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I recently had the chance to tour the agricultural heart of Southern Quebec in the regions of Centre-du-Québec, Eastern Townships, and Montérégie. This is an area of fertile farmland filled with apple orchards, vineyards, and maple-forested hills. Here we explored Michelin-starred restaurants, a heritage flour mill, cider houses, a Nordic spa, and a sugar shack. We biked, hiked, sipped, and dined in an area that is a must-see for foodies. Let me introduce you to Southern Quebec.

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Preparing for the Circuit

Southern Québec fans out below the Québec City to Lake Champlaingn and the U.S. border. Distances look short on a map, yet two-lane roads meander through valleys and hamlets that reward unhurried driving. This is an area that reminds me of the Midwest, with large barns, verdant fields, scattered woods, and in June, a ubiquitous lush green color. I started my trip in Quebec City and ended it in Montreal.

The tourism boards of Southern Quebec sponsored this trip; however, the opinions expressed below are my own.

Centre-du-Québec

We started our trip with a drive from Quebec City down into Centre-du-Québec. This is an area that was scoured by glaciers during the last ice age. As the glaciers retreated, it turned into a vast inland sea called the Champlagne Sea. The lands of this former sea rank among Québec’s most productive farmland, underpinning the region’s famous cheeses and dairy products.

Day 1 – Centre-du-Québec – Vineyards, History, and Field-Fresh Dining

Québec City ➜ Tingwick ➜ Nicolet ➜ Sainte-Perpétue ➜ Nicolet (overnight)

Morning: Wine – Vignoble Côtes du Gavet

Our first stop was at the small vineyard Vignoble Côtes du Gavet. Founded in 2000, Vignoble Côtes du Gavet began with just a few test rows of cold-hardy Frontenac and Louise Swenson vines. The original owners proved that cold-climate hybrid grapes could ripen here despite Québec’s short growing season. Two decades on, the Marchand family—who took the reins in 2023—care for roughly 12,000 vines across 130 acres. In a typical year, they can get about one bottle of wine per vine. The wines are finished in stainless-steel tanks.

The vineyard takes its name from the land’s earliest settlers, the Govett brothers, who were English immigrants who arrived in the late 1800s.

Every Friday and Saturday from May to September, the winery welcomes visitors for tastings and wood-fired pizza evenings. These nights are reservation-only.

We tasted their sparkling wine, rosé, red, and fortified wine. As with the other wines we tasted in the area, the cold-weather grapes tend to be slightly more acidic. The red wines tend to be lighter, and the ice wine or fortified wine we tried was sweet and tasty. This is a lovely spot to bring a picnic lunch and try some of the wines.

Our tasting was paired with delicious cheese from the nearby Fromagerie du Presbytère. I would have loved to visit this small cheese producer, located nearby in an old presbytery (priest’s home), but it was closed on the day of our visit.

Midday: The Culture of Poutine

The Musée des Cultures du Monde (Museum of the Cultures of the World) in Nicolet is situated in a modernist concrete building, just two blocks from the 19th-century cathedral. The museum began as a museum about the world’s religions and still features a notable permanent exhibit about the major religions, told through the eyes of young believers.

During the summer of 2025, the museum has a temporary exhibition “Poutine: A Culture of All Flavors!”, which explains how short-order cooks in rural Centre-du-Québec combined squeaky cheddar curds with hot gravy in the 1950s. While the origin of poutine is debated among a few different claimants, the museum traces the popularity of this iconic Quebec dish. The exhibit will present the various arguments as to who should get the credit, and you can vote for who you think invented poutine.

Afternoon: Hotel Montfort and Wetlands Walk

We stayed the first night at Hôtel Montfort Nicolet, which was founded as a religious retreat center. The Montfort Fathers established it in 1883. The spa facilities include a saltwater pool, two Finnish saunas, and an outdoor whirlpool set against a backdrop of perennial gardens. They were not part of the original monastic design, but part of the conversion of the facility to an 83-room hotel. See my review of the Hôtel Montfort Nicolet.

You can visit the spa or continue to explore outside at the nearby Parc Écomaritime de l’Anse-du-Port, where a 2.7-kilometer boardwalk on pylons threads cattail marsh frequented by great blue herons and American bitterns. Interpretive panels explain Lac-Saint-Pierre’s designation as a UNESCO biosphere reserve, home to 288 bird species. From the 12-meter observation tower, the Saint Lawrence appears more like a lake than a river.

