Hitting the road in and around Coaticook, QC

[le calmar]

This is the small city where I work this summer. Coaticook was founded in 1826. Pop: 9285. The city and the surroundings villages are known for their production of milk and dairy products. Sometimes, Coaticook is refered as the "city of milk". There is even a festival of milk there in the summer. The "Coaticook" ice-cream brand, famous in Quebec, originates from this city. The city is also known for its canyon (la gorge de Coaticook) and its pedestrian bridge.


Coaticook is here.



The other places showcased in this thread are highlited. Martinville and Huntingville are not on the map. Many pictures were taken on the road between those places.




Drought


Coaticook river


Countryside ahead


Long bridge


Purple flowers and cliff


Dry river


Montréal, USA


Coaticook housing


Allée des Marchands


Downtown Coaticook II


Downtown Coaticook I


Truck


View


Beware of cows


Yellow field


Another farm


Yellow


Hitting the road again


Farm and mount Orford


Silos


Tractor


Country house


Kaeslin


Martinville house


Enjoying the view


Dam in Martinville


Martinville


Martinville dam


Grande ligne road


Bird and cloud


Abandonned house II


Abandonned house I


Blue sky


Coaticook/Barford


Martinville church


River


Grande ligne


Mont Hereford


Winding road


Silos


Truck


Grit


Church and view


Coaticook VI


Tombstone


Cemetary


Angel


Coaticook church


Coaticook IV


Uplands


Uplands


Huntingville dam


Woods


Electric line


Cookshire fire truck


Countryside


Sainte-Edwidge church


Accomodation Karine


Historic buildings


Coaticook III


Bridge and canyon


Long bridge


High bridge


Canyon


River


Coaticook I


Bridge from above


Farm on the road


Sainte-Hermenégilde church


Little girl playing


Lonely barn


Scenery


Lilac and view


Dixville accomodation


Dixville house


Dixville church


Lake Wallace (VT on the other side)


Cloudy sky II


Cloudy sky I

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures. The Quebec countryside near the border looks amazing.

At least on a map, the parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine might as well be on the edge of the world, since it looks like it's far from American cities, and far from big Canadian cities like Montreal and smaller cities like Sherbrooke. Does this part of Quebec feel like the edge of a frontier with the wild and sparsely-populated American lands on the other side of the border?

[View2saintmartin]

Beautiful photos of an idyllic place. Much like we see while traveling between NYC and Montréal.

Thanks le calmar!

[le calmar]

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.

[stepper77]

Beautiful shots. I love rural, farmland places like this. My ex is from Massachusetts and has an aunt by marriage from the southern part Quebec, near the US border, and he used to go with her up there as a child to visit her family. He likes nature so he always enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

[Thundertubs]

Great stuff. This is one of my favorite parts of Canada. Crossing from from NH to QC is probably the most striking transition on the US-Canadian border.

I really like how the Eastern Townships are relatively flat and agricultural, yet still have mountains.

[yerfdog]

I drove through this area several years ago. Your pictures are really nice, and they bring back some memories. The transition from wealthy farmland with big tractors and nice farmhouses to basically nothing on the other side of the border was very striking.

[diskojoe]

very good pics. what kind of camera and lenses were you using here?

[le calmar]

I'm glad you liked the pics. The camera is a Canon EOS 50D and the only lense I used is a 18-200 mm.