Today was the first of my two days off in a row. I had a few ideas of what I wanted to do if no one was going to be leaving the farm and could give me a ride-walk to Martinville and have a look around. There isn’t much in town except houses and a library with an ATM, but there is a small lake with a waterfall and an old cemetery I thought it would be good to explore. I’ve also got to do some JNE work that I couldn’t do the last two nights. Apparently the WiFi goes out not just when it’s raining but also when it gets really hot! So we have lost internet access the last two days around 6pm. Luckily it’s back on by the morning and I was able to get my work done. Safran offered to drop me off in Lennoxville or Sherbrooke as he was going to visit his grandmother. Just after that Nina walked by on her way to work, she just arrived back yesterday after doing a month long course on permaculture. She told me about her current job, working for a company that makes Japanese impasto art, then mentioned that her car was in Sherbrooke and she needed someone to drive it to the farm for her-she was driving a friend’s car at the moment. She asked if I’d like to use it for the day and gave me suggestions of places to check out. How sweet! She’d only meet me briefly the night before and now she was loaning me her car. Val also came by later and said her car was available if I needed it. It’s wonderful how caring everyone is-I think they are worried I’m going to get bored hanging around the farm, they don’t realize what a treat it is to spend time in such a quiet, beautiful, peaceful place. Having a different rhythm to my days means I am not bored at all!
I was a little nervous at the thought of driving around here, glad it was not on the other side of the road like in New Zealand, but aware that signs are not in English, stoplights are slightly different and I’d be driving on country roads and in stop and go traffic with a stick shift. I was grateful that I’d had experience driving lots of different manual cars, so I hoped that wouldn’t be too bad, and Nina said she had a small car (unlike Val’s huge truck!!) My fears were unfounded, after just a short while I felt totally comfortable driving the car in traffic. I was saddened to see the signs for Pizza Hut, Subway, McDonald’s and PFK (KFC in French), not the kind of American influence I want to see. I was happy to hear that Saffron had never been to KFC. I told him he wasn’t missing much. He didn’t understand what that meant and when I explained it, he laughed and said, I like that phrase, I’m going to use it! I also passed a place called OMG burger.
My first stop was to a pharmacy for ibuprofen and hand lotion as I was rubbing low on both. I couldn’t figure out where to purchase my items. There was a beauty counter with an unstaffed register and a large pharmacy counter at the back with several windows, since I couldn’t see any other checkouts I went to the pharmacy. The tech looked a little confused but scanne my items. Then I had to figure out how to get out of the pharmacy because even though the exit door (sortie) was next to the entrance (entre), there wasn’t a direct route to the exit, instead I had to pass by several displays at the end of which was a single checkout! At least I know where to look for the next time. Once I successfully made it out of the store and back to the car I headed to a ski area on the outskirts of town that had hiking and mountain biking trails (as well as a fenced area for a hunting club to practice shooting using bows and arrows-I steered clear of that area!) I was getting pretty warm so before I headed out for a hike I stopped at a cute little cafe and got a strawberry basil drink and read my horoscope in French. Ok, I only figured out just over half the words and my buddy google translate helped me with the rest. It was an interesting horoscope:
Just yesterday, you were explaining to your other half that with you, the adventure begins even before you have crossed the doorstep. At that point, why invest in ruinous trips when it is so easy to install a hammock in your backyard! Pour yourself a cold beer into a tall glass, and you’ll have the added illusion of the clanking of a mountain stream. We can say that you know how to live!
Mont Bellevue (Beautiful view mountain) was a lovely spot to hike. I think I likely hiked on many bike trails but since it was midday on a Thursday there weren’t any bikers, just a few other hikers enjoying the shade of the trees and the beautiful views both in the forest and at the top. The clouds created beautiful rays with the sun.
Next I headed to Lennoxville to have a look around. I stopped at a café to get a little something to eat and decided to also get a smoothie, my first choice was the Zoboomafoo because it had coffee and chocolate and reminded me of the show my kids he used to watch when they were little. Unfortunately, they were out, so I got my next choice, the Hei Hei, which had banana and a variety of berries, it was wonderfully refreshing. I ate a date and coffee scone with it then sat watching folks stroll around town. The clouds were starting to darken so I decided to head to the car and figure out where to go next, as soon as I walked out of the cafe it started to rain and got heavier and heavier as I walked the half block to the car. Once I got inside it poured down like crazy! It was still really warm, reminded me of when Brendon and I went to Boston and in the middle of the Shakespeare in the Park performance the heavens opened up and absolutely poured down on everybody for about 15 minutes, then just as suddenly stopped and everything dried out relatively quickly because it was so hot. Very different from the Bay Area! That didn’t happen this time. It poured down for quite a while, I felt like I was going through a car wash with amount of water going down the windshield and there was thunder and lightning.
The rain tapered off somewhat so I got out for a little look around. I had noticed an outdoor space called Square Queen and wanted to check it out. It is a fantastic community space with performance space, areas to socialize, a garden, a poetry box where you can create and/or receive poetry and a pop up library and art studio! I love it. Unfortunately the rain started up again so I didn’t get to stay long.
Close by I found a yarn shop with gorgeous yarns and patterns, many from New Zealand, and next door a wonderful used book store, Black Cat Books, where I was tempted to buy lots of different books. Knowing I already had plenty to read and didn’t want to add weight to my bags, I contented myself with some cool postcards and bookmarks. I left the store as the owner was locking up and ended up standing under the awning with her for about 15 minutes as we waited for the deluge to abate. When it finally calmed down to heavy rain and only occasional lightning, we ran our separate ways to our cars. I ended up waiting in the car another half hour until the rain had slowed to where the wipers went on high and slowly made my way back to the farm. Luckily traffic was light and the rain gradually lessened to a heavy sprinkle by the time I got back. Whew! I felt good about getting through that baptism by fire unscathed.
I was very excited to walk into the kitchen and see Chloé and Safran making poutine for dinner! They had been at the marché selling cheese (Unfortunately, they didn’t sell very much cheese, they said it was the worst marché they’ve had in the last two years because it was pouring with rain), saw the poutine stall and remembered our conversation about poutine when I went to the marché with them two weeks ago, so decided to make some for dinner. It was so yummy and the cheese WAS really squeaky. A perfect meal for a rainy night. We sat around and talked about food and travel, a great way to finish the day.