Evening: Au Pâturage – Espaces Gourmands

We had dinner at the wonderful Au Pâturage, twenty minutes away in Sainte-Perpétue. I don’t want to say that Sainte-Perpétue is in the middle of nowhere, but you can certainly see nowhere from there. This is a restaurant that is worth the drive.

Au Pâturage – Espace Gourmand is open Thursday–Sunday, offering a different experience for each time slot: a relaxed apéro or three-course dinner on Thursday evenings, a chef-driven five-course seasonal tasting menu on Friday and Saturday nights, and a locally focused brunch service from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every weekend.

The restaurant features farm-to-table, so our menu was composed of what was fresh, such as asparagus. The menu on Friday night when we visited was:

• Scallop · Seaweed · Radish
• Arctic Char · Spinach · Cucumber
• Asparagus · Hollandaise · Thalia
• Rabbit · Mushroom · Onion
• Strawberry · Parsnip · Caramel

This was the kind of meal where people seemed to make some sound with every bite. The delight just could not be contained. I am not a big fan of seafood, but the chef had me enjoying even those courses.

 

Eastern Townships

We made our way on day 2 from Centre-du-Québec to the Eastern Townships. The Eastern Townships fan out southeast of Montréal and south of the St. Lawrence River, running right up to the Vermont and New Hampshire borders. Picture rounded Appalachian ridges, dairy-green valleys dotted with steepled villages, and a chain of long, glacial lakes. Then, add vineyards, Nordic spas, and a bilingual culture that blends Québécois French with a Loyalist-era English heritage.

It is an area with ski lifts and hiking trails and is popular for outdoor entertainment.

Day 2 – Flour-Powered History to Mountain Trails

Nicolet ➜ Bécancour ➜ Bromont ➜ Stanbridge East ➜ Bromont (overnight)

Morning: Moulin Michel de Gentilly

Just south of the St. Lawrence River in Bécancour stands Moulin Michel, one of the rare 18th-century flour mills in Québec that still operates as it was built to do: grinding grain between grooved stones driven by water. The first wooden mill on this site was built in 1739. After a fire, the mill was rebuilt in stone in 1774, and it is the building that visitors see today. A cast-iron turbine replaced the original 18-foot wheel in 1907, and the mill continued to operate commercially until 1972. During our visit, the mill was quiet as one of the old hardwood parts had recently broken, but we still had a demonstration of how the mill worked to grind buckwheat and how that was sorted into the various grades of flour.

The non-profit organization that operates the mill has recently opened a bakery on the site, allowing you to witness the process from grain to oven during your visit. It’s a beautiful spot to sit and enjoy a morning coffee, which will only improve with freshly baked goods.

Concerts are held behind the mill in the summer in a natural amphitheater.

History Sidebar

Post-Conquest British authorities once forbade the construction of new grist mills to limit competition with England. Surviving examples like Moulin Michel highlight rural resilience and the shift from subsistence to market agriculture in 19th-century Québec.

Mid-Afternoon: Parc des Sommets – Bromont

Two hours south brings you into the Eastern Townships, a region settled heavily by Loyalists who left the United States after the American Revolution.

Parc des Sommets transforms the hills around Bromont into one giant public backyard, connecting five trail systems that total roughly 150 kilometres of routes for hiking, mountain biking, snowshoeing, and horseback riding. Each trailhead features a small kiosk where you can purchase a day pass or scan a QR code for a seasonal membership, which supports ongoing maintenance.

Gale Lake is set aside as a conservation zone—no bikes, no dogs, and restricted weekend access—to protect the kettle lake’s fragile wetlands; its boardwalks let you spy loons without trampling shoreline orchids. Dogs on leash are welcome on all paths except those around Gale Lake.

We went for a hike in the lush forest of Parc des Sommets on a lazy, warm summer afternoon. The trails are well marked. Some trails are designated for mountain bikes only. It is a great stop to get some exercise to make yourself feel like you have earned the great meals you are eating.

Overnight: Hôtel Château-Bromont

Set at the base of ski slopes, the Hôtel Château-Bromont looks out across the Yamaska River valley. Rooms incorporate stonework quarried on site during the 1980s construction, giving corridors a château feel without tipping into faux-medieval kitsch. Panoramic hot tubs bubble until 10 p.m. and draw small crowds at sunset when paragliders occasionally drift overhead. The hotel features two-story rooms with lofts and an indoor pool in the hotel atrium. See the review of Hôtel Château-Bromont on hotels-scoop.com.

