

Lisa and Alex x

See what happens next in our wedding travel adventure!