Un lit de foin

Crossing the bridge over the Chaudière river at St Lambert de Lauzon on the morning of Tuesday 28th October. You can see the church steeple in the background, a common landmark in Quebec towns.

This seemingly quiet backwater road in fact provided access to a sand quarry and there was a regular stream of trucks charging past.. 

...whereas this little road running parallel to Highway 20 which I followed for a couple of days had minimal local traffic as most vehicles used the highway... 

Note the ubiquitous moose warning sign on the highway!
A Hound of the Baskervilles wheeled toy abandoned by a giant?   In fact this enormous advert for a dog sled training centre is improbably supposed to represent a husky

A warm welcome awaited me at the beautifully run Les Ecuries O'Neill-Rondot near St Apollinaire. It is a comprehensive equestrian facility run by the lovely Geraldine Rondot and Paul O'Neill, who specialise in 'English' rather than Western style riding, Geraldine having been born and brought up in France. Surprisingly it is Paul who is the native Quebecian (though with Irish ancestry). They both spoke good English - my painful struggles in French regularly prompted them to exhort me to 'say it in English'!   A convivial supper with Paul's daughter Frederique on the left, the camera shy Paul, and Geraldine, before a snifter of whisky and bed ...

This was in the glorious old house they are renovating.  Fascinatingly it was previously one of the oldest houses in St Foy, a suburb of Quebec City, and was due for demolition.  The ever energetic Paul had it taken apart and reconstructed on its present site, though it took a while to acquire planning for a home - in the meantime it was used as a 'hay barn'! 

 Cloaked in the mists of time?  A view of the old house as I left on Wednesday morning 29th Oct......

The advantage of following alongside the highway was the opportunity for the occasional Tim Horton's coffee and bagel in the warmth while Lady grazed outside....

I love these old Canadian barns......

..many of which are sadly neglected and falling down. They are sometimes reflected in the letter boxes as in this decorative example...

...and I ended up sleeping in one that night.   I had nowhere sorted out to stay and hoped I would not end up under a hedge on a freezing night, but as usual Quebecian hospitality did not let me down.  After knocking on the door of a house near Joly with a couple of horses in a paddock outside, we were offered shelter in the barn, and I snuggled down in my sleeping bag in the hay loft..