Evening: Espace Old Mill – Farm-to-Table on Steroids

Espace Old Mill is named for the 1830 grist mill next to the property (pictured at the start of this article). Farmer-chef Jean-Martin Fortier is the author of the book The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming. Fortier has been thinking about sustainable cooking and gardening for a very long time and has put that effort into this project. This restaurant/farm has won a Michelin Green Star for sustainability.

You can tour the farm and then eat dinner at this fresh vegetable-forward restaurant, where dishes are based on what is fresh in the garden or on nearby farms. Practically the only ingredients that are imported are sugar, salt, and fine wines.

If you’re not a fan of fresh vegetables, this may not be the restaurant for you. When the amuse bouche is a radish, you know the emphasis is on fresh vegetables. Even the desert will be based on a fresh vegetable. Although if you don’t like fresh vegetables, they are certainly going to make a legitimate effort to change your point of view.

The menu from the day of our visit was a five-course tasting menu that began with:

• a bright starter of radish, daikon, and shiso, paired with Intuition #2 from Le Grand Saint-Charles in St-Paul-d’Abbotsford.
• The second course combined celtuce, sweet peas, and chervil alongside La Cache from Domaine Polisson in Oka.
• Next came a dish built around deer-tongue lettuce, fragrant lovage, and umami-rich miso, matched to a rosé from Pigeon Hill in Saint-Armand.
• The main savoury plate featured poultry accented with carrot and sage, complemented by Tanca Farrà—an Alghero Rosso from Sardinia’s Sella & Mosca estate.
• Dessert closed the meal with fennel, marigold, and honey, served with Clos Saragnat’s aged SOL 11 from nearby Frelighsburg.

My favorite courses were the main and the dessert, but my tablemates raved about the sweet peas.

The five-course menu cost CA$90, with optional wine pairings priced at CA$65 for five wines or CA$40 for three; service was an additional charge.

Day 3 – Pedaling the Brome-Missisquoi Wine Route

Bromont ➜ Dunham ➜ Frelighsburg ➜ Venise-en-Québec (overnight)

Morning: Brasserie Dunham

After a more leisurely start, we had lunch at the Brasserie Dunham. Craft beer is popular in this region. Brasserie Dunham occupies a 19th-century general store with scuffed pine floors. Brasserie Dunham’s reputation rests on a set of saisons, wild ales, and hop-forward IPAs that consistently show up on “best of Québec” lists and win medals at RateBeer and Coupe des Nations competitions.

We ordered pub food, which in Quebec centers on burgers and poutines. We ate outdoors in the welcoming courtyard.

Mid-Day: E-Bike Logistics

It was time to work off some of that poutine with a bike ride. E-Mobilité Café provided e-bikes for all of us willing to bike the local wine route. They offered two styles of bikes for us: road bikes and the easier comfort bike, which is easier to get on and off. Helmets and locks were included. The wine route is not flat and is not a dedicated lane. You share the road with cars through rolling hills and sugar maples. Traffic was reasonably light, and even as someone who bikes regularly, I was glad for that power assist on some of those hills.

Domaine du Ridge

Founded in 1996, Domaine du Ridge farms 22 hectares and produces 110,000 bottles per year, making it one of Québec’s larger family vineyards.

The winery features a tasting room located in an old barn, as well as outdoor tasting on a shaded patio. Our tasting was conducted in both French and English to accommodate the guests. The tasting included:

• Le Stanbridge – Dry white blend (often Vidal-based)
• Champs de Florence – Flagship dry rosé
• Le Bâtonnier – Medium-bodied red (Frontenac Noir / Marquette) – Gold medal, Coupe des Nations 2012
• Bise d’Automne – A sweet late harvest wine – Bronze medal, Finger Lakes International Wine Competition 2011

Vignoble de l’Ardennais

A short ride along Chemin Ridge, Vignoble de l’Ardennais began life in 1994 when Belgian expatriate François Samray spotted the wine-growing promise of these stony Appalachian foothills. Since 2016, the estate has been run by Stéphanie Thibodeau and Pier Cousineau, a chef and pastry chef couple who left resort kitchens for a life of farming. Their adult children pitch in at harvest and bottle design, lending the venture an unmistakably family feel. Every wine is bottled with minimal sulphur and no fining or filtration.

