| le calmar |
Jun 23, 2010 1:21 PM |
Coaticook is a nice little city and there are some nice villages nearby, but I wouldn't call this place "idyllic". It's probably the least interesting area of the southern Eastern Townships. I wanted to show it anyways because I spend the summer in the region, but some more interesting threads showing other areas such as the Lake Memphremagog, Haut-Saint-François and Mount Megantic will probably follow this summer. Things are starting to be more interesting when you enter the Appalachian foothills (shown on the map) with nice towns such as East Hereford or St-Venant-de-Paquette, but unfortunately I couldn't take pics of this area. The further you go East, the less populated the area is. 50 km east of Coaticook you enter the wilderness and the population is very sparse all the way to Lac-Mégantic, a small remote city close to Maine border. This area is so isolated that the people living in NW Maine go there for shopping, since it's the only city around. Apparently Stephen King go there sometimes! It is a very beautiful area though, since the White Mountains extend all the way up there. It is little-known but you can find gold in the rivers there. There used to be gold mines too, some are open to the visitors. I know the area well since I have familiy in Chartierville, a little town by the NH border.
So, yes, this place is very remote, Coaticook not that much, but once you cross the border you end up in a no-man's land... But things are a little different on this side of the border I think. Yes, everyone is aware that it is a no-man's land, but if I speak for myself I know that the populated areas of the USA lies ahead, it's only a 3 hours drive to Boston from the border, and the ocean is ahead too. (important for someone living in a continental part of Quebec) So I don't feel so much remote and I just enjoy the ride and the nice landscape until I reach civilization down there. That's strange but I do feel isolated on the canadian side, but once I cross the border I don't feel this way anymore, even though the northern VT, NH or ME are even more isolated.
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