quebec city and wine route
 

Hi, I recently posted about Vermont, Montreal and QC and thanks to all the helpful responses of the posters, I have decided to get a flight into and out of Montreal with short visits to QC and Vermont (to visit my nephew near Stowe).
Trip is 10/6-17:
My mom and I plan to fly into Montreal 10/6 and stay 3 nights, then sunday night will take the train to QC, and spend Sunday, monday (Canadian Thanksgiving day...oops) and Tuesday nights in QC, then rent a car Wednesday morning to visit the Eastern townships and the wine route. We plan to spend two nights in this region and I would LOVE suggestions on the cutest little villages to stay in and any B&Bs people can recommend. We are both very interested in wine tasting, the countryside and the small, picturesque villages.

There are also bus tours of the wine region but they leave from Montreal...Would it be better to just stay put in Montreal and do these day trips? Or should we stick with the plan of a car rental after a couple days in QC and explore the eastern townships and wineries by car?

I wish we could have more time to explore the wine region, but on Friday we will head into Vermont and visit my nephew, and explore this whole Stowe, Burlington area.

Thank you!!!!

Your plan sounds fine - I would rent a car. One thing to consider is that mid October is the tail end of the season for wineries. They may or may not be open on weekdays. I would do some research and call around. Some nice towns to consider would be Freleighsburg, Bromont, Sutton, Magog. I can't recommend b&b's since we usually do motels (my wife likes pools). I know of a very charming country b&b & French restaurant in the little hamlet of Mystic - L'Oeuf.

Definitely rent a car.

This is where we go:

http://www.laroutedesvins.ca/en/

http://www.laroutedesvins.ca/en/driving-route/

http://www.laroutedesvins.ca/en/wineries/

Can't help you with B&B's, we always stay here:

https://www.awb.ca/en/

I would rent a car to explore the Eastern Townships and wineries. There is also a cider route
http://montrealgazette.com/life/urba...es-cider-route
This article recommends a small hotel that sounds very nice.

The Abbaye Saint-Benoit-du-lac is in a beautiful setting, has apple trees, sells good cheese.

zootsi--I am interested to see your recommendation for L'oeuf. I have been trying to get my husband or a friend to go there with me sometime as I am convinced it is like Three Pines (the fictional town in Louis Penny's mysteries). We drove by once a few years ago and I was charmed.

we are headed to the Eastern Townships tomorrow for the Lac Brome duck festival. Knowlton is a charming town and it probably has B & Bs though I have never stayed in one.

The only first hand experience we've had with L'oeuf is stopping there for a snack one afternoon while biking. It is a very interesting looking place inside and out. I suspect the rooms are small and modest, but I'd stay there. Our favorite lodging in the townships is Hotel Bromont - beautiful setting, great views, big clean rooms, indoor pool, reasonable price.

Cheese! You must add Quebec cheese to you To Do list. Quebec cheeses are really superb. I hope my fellow Vermonters do not consider me a traitor for saying this but Quebec cheeses IMHO are certainly equal to and sometimes superior to Vermont's.

Here is a downloadable map of the cheese producers in the Cantons de l'Est (Eastern Townships), with symbols marking places for sheep, goat, and cow cheeses:

http://www.routedesfromages.com/user...st-complet.pdf

And if you are a cheese-lover, go to the Atwater Market in Montreal and sample the cheeses at La Fromagerie Atwater. The staff is friendly, happy to speak English, and will talk to you at length about any kind of cheese which you would like to sample and/or buy.