Magog

We packed a picnic and continued our tour of the Eastern townships, beautiful little villages set around the many big lakes in the area.

 

The sea serpent of Lake Magog

We stopped in Magog for our lunch. There was plenty going on- a vintage car show in the car park, yachting, jet skiing and lots of families picnicking along the banks of the lake. Given that the water in the designated swimming area of the lake is waist deep at best and the water is as still as a mill pond, it was quite amusing for us to see life guards at several points along the edge of the lake. With no rips and no sharks, it must be a boring job at best. Luckily Taine and Geoff provided a focal point for the guards by skipping stones in the swimming area- this resulted in some shrill whistle blowing and strong hand gestures. A second indiscretion, attempting to swim outside the buoys, resulted in another bout of whistling and finger wagging. Luckily, they got out then without risking a third strike. I can only imagine how politely they would have been told to ‘si retirer’.

With Florence’s tuition, our French is improving.

Yesterday Geoff made an entire order for ice cream:

“Bonjour, je suis Australien” (make apologies early!)

“Je parle en peu français” ( I speak only a little French)

“Une petit vanillé crème glace, s’il vous plaît” ( One small vanilla ice cream please)

As for me? Well, I understood when I was being asked if I needed a bag in the super marche and Taine said ‘merci’ twice instead of grunting. Great progress!

The ice creams were INCREDIBLE. Soft serves as big as your arm, dipped in super thick chocolate and whatever else you fancied. I can’t post a photo of them because Taine chose the grande size and it resembled something very lewd!

For dinner we bought beautiful slabs of salmon and cooked them back at the Airbnb while we tried to entice the chipmunks out of the woods with peanut butter.

Sunset over North Hatley