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“Why not?”
“Don’t you find it curious that while all her other lectures were out west, when she does come east, it’s not to the University of Toronto. Not to McGill or the Université de Montréal. Not to a big venue in a major city, but to a small university in a small town.”
“The Université de l’Estrie has a very good reputation,” said the Chancellor.

“C’est vrai,” he said, nodding. “It’s true. But it’s still surprising.” (Pg. 26-27)

There are three English-taught Universities in Québec. McGill and Concordia, both well-known institutions, are both in Montreal. The third, Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke (perhaps the model for the University in The Madness of Crowds?) is the lesser known of the trio.

Founded in 1843, the University set out “to offer the country a sound and liberal education” and focuses on “fine arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, business and education”. While relatively small, with just under 3000 students, Bishop’s was named Canada’s number-two party school in 2021. Can’t imagine there are many keg parties in Three Pines, though!

Despite its modest size, Bishop’s has produced some amazing alumni:

Galt MacDermot, known as “the man behind the music of the 1960s mega-musical Hair”. He gave us the title track and Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In!

Jake Eberts, who produced the films Chariots of Fire, Dances with Wolves, and Chicken Run. Without Chariots and Dances there is no Chicken.

Michael Ondaatje, Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient. And fun fact: Michael’s brother Christopher represented Canada in the four-man Bobsled at the 1964 Olympics.

Cameron Hughes, who is actually employed by sports teams to pretend to be just a regular fan, but then excites the crowd to get them into the game. Not sure what he majored in at Bishop’s, but that’s some job!

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“Hell is empty, Armand,” said Stephen Horowitz.
‘You’ve mentioned that. And all the devils are here?’ asked Armand Gamache.
‘Well, maybe not here, here’—Stephen spread his expressive hands—’exactly.’
‘Here, here’ was the garden of the Musée Rodin, in Paris, where Armand and his godfather were enjoying a quiet few minutes. Outside the walls they could hear the traffic, the hustle and the tussle of the great city.

But here, here, there was peace. The deep peace that comes not just with quiet, but with familiarity.
With knowing they were safe. In the garden. In each other’s company.” (Pg. 1)

Originally opened in 1919, the Musée Rodin is located at 77 rue de Varenne in what was the Hôtel Biron. Among the many works displayed in the Musée is arguably Auguste Rodin’s most famous sculpture, The Gates of Hell, which features the all-too-familiar figure of The Thinker.

The sculpture – a work that Rodin tinkered with for nearly 40 years and up until the time of his death – plays a major role in the novel. Among other events, it’s where Armand and Stephen sit, at the beginning of the novel, to eat their tartelettes au citron.

The Gates were inspired by Dante’s Inferno of which Rodin said, “For a whole year I lived with Dante, with him alone, drawing the eight circles of his inferno…” He then translated his vision, driven by Dante’s dire warning – Abandon every hope, who enter here – into the massive bronze sculpture that measures nearly 20 feet high and over 13 feet wide.

After spending time contemplating The Gates of Hell – if you haven’t given up hope! – you must venture into the Musée where you’ll not only find more sculptures but thousands upon thousands of drawings and photographs from the rightful heir to Michelangelo who once said, “The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live…”

Trinquons à ça!

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“There were few things more powerful, or destructive, or terrifying, than a hungry bear or a river in full flood.
Gamache knew exactly where the river was heading. While he’d never been along this road before, he knew the area. They weren’t all that far from his own village.
Which meant the roar they heard was the Rivière Bella Bella, heading straight into Three Pines.” (A Better Man, pg. 50-51)

Coldbrook is the stream that runs through the center of Knowlton and empties into Brome Lake. In fact, Knowlton was originally named Coldbrook when it was settled in 1802 by Loyalists from New England and New York.

The Coldbrook is flanked by history and a walk in downtown Knowlton is a trip into the past. Look for the ghosts of Israël England, who built the tannery in 1843, and namesake Paul Holland Knowlton, who constructed the first gristmill in 1836. Both structures are now gone but one can still see the foundation of the tannery and the millstone from the gristmill is located in Coldbrook Park.

A stone’s throw from the stream is the Pettes Memorial Library which opened its doors in 1894 and was the first free rural public library in Québec and the Partridge Building where the H.F. Smith Printing Company operated from 1899 to 1943.

After a day exploring around the banks of the Coldbrook one must simply stop at Auberge Knowlton. Built in 1849 and the oldest hotel in the Eastern Townships, the Auberge houses the Bistro Le Relais, where the Jarrets d’agneau is to die for!

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Light snow covered the other vehicle. It had been there, he guessed, for about half an hour. Not more. Then his eyes returned to the farmhouse.
“It’s been a while since anyone lived here.”
It took a long time to fall into such a state. Lack of care, over the years, would do that.
It was now little more than a collection of materials.
The shutters were askew, the wooden handrail had rotted and gone its separate way from the sloping steps. One of the upper windows was boarded up, so that it looked like the place was winking at him. As though it knew something he did not. (Pg. 2)

The Eastern Townships have been called the “Garden of Canadian Agriculture” and rightfully so. The Province leads the country in the cultivation of dairy, pigs, fruits, berries, nuts and – of course – maple sugar, where you’ll find 42.5 million trees tapped. As of 2016, Québec alone accounted for nearly 29,000 working farms covering over 8 million acres.

Here are some must-see farms when visiting the Eastern Townships.

Bleu Lavande in Magog (bleulavande) “is the pioneer of the Québec lavender culture and is one of the largest lavender farms in Canada.”

Alpacas Sutton (alpagassutton.com) whose mission is to “offer an agritourism experience for animal lovers by opening their doors and sharing the pleasures of raising alpacas in a pristine location.”

