A Winter Land

In Montebello, you can roam with the elks, feast on chocolates and sleep with history at the famous Chateau.

Quebec, in an eastern corner of Canada, is a landscape of immensities, grain silos punctuating the horizons, a land crisscrossed by rivers and railroads. I am on a bus headed to the Chateau Montebello deep in the forests of the north. At first, the summer sky is grey and louring, still in a winter hangover. As the day progresses, the skies turn National Geographic blue.

Hawkesbury, a small town, unrolls past the window, so beautiful that it is almost a cliche, with its neat streets and cerulean river. The houses are clocks, stained by time, a patina of age on the wood marking the seasons.

On the highway, you see signs "Warning Deer Crossing" progressing to elk and moose, a reminder that another, hidden way of life exists.

The immense workings of the earth are visible, a landscape stretched taut over time. These rocks are amongst the oldest on earth, forming the Laurentian Shield, which rose to the surface from the super-heated core of the planet more than two billion years ago. The landscape is bucolic, and belies no sign of its violent birth. Wind vanes spin, metal cows and roosters awhirl in the summer breeze.

We finally get to the village of Montebello. The houses are built close to the road, to avoid digging long paths when it snows. You get a sense that life here is adapted for the cold, of winters lived through and this — the summer — will pass. To the people here, after the winter is before the next winter.

Montebello was once on the rail grid, thanks to a spur line from the main Ottawa-Montreal route. The railways have receded but like prehistoric beasts, leaving behind their fossils. The former train station has now been converted into an "artisanal chocolate" restaurant called "Chocomotive". The former waiting hall is now the main seating area. Tourists driving past often drop by, no doubt to pacify their shrieking children. It's rainy and quiet, I take a seat. A pleasant hour passes, leafing a huge stack of Tintins while sipping hot chocolate. A jukebox plays '60s rock'n'roll hits.

... contd.

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