Today was the day to complete visiting the sites on L. Penny’s Inspiration Map. First up was the truly beautiful Abbaye St-Benoit-Du-Lac where we silently (well almost silently) wandered around inside. John, ahead of “his pack”, caught the last of the Gregorian chants sung by 5 of the monks. Other than that we saw no monks. They were probably busy making the tons of award winning cheeses they sell to help support themselves. Needless to say we supported their efforts.
Next up, but not on LP’s map, was the Knowlton Pubic Library. It was built in the 1890s, gifted to the town by Narcissa Pettes (let’s hear for women!), and was Quebec’s first public library. We noted that LP is a major financial donor to the library. Good for her!
With books still on the mind, it seemed the perfect time to visit Brome Lake Books. LP mentions it in all her newsletters and it truly is worth a visit. (If you’re missing any of LP’s books, they seem to have them all available for purchase.) I did end up with a book, just not one of LP’s.
Having bought cheese at the Abbey, acquiring a baguette was definitely in order. Wouldn’t you know it? LP was kind enough to have La Rumeur Affamée on her map. Note the John cousins on the porch showing off their recently acquired baguette. Just down the lane to the left in the photo was another boulangerie. Now we have 2 loaves for the cheese.
The Innkeeper suggested we have lunch at Vitalité
Sureau/Elderberry. This is the largest elderberry farm in Canada. 20,000 bushes! (Can’t imagine how they pick all those elderberries.) The food was absolutely delicious, so delicious we all forgot to take photos! They told us a LP Three Pines tour bus stops there at least once a week. She’s done a lot for tourism in this area, that’s for sure!
Our final stop from the map was the Brome County Historical Society Museum, home to a lot of “old stuff”. It is housed in a series of buildings on the site of what was the Knowlton Distributing Home that operated from 1873 to 1915 and was one of many sites that participated in the British Home Child program. Over the years the program sent 100,000 kids to Canada and Australia. The kids, mostly orphans or from very poor families, were “farmed” out to families across Canada. Almost 5,000 went through Knowlton. It’s estimated that 10% of Canadians are descended from Home Children.
And one last photo. Do you remember when cities had artists “decorate” fiberglass cows for display in public places in some of our major cities? Well Knowlton seems to have had a similar idea plus a surplus of store mannequins because there are dozens of “creative” mannequins or “parts of” displayed along the street. Some say they’re spooky or creepy or funky of just plain fun but they are certainly generating a lot of discussion and photo taking. Each mannequin has a description attached on the back telling who designed it and a bit about the artist. Judy’s favorite is this garden fairy. A group of local 6th graders created it saying they were inspired by their school garden. If you’re coming this way, we’re told they’re hoping to leave them up until the first of December.
Until tomorrow…
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