Wah, wah-wah, or waaah even.

You pick. The Googles seems to be of several minds on the spelling of the crying-like-a-baby sound.

And since it’s Monday, I can’t make up my mind.

It happens.

Let’s just go with sobs.

So.

A single shot to kick-off the recent roadmance.

What to do?

What to do?

Let’s go with…

L’ESPACE MASKOUTAIN

A single shot three ways.

I’ll say this.

It was a fast and furious eight-day trip across New Brunswick via Quebec. 3218 km or 1999.572 miles. Let’s just make that 2000 miles, shall we?

We always seem to be traveling through New Brunswick on our way to somewhere else — PEI, Nova Scotia, Coastal Maine… That was beginning to bug me. It wasn’t doing New Brunswick justice. We hadn’t covered the coast at all. I wasn’t getting my NB seafood fix. It was always over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house somewhere else. Cruising down the Trans-Canada-Highway.

We’ve done marginally better with Quebec, hopping over from Ottawa into Hull for Gatineau Park on several occasions, and a little French restaurant I wish I could remember the name of. We’ve visited Quebec City, which we hope to do again in the autumn, along with the Charlevoix area.

But when we’re heading to the east coast of Canada, the first day we zip down the 401 past Kingston and Cornwall, hitting the ONRoutes — elevated gas and rest stops with fast food outlets, washrooms, Timmies and The Starbucks, and a mini mart — in Ontario, and rest areas in Quebec, which are lovely and shaded with picnic tables, washrooms, and some sort of food truck. Works for me. We’re just swapping out drivers and stretching our legs. Unless, of course, G-Man sniffs a Starbucks. I say elevated because the parents would just stop at the side of the road and open the car door. You get me?

There’s always a cooler ready to hand in the back seat of the car with cheese and fruit and muffins and cookies and bottled water and maybe a Snickers bar. Shh. Don’t tell G-Man. I have a stash for road trips. Otherwise, ain’t nobody be goin’ nowhere.

Ontario fades into Quebec just beyond Cornwall.

Bienvenue!

And now we’re on the 20, the 20/30, and the 30 traveling just under Montreal.

And we hit our first stop for the night around 575 km (357 miles), 5 1/2 hours with no construction, no traffic, no stops for camera time (Like that’s going to happen.)…

Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.

Population: 53,236 (2011)

Known as the agri-food capital of Quebec.

Beautifully agri-green.

Hotels: 4

We always stay at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hotel, because it is the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified hotel in Canada. Green, baby, green. Energy efficient. This one is contemporary in decor and minimalist in furnishings, which is not to say lacking in comfort. No carpet and minimal upholstery in the rooms. I’m still trying to figure out how to get the walk-in shower strapped onto the car.

It’s where we stay.

And where we ended up staying two nights due to gully-washing torrential rain and boomers off and on the next day. However, it didn’t stop us from taking in as much of Saint-Hyacinthe as possible, which is charming.

We drank coffee at Brûlerie Mondor, walked centre-ville (downtown), visited the farmer’s market and EXPRESSION, Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe on the second floor, where we saw the Jean-Pierre Aubé SATELLITES exhibit. We ate fish and seafood and spinach soup, visited shops, replaced my umbrella, which had snapped in the wind (the first casualty of the roadmance), stopped into the Centre des arts Juliette-Lassonde, walked along the Yamaska River and toured the Cathédrale Saint-Hyacinthe Le Confesseur, and tried to make sense of l’Espace maskoutain — “an enrichment of the Park of the Patriots by the addition of significant elements representing symbolically the forces and strates which compose the Maskoutain reality.” (Translated from the brochure by G-Man. Pardon us, Saint-Hyacinthe, if we did not translate this correctly.) As far as I can tell, Maskoutain or The Maskoutains is a regional county municipality.

The image above is the bridge that connects the twelve elements. You can see the cables extending from both sides of the bridge.

Close shot.

I have no shots of the twelve elements. It was simply too darksome.

Not a bad impromptu itinerary considering we were ducking raindrops and pulling over to the side of the street when it just became impossible to drive.

I’ve never had a bad stay in Saint-Hyacinthe. The people are welcoming and lively. It’s a beautiful small city and worth a visit.

And Monday is in the house with a single shot three ways.

Elen

Note: It was tough slogging getting any pics this day. You know — cloud cover, gully-washers, etc.