We tasted from their wide assortment of wines. The cellar leans into cold-hardy red hybrids and bone-dry pét-nats:

• Berthe (2024) – Chancellor pétillant-naturel, 9.5 % abv, wild-strawberry and raspberry notes
• Pîtter (2022) – 80 % Marquette, 20 % Petite Perle, 12 months neutral oak; blackberry-violet aromatics, 13 % abv.
• Torst (2023) – Chancellor & Frontenac Noir red meant to be served lightly chilled; watermelon-sour-cherry profile.
• La Belette (2023) – Carbonic-macerated Petite Perle/Marquette blend, four months neutral oak.
• Madame Jean (2021) – Traditional-method brut-nature rosé (Chancellor), 12% abv; a five-year tirage version, “La grasse matinée de Madame Jean,” is released for the holidays.

While carbonic macerated wines are popular with younger wine drinkers, that was the only wine that I really did not care for as it does not appeal to my older palate.

Evening: Les Cocagnes

Les Cocagnes stands as an experiment in cooperative agriculture; instead of subdividing farmland into tiny parcels, the non-profit leases individual plots to new farmers while maintaining shared greenhouses, wash stations, and cold storage. The guest chef series raises funds to keep lease rates affordable. Each weekend in the summer, a different chef visits and creates a menu based on what is fresh on the farms.

Our chefs were Émile Tremblay & Sylvain Dervieux from Faux Bergers in Baie-Saint-Paul.

Our menu was:

Amuse-bouche
• Damien’s ham carved to order
• Soda biscuit with pork confit
• Crab chicharrón
Pairing: Ces petits imprévus sparkling, Domaine du Nival (Saint-Louis-sur-Richelieu)

First course
Kohlrabi, whelk, marinated shallot, house kimchi, crispy wild rice, dill, gorria-pepper oil
Pairing: Aube à l’Est white, Domaine l’Espiègle (Dunham)

Second course
Baby-gem lettuce heart, warm bagna cauda, tomato emulsion
Pairing: Éphémère skin-contact, Vignoble de l’Ardennais (Stanbridge East)

Main course
Crisp hemp seed, confit fennel, cotechino, and koji-braised pork shoulder, spinach, and turnip in multiple textures
Pairing: Pinot Zweigelt red, Les Pervenches (Farnham)

Dessert
Strawberries, light cow-parsnip mousse, soft biscuit
Pairing: Pippin cider, Cidrerie Choinière (Frelighsburg)

Les Cocagnes does two seatings each night at 5 pm and 8 pm, preceded by a tour of the farm.

Night: La Cache du Lac Champlain

That evening, we entered the 3rd region on our trip, which was Montérégie. Venise-en-Québec hugs a narrow bay at Lake Champlain’s northern tip. La Cache du Lac Champlain features 56 rooms starting at 39 square meters, each with floor-to-ceiling lake-view (or golf course view) windows. They are well known for their spa, but it closes at 5 pm and opens at 10 am, which was outside of the time of our visit.

See my review of La Cache du Lac Champlain.

 

Montérégie

Montérégie stretches from Montréal, framed by the St. Lawrence River to the north and the Appalachian foothills to the south, bordering the U.S. border. Its patchwork of fields, apple orchards, and tidy vineyards is dotted with the Monteregian Hills, such as Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Rougemont, which are ancient islands in the inland sea.

Travelers often begin with the Cider and Wine Route, a loop that allows you to sip méthode champenoise apple cider and stop for ice wine tastings at boutique vineyards. In March and April, the region’s sugar shacks come to life as the sap begins to flow in the maple trees.

Day 4 – Cider, Spa, and Cellars Galore

Venise-en-Québec ➜ Chambly ➜ Rougemont ➜ Mont-Saint-Hilaire ➜ Beloeil (overnight) ➜ Rigaud

Morning: Ferme Guyon

Forty-five minutes north in Chambly, Ferme Guyon operates a farmer’s marketplace and a gourmet shop stocking 150 raw-milk cheeses, baked goods, and local agricultural products. The marketplace has a wide selection of ciders, wines, and beers. Located just off the highway, it is a popular stop to pick up a fresh coffee or farm-fresh supplies for a picnic.

Cheese Alert

Raw-milk cheeses aged less than 60 days cannot legally cross into the United States. If you plan to cross at Lacolle, consume soft chèvre before reaching the border.

Additionally, Ferme Guyon features an indoor butterfly aviary, which is fed by citrus blossoms.

