"Three Pines"

Bookstore Painting

And - we're off ...

Yvonne and I - ready to board the bus

 

... on a four day adventure to Quebec's Eastern Townships

and the fictitious Quebec Village of Three Pines

to discover the inspiration and locations for Canada's acclaimed murder mystery author,

Louise Penny!

Who knew it would be so much fun and also,

who knew I would actually do some reading this summer and discover

that I enjoyed her books so much!?

(5 done and 13 or 14 to go!)

'Terrific. Like a virtuoso, Penny plays a complex variation on the theme of

the clue hidden in plain sight'

 as quoted on the back of her first book,

Still Life

We stayed at the beautiful Domaine Chateau-Bromont right in the heart of

ski country, Bromont, Quebec.

If you are a fan of this author (18 books and counting, Amazon Prime Series, etc.) you will

recognize some of the references to the following pictures.

Gilbert-entre-les-Loups Monastery

Inspiration for The Beautiful Mystery

The resident Monks make award winning Cheeses and Apple Products.

What a privilege to visit this beautiful Abbey!

Witnessing their Gregorian Chant was a highlight of this visit.

Onward, up the road to the pretty little lakeside village of Georgeville

with inspiration for "Mr. Beliveau's General Store"

the haunted old "Hadley House" - Fatal Grace, The Cruellest Month, etc.

and "St-Thomas Chapel"

"Mr. Beliveau's General Store" inspiration

Creepy "Hadley House" - no snakes in the basement tho!

"Hadley House" is pretty in pink and is an actual rental house ... not so scary.

"St. Thomas Chapel" where "Chief Inspector Gamache and his team"

held town meetings and such.

So many murders to solve in "Three Pines" - eek!

Beautiful woodwork inside the chapel

"Manoir Bellechasse" featured in The Murder Stone

This is actually Manoir Hovey where Bill and Hillary Clinton come

for vacations and where "Chief Inspector Gamache and his wife" spend their anniversaries.

Of course, a murder happened here during one of "Gamache and Reine-Marie's" visits!

A quaint and lovely hotel featuring a warm library that we all envisioned as told by the writer!

There were many discussions on how we had visualized the stories to

the actual sites and to the film versions.

We could have stayed there for a nice long spell!

So cozy and lovely.

The recognizable Canada Geese on the mantel made me feel at home too.

Day three of the tour took us to Knowlton, Quebec 

where Louise Penny actually lives with her new pup Muggins.

We hoped we might see her out and about the town ... but to no avail.

At the museum in Knowlton we saw the "Fair Day" painting as described in

Still Life.

Both days on our tour we had a wonderful local guide who actually knows 

the author and gave us a keen sense of how she was inspired to write.

Thank you Linda!

 Also here at the museum there was a unique fire hall.

A place where the "Gamache team" would set up an incident room?

This museum also contains a very sobering display about the British Home Children

that arrived in the Knowlton area and many other areas of Canada during war time.

A real life story!!!

The bookstore, Brome Lake Books, is where her books are launched and proudly sold.

Every book refers to a charming bookstore and this one is owned by the author's friends

Lucy and Dany.

They welcomed us and we shopped to our heart's content.

We walked down the hill, over the "Riviere Bella Bella" to "Myrna's Bookstore"

Our travel mates Arlene and Ardith

Next stop - "The Bistro" for a wonderful dinner.

So many new friends were made.

No story would be complete without mentioning "Ruth's Duck, Rosa"

Bleep, Bleep!

We truly had such a blast.

There was much needed laughter for our souls,

Excellent food for our nourishment,

Companionship for our loneliness,

Joy for our sorrow.

Our husbands were besties, we travelled together,

we stood up for each other's weddings 50 years ago,

and now we hold each other up!

My beautiful friend Yvonne lost her beloved Ralph one year after my beloved Jim!

Notes:

Some photo credits go to Yvonne and some others

You can click on the highlighted links for more information

This trip was organized by Fields Trips 

Our fearless tour guide Arlene and her bus driver hubby Kevin were awesome!

Till next time ... I'll be reminiscing and doing some more reading? Happy Fall 2023 to y'all.