7 cool reasons to visit Quebec’s Eastern Townships this winter

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Disclosures: This post contains affiliate links. I participated in this trip as a guest of Tourism Eastern Townships and the participating businesses, none of which reviewed or approved this post.

When you’re precariously balanced on a “sled” that’s basically just a seat with a handle, even a baby hill can seem like the Matterhorn.

That’s what I discovered when I plopped myself onto a Zipfy, the aforementioned seat-handle contraption, at Parc du Mont Hatley in Hatley, Quebec. This former ski hill in the Eastern Townships has transformed itself into a tubing centre, and tubing is what I thought we’d be doing when my group of writers and bloggers arrived for a morning of outdoor fun. But as we were checking in, we spotted a Zipfy sitting on the front counter, and tubing suddenly seemed tame.

Mont-Hatley is one of the only places in Quebec where you can ride on a Zipfy. Here’s what it looks like.

So that’s how I found myself being towed up a snowy incline, wearing a serious helmet and sitting on a tube (which I would discard at my destination, the lowest of two drop-off points on the hill).

There’s not much skill to the sport, really. At the starting point, I put my Zipfy on the ground, clambered on and pointed it downward. The next thing I knew, I was hurtling through clusters of schoolkids, who started bounding out of my way like startled deer once they realized that (a) I was easily twice their size and (b) I had only a basic grasp of the rudiments of steering or braking.

For the record, to steer, you drag your hand along the ground behind you in the direction you want to go. To brake, you dig your heels into the ground in front of you, sending up a plume of gritty snow. If you wear glasses and can see moderately well without them, you might want to take them off before trying this. (I barely saw the photo below being taken because my glasses were almost completely covered in slush. Also, I was laughing too hard.)

All kidding aside, it was a total hoot and it made me feel as though I was about eight years old again. Who needs Botox?

If I haven’t sold you on the merits of Zipfy-ing, here are six more reasons to take a winter road trip to the Eastern Townships. (A note for the unilingual: Some of the sites below are in French only, but if you are travelling in the Eastern Townships, you should be able to get by easily with a mixture of high school French, hand signals and English. Many people I met were fluently bilingual, and everyone was very gracious about my franglais.)

Cute towns galore

Do you fantasize about life in a lovely country town or village? Then you will love the Eastern Townships, which is awash in them. Here are a few photos of Bromont, for instance.

Making chocolate in Bromont

Did you know there was a chocolate museum in Bromont? Me, neither. It’s more of a restaurant/museum, and it’s a lovely place to go for lunch. As well as, unsurprisingly, a range of hot chocolates (dark, milk, white) and all kinds of rich desserts, the place also makes lovely crepes, quiches, salads and other light fare. (Hey, you want to have room for dessert, right?) In the small but intriguing museum section, you can see a fascinating display of old chocolate ads and boxes, learn about the history of chocolate from museum president Michel Bilodeau, and pour liquid chocolate into molds to set.

Soaking away my cares in Bromont-sur-le-Lac

I’m a sucker for these Nordic-style spas that seem to be springing up in every wooded corner of the country, particularly in Quebec. And one of the nicest I’ve ever tried is the BALNEA Spa in Bromont-sur-le-Lac. It has the usual circuit of outdoor hot tubs and cold (read: unbelievably frigid) pools, as well as saunas and relaxation areas. One of the interesting twists was a relaxation area that was actually a series of private little bunk beds, each lit with electronic lanterns, where you could sprawl in comfort with a magazine and drift to sleep, if you so chose. I loved the spa’s combination of rustic surroundings and sleek modern architecture. There’s a restaurant, too, which I didn’t have a chance to try.

Olympic-level cycling in Bromont

OK, so I didn’t do any Olympic-level cycling myself, mainly because…well…I’m not exactly a world-class athlete. But, theoretically, I could have at the Centre national de cyclisme de Bromont, home to the reconstructed velodrome that once hosted cycling competitors at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The velodrome is closed in winter—general manager Nicolas Legault is spearheading a campaign to cover and winterize it—so our group was slated to go fat biking instead. (The centre offers lots of programs and rentals for the general public.)

However, the mild weather the week I visited made the snow on the trails too soft for the bouncy, wide-tired bikes. So we amused ourselves greatly by just tooling around the exterior of the velodrome and the parking lot. Depending on the time of year and the weather, you can use a BMX track and 4.5 kilometres of mountain trails. And if you really are training for international competition, there are top-level coaches and facilities for that, too.

Sipping wine in Lac-Brome

“When we first started growing grapes here, our friends were telling us we were crazy,” says Anne-Marie Lemire, sales and marketing director at the Léon Courville winery in Lac-Brome. And it hasn’t always been easy; last year, it was so cold they had to move their crusher into the garage so that it was warm enough to crush the ice wine grapes; this year, the mild fall and early winter meant the ice wine grapes did not freeze sufficiently to make the boutique beverage. The winery produces lots of other types of wine, though, including a varietal called St. Pepin that I wasn’t familiar with but which makes a great white wine. In fact, the winery grows 12 varieties of grapes and produces a wide range of red and white vintages. To be honest, I kind of lost track of which were which as the tasting wore on (don’t worry—I wasn’t driving).

A restful spot to sleep

There are almost no chain hotels in the Eastern Townships, so you’ll probably find yourself at some point in a friendly locally owned spot. such as the Hôtel Château-Bromont, in the shadow of the region’s most famous ski hill. You can walk to the base of the hill if you’re a skier (I’m not), or just kick back at the hotel, lingering over a long dinner or relaxing in the spa.

Stay tuned for a second post about my adventures in the Eastern Townships soon! There was too much to fit in one post.

If you go

For more travel information, see the Tourism Eastern Townships website.

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