It also has a small barnyard featuring chickens, pigs, turkeys, rabbits, goats, alpacas, and a cow. The exhibit is to show children where their food comes from.

Late Morning: Cidrerie Michel Jodoin

We took our picnic gathered from Ferme Guyon and headed to one of the local cideries. Rougemont’s south-facing slopes are home to apple orchards planted by Acadian exiles in the 18th century. Cidrerie Michel Jodoin presses McIntosh, Cortland, and Geneva crabapples, then ferments them into sparkling ciders with Champagne yeast.

Of all our alcohol based experiences in Southern Quebec, this was my favorite. I loved the various ciders we tasted here. The only one that was not as well received by the group was the L’heure de mettre la pomme à off, which is a 3-year apple brandy, a Québec take on Calvados. It was quite strong and should not be consumed near an open flame.

Afternoon: Slow Route to Mont-Saint-Hilaire

The road where Cidrerie Michel Jodoin is located has numerous vineyards and cideries. We also made a stop at Vignoble et Cidrerie Coteau Rougemont. It is worth a stop, even if only for the view.

Thermal Pause at Strøm Spa Nordique

Strøm’s Mont-Saint-Hilaire Nordic spa provided a relaxing stop. For those who have not visited a Nordic spa, Strøm offers a series of pools with varying temperatures, as well as saunas, hammocks, and areas to chill. The hydrotherapy sequence includes a hot tub, a cold plunge, a dry sauna, and a relaxation chalet, but you can choose your own adventure.

Much of the area is designated as a silent zone, with a few areas marked as OK for whispered conversations. After lingering in some of the hot pools, I found a quiet hammock. I would have sworn I did not fall asleep, but I seemed to have lost an hour somewhere.

Spa Etiquette

Bring a reusable water bottle; fountains dispense filtered still and sparkling water. Swimsuits are mandatory everywhere except changing rooms. Children under 16 are not admitted; please plan accordingly for childcare. Photos are not allowed unless you have a red press wristband, and even then, you cannot depict other guests.

We ate at the spa restaurant, Bistro Nord. The prix-fixe menu:

The dishes tasted as good as they looked.

Evening: Hôtel Rive-Gauche and Le Coureur des Bois

We spent our last night at Hôtel Rive-Gauche, which overlooks the Richelieu River near Montreal. The adjoining Restaurant Le Coureur des Bois holds one of Canada’s rare Wine Spectator Grand Awards, but was closed the day of our visit for Quebec’s national holiday. See my full review of the Hôtel Rive-Gauche.

Day 5 – Maple Heritage in Rigaud

In March and April, the sap begins to flow in the maple forests of Montérégie. More than 100 different sugar shacks open up not just to produce maple syrup, maple candy, and maple butter, but to host tourists. Most are then closed again by the time that May rolls around, but we visited Sucrerie de la Montagne, which is open year-round.

Where Mont Rigaud rises like a lone knobm, Sucrerie de la Montagne occupies 120 forested hectares with 6,000 sugar maples tapped each spring. Owner Pierre Faucher keeps traditions alive by using metal buckets rather than vacuum tubes. Demonstrations include log sled hauling, wood-fired evaporator boiling, and a peek at the stone bread oven.

A sugar shack experience includes a brunch featuring maple-glazed ham, tourtière, and tarte au sucre, served family-style on plank tables while a fiddler plays “Réel du Pendu.” You may be asked to come up to the stage and try your hand at playing the spoons. Locals did not wait until the dessert, which included a pancake (and sugar pie), to avail themselves of maple syrup, but poured it over bacon, ham, potatoes, and bread as well.

Sugar Science

Sap flow depends on freeze-thaw cycles. Optimal days see nights at -5 °C and days at +5 °C. The first maple water is the sweetest. That will produce the lightest color syrup. The last maple water of the season has the lowest sugar content and must be boiled longer to render it into syrup. That produces the darkest syrup.

The entire place smelled of wood smoke. The food was plentiful and delicious, if much simpler than the other meals we had on this trip. It was a sweet end to our exploration of Southern Quebec.

Closing Reflections

Southern Québec rewards travelers who appreciate the nexus of landscape and gastronomy. This five-day itinerary dips into winegrowing niches carved from glacial tills, flour heritage preserved by river power, and orchard culture that reinvented itself into world-class cidermaking. Spa pauses underscore a Québécois belief that wellness pairs naturally with good eating rather than competes with it.