As Renato and Dennis had a rental car, we decided to make a road trip out of Montréal and into the Quebec countryside, towards the US border.

There, Quebec starts to become anglophone, and has a rich history between the US and Canada. Some of the towns there were founded by English loyalists, who were sceptical of that whole republican experiment in the 13 colonies that declared themselves independent, and moved north, towards the Canadian provinces.

At the same time and into the 19th century, the region was under attack several times by US forces. The St. Laurence river would have made a perfect frontier, and gaining full access and control of this vital waterway into the North American continent, with access to the Great Lakes and beyond, would have had a major economic and strategic value.

That’s the very same reason why the UK wanted to keep it at all cost, just having wrangled the region from France after many wars and skirmishes. So no wonder that the region boasted a couple of military museums, retracing the history from colonial warfare to the Canadian contribution to both World Wars.

The landscape out of Montréal, one south of the St. Laurence, became hilly and full of farms and, further south towards the State of Vermont, an endless forest.

We made a stop in the town ok Knowlton, on Lac-Bromé, a big dark lake, surrounded by forests. The town has a little history museum, plenty of restaurants and antique shops. We stopped for ice cream and i got some yummy French bread sticks with cheese and mustard….

We drove on along the wine route and into the towns of Sutton and Mansonville, very close to the Vermont border, but didn’t have time to stop. We headed for a dinner in Sherbrooke, a bigger Canadian college town, some 150 km from Montréal.

We found one of the weirdest places ever: OMG Burgers, that was appropriately places in a decommissioned church in Sherbrooke. The burgers were… Oh. My. God.

There is plenty to see and explore in the region, I wish – again – I had time for a proper road trip into the country side. It’s on the list of trips with my sister.