Flowers and river, a winning combo for Ange and her family

It’s summer at last! Buoyed by the euphoric feeling of the start of the holidays, we set off towards L’Islet to explore the Musée Maritime du Québec, stopping off along the way to relax in the little haven of peace that is the Herbarium café floral.

We most often choose the Route des Navigateurs when travelling along the river, because the scenery is so enchanting and the stops we can make here and there in the various villages give rhythm to our escapades.

So we stopped off in Beaumont, at the charming Herbarium floral café (link in french) that I’d been wanting to discover for a while now! Brunching on Brussels waffles, surrounded by flowers and unique local creations, couldn’t be nicer! The children sipped their fresh strawberry lemonade, while salivating over the counter of homemade pastries: vegan black forest cupcake, lavender muffin (my favourite), rose sablé and red velvet and white chocolate galette were all part of our gourmet selection. We enjoyed browsing in the boutique area, café latté and London fog in hand.

You can tell from the name of the café that flowers have pride of place. They are in the kitchen, but also in different forms: vegetable dyes (I’ll be back for the tie-dye socks!), skin products, candles, herbal teas and pretty stationery are also created on the spot for a more flowery everyday life, even back home.

The welcome is friendly, the site soothing, the details meticulously chosen and we enjoyed ourselves, making this an excellent address for a break during summer outings!

We then headed back to L’Islet, where the Musée Maritime du Québec quickly catches the eye with its large museum ships that open their decks to visitors! We started with a guided tour of the Bras d’or, a unique example of a hydrofoil (a submarine hunter during the Cold War) built in the early 1960s. It was really fascinating to be able to move around inside, sit in the cockpit, get a close-up view of the engine room, climb the ladders and go through the hatches, all the while learning about the reality of navigation at the time, its challenges and its impressive dangers!

In the museum area, we visited the chalouperie, a place that bears witness to the know-how of our ancestors in this mode of transport for riverside dwellers. The children also immersed themselves in an adaptation of the legend of the chasse-galerie, before taking part in a revisited battleship duel.