South-east of Quebec

Between the St Lawrence River and the US border, in Quebec Province, is an area called Chaudiere-Appalaches. The area used to be called 'Beauce' and we could see why.

We meandered through the area (by car) on the minor roads and stopping in some of the numerous small towns each with similar tall spires on their Roman Catholic church. We were almost blinded by the colour of the trees at every turn and confused by farming methods in this part of the world where winter is so harsh. Many farms have tall silos to store hay and corn. They also harvest a lot of maple syrup here in the spring.

The majority of people speak French and if they also speak English they had great trouble understanding our accent. All of the road signs, menus and information boards are in French only.

We were also surprised to find some big mining towns, one called Asbestos and the other called Thetford Mines, and found out that we were in the middle of one of the world's biggest asbestos mining regions (closed in 2012). I've since read that there is a lot of contamination in the mining areas. They don't mention that in the tourist brochures.