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Normand Laprise is a Relais & Châteaux Grand Chef and runs one of the country’s finest restaurants. "I was born in 1961 and spent most of my childhood on a farm, in the municipality of Kamouraska. My father sold fruit and vegetables, and I can remember playing in between the crates in the back of his van. Although I have always loved the countryside, I must admit that I feel even more at home in the city. After finishing hotel school in Charlesbourg, I spent several years working in Quebec City and Montreal. I especially love the creative and dynamic atmosphere of Montreal. I really feel at home here."
To give you inspiration, Relais & Châteaux presents the Routes du Bonheur: suggestions for travel itineraries that you can fully personalise according to your wishes and the experiences you would like to discover. Our consultants are available to help customise your route and assist you in making reservations at our properties. It is up to you to reserve any recommended activities on-site or nearby that might interest you.
*Total price provided for information only, based on accommodation for two people in a double room for the number of nights per property as indicated on this page, exclusive of recommended activities, properties that cannot be reserved online and restaurants.
Restaurant in town. In the heart of Montréal, the Restaurant Toqué!, with its light-filled dining room and contemporary atmosphere, is the meeting place for gourmets in search of new flavors to share with friends. Try Venison loin and tongue, matsutake mushrooms, Jerusalem artichoke purée and wild blackberry. Chef Normand Laprise supports local suppliers and farmers. These artisans of taste help turn his dishes into truly great moments of discovery. From vegetables, wild herbs, seafood and wild mushrooms to edible flowers, duck, beef, lamb and fish, the finest products from Québec go into Laprise’s cuisine, accompanied by a superb and audacious wine list.
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Restaurant in town. At Europea, Chef Jérôme Ferrer prepares refined, creative, market-fresh cuisine with a Québecois accent, calling upon his Catalan roots to glorify the flavors of the earth and the sea. In this Victorian house modernized with an ultra-contemporary décor, try the Gaspésie lobster cappuccino with shavings of truffle, ravioli of Alaskan crab claw with rice lettuce, bay scallops with yuzu and cucumber juices, buffalo tartare, mixed watercress salad or carpaccio of smoked Boileau venison with crunchy vegetables. The à la carte menu, based on the best produce Québec has to offer, is a delightful invitation to explore some of the natural wonders of Canada.
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This is where I do my early-morning jogging, two or three times a week. I run across the winding paths of the park to reach the terrace with its panoramic view of the entire city. Montreal is a very green city and a great place to walk or run. Mount Royal Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous architect of Central Park in New York.
Place des Festivals, Montréal
Inaugurated by a Stevie Wonder concert during the 30th edition of the Montreal Jazz Festival, today the Place des Festivals is the meeting place for everyone who likes to go out in Montreal. Not far from the water jets in the square you will find the Musée d’art contemporain, as well as numerous performance spaces, bars and restaurants. In 2010, this is where we opened our new restaurant Brasserie T! in a very modern building at 1425 Jeanne-Mance.
Hotel and restaurant in the country. A stay at Manoir Hovey comes with the promise of an abundance of fresh air in a scenic, unspoiled part of Québec, close to the U.S. This charming manor was built at the turn of the century and modeled on George Washington’s Mount Vernon home. It is nestled in English gardens in a forest on the shores of a lake, and there is a romantic and authentic way of life here. Rates include an array of onsite recreational facilities that make Manoir Hovey a destination in itself. The artful cuisine is enhanced by the wine list, which features 900 wines, and an exceptional selection of Québec’s finest cheeses. A wonderful getaway in all seasons, only 80 minutes from Montréal.
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Founded in 1912 by Benedictine monks who had left France, the monastery of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac is today home to about forty monks. Raised to an abbey in 1952, the site enjoys an exceptional location near to Lake Memphremagog. At vespers, the magnificent sound of Gregorian chant fills the air. The abbey boasts a cheese dairy, an orchard and a cider mill, and sells its produce in its shop, including an excellent blue cheese called Ermite.
Some excellent cheeses are produced in the Eastern Townships. Fromagerie des Cantons in Farnham uses traditional methods to produce superb tomme cheese from Jersey cow’s milk. In the village of Compton you will find Fromagerie La Station, which has been run by the same family of farmers, the Bolducs, for four generations. Their Holstein cows graze in organic pastures and give another cheese that I really like, called Comtomme.
Ice wines
Picture a Romanesque-style chapel, medieval cellars and vineyards laid out over eighteen terraces. You are in the Chapelle Sainte-Agnès estate, at the heart of the Missisquoi Valley. It is one of the country’s finest producers of ice wine, wine that is made from grapes hand-picked in the middle of winter, when the temperature hovers around -10°C. Also located in the Eastern Townships is superb organic vineyard Le Clos Saragnat, whose sweet wines are both subtle and refined.
Hotel and restaurant in town. Like Charles Dickens, you will be fascinated by the city of Québec, the “Gibraltar of America” with “its giddy heights, its citadel suspended, as if it were in the air, its picturesque steep streets…” In the heart of the first city to be founded in North America, standing on an archaeological site that formerly housed wharves, cannon emplacements and warehouses, the Auberge Saint-Antoine bears witness to the history of this important commercial and military port. Many relics from the French and English colonial times were discovered when the Auberge was built. Now they can be found among the elegant designer interior of this irresistibly charming museum-hotel.
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Restaurant in town. Yvan Lebrun’s motto is “simplicity and precision.” And it seems to work well for this Chef, originally from the fishing village of Cancale in Brittany. Together with his partner Rolande, he has created one of the best restaurants in North America. His love of food and the pure delight of his guests spur him on to combine the very best of French and Québecois culinary tradition. The gifts of the sea and the land, the noble and the rustic all combine to create exploding and harmonious flavors. Here, hearts of palm are made into flour, dandelion honey becomes a smooth ice cream, maple syrup appears regularly and, of course, oysters have a starring role.
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At the heart of Quebec City’s Old Port, the first impression is that of standing at the foot of an enormous cliff. Before you towers a gigantic screen, 600 metres wide and 30 metres high, installed on the Bunge grain silos. Created by Robert Lepage and Ex Machina, the Image Mill is a magical show which recounts four centuries of the city’s history. To get the best view of the projection, head for the area between the Marché du Vieux-Port and Dalhousie Street, to the north of Quai Saint-André.
Île d’Orléans
Thanks to its fertile soil, this island is known as the “garden of Quebec”. Stop and admire the skyline of the neighbouring city but, above all, enjoy the country air and the bucolic atmosphere opposite Montmorency Falls. Along the way you can sample some maple products or the apples grown on this idyllic island (the “Savoir-faire île d’Orléans” logo identifies local products).
On the route
The Magdalen Islands
In the middle of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, this archipelago is, in my opinion, the most beautiful place in Quebec. I come here whenever I can, to spend some time among the lobster and snow crab fishermen. Here, in this timeless setting in the middle of the river, nature is yours for the taking…
Whale watching
I was eight years old when I saw a whale for the first time. It was one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen. Come to the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord, at the entrance to the lake, to observe the biggest mammals on earth. Each year, they return here to feed, between salt water and fresh water. It’s impossible to describe the precise moment when you see their tails emerge from the water.
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