Domaine Ives Hill in Compton (https://domaineiveshill.com/en/) “specializes in the cultivation and processing of blackcurrant.”

Miellerie Lune de Miel in Stoke (http://www.miellerielunedemiel.com/english.php) “offers guided tours of the fascinating world of bees and honey”.

La Cabane du Pic Bois in Brigham (https://www.cabanedupicbois.com/en/) is a classic sugar shack that’s been operated by the Cardin-Pollender family for the past four generations.

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“The community had, after all, greeted the arrival of the Sûreté Academy a few years earlier with unalloyed delight, helping them find an appropriate site on the outskirts of Saint- Alphonse….Jean-Guy had not told his pregnant wife that the academy was, in fact,
the last shit pit in the Sûreté. And her father was in up to his neck.” (A Great Reckoning, Page 31-32)

The École nationale de police du Québec is located in Nicolet, roughly 70 miles east of Montreal. The training academy replaced the Institut de police du Québec and has been instructing police officers since 2000.

The Sûreté was originally formed in 1870 and has jurisdiction throughout the whole of Québec, which means traveling nearly 44 million(!) miles a year on the province’s highways and byways. Not to mention, the Sûreté is also responsible for Québec’s bodies of water and trail systems.

The path to becoming a police officer comprises three years of learning procedural techniques, followed by 15 weeks of comprehensive tactical training.

A key mandate of the Sûreté is to serve local communities and to provide what is dubbed as “local policing”. They’ve found that “this approach helps to establish connections with citizens and provides a better understanding of local needs and realities”.

That certainly sounds like our beloved Gamache!

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From Pg. 1:
Miss Jane Neal met her maker in the early morning mist of Thanksgiving Sunday. It was pretty much a surprise all round. Miss Neal’s was not a natural death, unless you’re of the belief everything happens as it’s supposed to. If so, for her seventy-six years Jane Neal had been walking toward this final moment when death met her in the brilliant maple woods on the verge of the village of Three Pines. She’d fallen spread-eagled, as though making angels in the bright and brittle leaves.

Louise’s Thoughts:
First line of first book. This wasn’t how it originally started. Still Life first started with Jane waking up and making breakfast, but then I realized I wanted to start with both her death, then get to know her life. And I also wanted very clear, immediate sense of place and season.

From Pg. 27:
‘Three Pines … Three Pines,’ he repeated, as he tried to find it. ‘Could it be called something else?’ he asked himself, unable for the first time with this detailed map to find a village. ‘Trois Pins, perhaps?’ No, there was nothing

Louise’s Thoughts:
I’d searched most of my life for ‘home’ and when I found it in Quebec, it felt like magic. It was so important to me to bring that sense of belonging, of Fate, of gentle magic to Three Pines, right off the bat. That it was only ever found by people lost.

From Pg. 44:
Sun poured in through the stained-glass boys in uniforms from the Great War, scattering blues and deep reds and yellows across the pine floor and oak pews. The chapel smelled like every small church Clara had ever known. Pledge and pine and dusty old books.

Louise’s Thoughts:
Haven’t gone back to this passage in 15 years. I hadn’t realized I put in the stained glass boys so early in the series.

From Pg. 51:
Once his eyes adjusted to the inside of the Bistro he saw not the one largish room he’d expected but two rooms, each with its own open fireplace, now crackling with cheery fires. The chairs and tables were a comfortable mishmash of antiques. A few tables had armchairs in faded heirloom materials. Each piece looked as though it had been born there. He’d done enough antique hunting in his life to know good from bad, and that diamond point in the corner with the display of glass and tableware was a rare find. At the back of this room the cash register stood on a long wooden bar. Jars of licorice pipes and twists, cinnamon sticks and bright gummy bears shared the counter with small indi­vidual boxes of cereal.

Louise’s Thoughts:
This is so funny! As the series progressed, my image of the bistro evolved. I now see it, and describe it, as one large room, with huge open fireplaces on either end. And yet, so much else is still the same. The long wooden bar. The licorice pipes!

From Pg. 53:
‘A Scotch, please, Marie,’ said Ruth, suddenly deflating and sinking back into the chair. ‘I’m sorry. Forgive me.’

She sounded to Gamache like someone used to apolo­gizing.

‘I suppose I could blame Jane’s death for my poor behavior, but as you’ll discover, I’m just like this. I have no talent for choosing my battles. Life seems, strangely, like a battle to me. The whole thing.’

Louise’s Thoughts:
Again, I see the beginning here, of Ruth, and her evolution. Later in the series she becomes less obviously vulnerable. A person not at all used to apologizing. And yet, the core is here….a woman who sees life as a battle. A woman who does not overtly apologize, but whose amends are more subtle and perhaps, therefore, more powerful. Love seeing this ‘early’ Ruth and knowing who she became.

From Pg. 82:
‘They are four sentences we learn to say, and mean.’ Gamache held up his hand as a fist and raised a finger with each point. ‘I don’t know. I need help. I’m sorry. And one other.’ Gamache thought for a moment but couldn’t bring it to mind. ‘I forget. But we’ll talk more about it tonight, right?’

‘Right, sir. And thank you.’ Oddly enough, she realised she meant it.

After Gamache had left, Nichol brought out her note­book. She hadn’t wanted to take notes while he was talking. She figured it would make her look foolish. Now she quickly wrote: I’m sorry, I don’t know, I need help, I forget.

Louise’s Thoughts:
This brings back memories on so many levels. When asked in events to recite the four sentences, I almost always forget one, as Gamache does here. Those sentences came from the very first time I met Michael. He opened a meeting by reciting them, and I thought….what an extraordinary man. But, on another level, in the book, I knew I wanted some humor, and it just seemed so human, and yet silly, that Nichol would think ‘I forget’ is a sentence that leads to wisdom.