D2 | travel | theprovince.com Sunday, October 5, 2014

Le Baluchon Eco Resort offers massages in a curtained cubicle next to the river, like the one above, or in a tree house near a waterfall. photos: Catherine Roscoe Barr A tasteful tour of From the vibrant ethnic neighbourhoods of the city to the farms of the countryside there’s much to savour

Catherine Roscoe Barr hoods are a mix of commercial and resi- Special to The sunday Province dential buildings — as opposed to busi- ness districts that become deserted once In an international city like Montreal, the workday is done — master-planned you can’t talk about food without talking to support a positive community energy about history and culture. and to reduce crime. At least that’s what I discovered during Another community-building strategy my first visit to this eclectic, vibrant and is Montreal’s four main public markets: multicultural city. Atwater Market at the city’s south-central Culinary tour guide and lifelong Mon- edge, Maisonneuve Market to the east, trealer Ruby Roy and her driver picked Lachine Market to the west, and Jean-Tal- us up from our downtown accommoda- on Market to the north in Little Italy. tions, Le St-Martin Hotel, for a fascinating The bustling markets supply a bevy of driving tour through Montreal’s unique produce, cheese, meat, flowers, craft beer neighbourhoods. and wine, 90 per cent of which, Roy says, Our group, an international mix of is locally grown and produced within an food and travel writers, was in town for hour of Montreal. the Omnivore Festival — a world tour The fruit and vegetable stands are also touching down in Sydney, Shang- marked with a fleur-de-lis (grown in Que- hai, Moscow and Paris — that celebrates bec), a maple leaf (grown in Canada), or young and innovative chefs and produc- an airplane (grown outside Canada) — ers, plenty of whom reside in Montreal. and purveyors and shoppers alike are As professional gastrophiles, we were passionate about supporting local. keen to absorb as much as we could We visited Atwater Market, named for about the city’s food scene; but anyone municipal politician Edwin Atwater but interested in getting a handle on Montre- also fittingly located near the Lachine al’s history would find this style of tour Canal, and sampled aged goat cheese fascinating too, with its focus on the dif- from La Fromagerie Atwater and pas- ferent influences that converged to create tries from Première Moisson made with the city’s present-day dynamism. in-season fruit. Everything was so tasty I A mural, one of many, covers the wall of a building in . Roy says that Montreal’s neighbour- considered permanent residence. Sunday, October 5, 2014 | theprovince.com | travel | D3

Hungry for more, we joined nature — not just surrounded culinary guide Ronald Poiré by it. the following day for a walking Next we visited La Terre des tour starting in Chinatown at Bisons, a family-run bison and the base of Saint-Laurent Bou- elk farm, where we were warm- levard. ly greeted by Josée Toupin and In Montreal’s early days, the her son Jean-Philippe Demon- boulevard (or The Main, as tigny, a recent agricultural stud- locals call it), a main artery ies grad, for a guided tour (avail- running north to south, was able on weekends). the dividing line between the Toupin and her husband east and west halves of the city Alain Demontigny bought the — and its English and French 400-acre farm in 1992 and start- residents. ed with three buffalo. They now As immigrants from Asia, have more than 100 of the mag- Europe, South America and nificent, massive and incredibly Africa arrived by boat at the agile creatures, in addition to 10 city’s southern shore, they set- curious and majestic elk. tled up the middle, creating Learning about these animals a rich mix of cultures and a and seeing them up close was diverse blend of cafés, grocers, a real highlight for this animal nightclubs, boutiques, restau- lover. Tours include a tractor rants, cultural centres and spe- ride to the bison enclosure as cialty stores. well as to the elk enclosure, fol- From the cobbled streets of lowed by a tasting of products Chinatown we walked north to at the on-site shop. Montreal’s Plateau Mont-Roy- From the Lanaudiere region al neighbourhood for a smoked into adjacent Mauricie, we trav- meat sandwich at Schwartz’s, elled to our final destination: Le where an ever-present lineup Baluchon Eco Resort. stretches down the street out- You could spend weeks explor- side the Hebrew delicatessen. ing this truly unique property, A little further up, we veered which stretches out over 1,000 off Saint-Laurent Boulevard acres and encompasses numer- a block to grab freshly-made ous buildings, 22 kilometres of bagels from another Montreal hiking, biking, horseback riding institution: . and cross-country skiing trails, Next, we hopped on the No. and the Rivière du Loup mean- 55 bus, which runs all the way dering through the grounds. up the boulevard, to take us to We stayed in the Archipel Jean-Talon Market, where we Lodge, one of four inns on site, sniffed, nibbled and sipped our embodying the “slow design” way through the heady culinary philosophy with a mix of rustic wonderland. and modern elements sustain- Saint-Laurent Boulevard’s cul- ably sourced from local artisans tural and historical significance — and a 15-minute walk along a was recognized in 1996 when it boardwalk atop the forested riv- was designated a National His- erbank to our breakfast on the toric Site of Canada. resort café’s sprawling patio. If you’d prefer to take a solo Our incredible immersion in trip back in time, a free down- nature continued with one of loadable audio guide is avail- Le Baluchon’s new health spa able from the “FRAG on the offerings, an outdoor massage, Main” project’s website (atsa. either in a spacious tree house qc.ca/en/frag-on-the-main), adorned with gauze curtains and FRAG stations — for frag- perched next to a crashing ments of history — are post- waterfall, or downstream in a La Terre de Bison, a bison and elk farm, covers over 400 acres north of Montreal. photos: Catherine Roscoe Barr ed on buildings along the way similar enclosure on a serene- with vintage photographs and ly floating dock. historic anecdotes. I chose the waterfall massage, Keen to see the surrounding which was total bliss. Before countryside, we left the city setting out for our respective for a taste of the neighbour- homes, we joined executive chef ing regions of Lanaudiere and Claude Girard, a trained herbo- Mauricie to the north. logist, for a sample of his signa- Quebec is famous for its Nor- ture experience; foraging for wild dic spas and, only an hour out- ingredients and then returning side Montreal in Lanaudiere, to the kitchen to prepare a nour- La Source Spa is an incredible ishing meal with them. gem among them. Co-founders We boarded a pontoon and and partners Patrice Lalancette drifted down the river, dock- and Caroline Simard spent six ing at a spot where he showed years preparing to open their us nettles, burdock, dandelion eco-friendly spa, which was the and wormwood, and explained first spa in Canada to use geo- their medicinal properties. thermal energy for their hot From Montreal’s vibrant food tubs and cold plunges. scene to Lanaudiere and Mau- They also cut no corners ricie’s immersion in nature, I designing the sprawling prop- left Quebec feeling nourished erty, with its meditation trail in body and spirit, satiated by and Zen grove of hammocked my first taste of this wonderful trees, making sure the site was part of Canada and its energiz- An ever-present line stretches an authentic immersion in ing joie de vivre. LaSourceSpa was the first in Canada to use geothermal energy. outside Schwartzs deli.