HALIFAX, NS — I’m at peace, almost. My only concern is when the hour is up and my Swedish massage will be no more. As the masseuse does her magic, I drift in and out of reality replaying the previous 24 hours.
Our mission was to drive from Montreal to Halifax, but rather than the usual non-stop 1,300-kilometre marathon, we’d take three days and sample some diversions from the Trans Canada Highway.
Over the years I’ve driven that route at least a hundred times. I have seen the meandering, two-lane route through small towns, covered bridges and dense forest evolve into a divided, controlled-access highway, with the exception of a 120-kilometre stretch between Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec and the New Brunswick
border.
In Quebec alone we had the Eastern Townships, Quebec City and the Saint Lawrence River’s idyllic south shore to choose from. Then, in the Maritime Provinces, the Saint John River Valley, New Brunswick’s southern beaches along the Northumberland Strait and finally the Bay of Fundy’s Glooscap route in Nova Scotia.
We weren’t skiing or golfing and an Arctic front moving over Eastern Canada overruled picnics and beach parties. No, our plan was pure drive-about and we had just the right equipment for that: a stunning night-blue Audi S8 sedan propelled by a potent 5.2-litre 450-horsepower V10 engine coupled to a Tiptronic six-speed transmission. With a power-to-weight ratio that rivals most sports cars, the big Audi promised a spirited, luxurious long weekend into the land of the ‘down-homer’.
We escaped Montreal late afternoon and in the 24 hours preceding my massage, we overnighted in Fitch Bay, where Lisa’s father and stepmother regaled us with tales of semi-retirement in the Eastern Townships. In the morning we stopped in Lennoxville and took daughter Natalie to breakfast at a joint called Pizzaville where she filled us in on college life gossip at Bishops University. Nothing like a couple of family encounters to enhance the mood of a road trip.
We passed on Quebec City vowing to return in the summer to check out their 400th anniversary celebrations. My money was on the spa at St-Paul-de-Montminy, south east of Quebec City in the Appalachian Mountains. Just an hour off the beaten track, the Appalaches Lodge Spa is a winter paradise where snowmobiles are aplenty, dog sledding and snowshoeing are viable means of transportation and the spa offers a wide range of treats including the coveted Swedish massage I am hoping will never end. After all, when you are treating your driving senses to the likes of an Audi S8, why not a little bonus for the old body?
Alas, the massage eventually does end and morning’s reality ushers in an icy gale and pestering snow squalls. But the Audi’s all-wheel-drive Quattro system exudes a feeling of confident comfort as we make our way back to the Saint
Lawrence River. The wind is relentless and the mighty river resembles a frozen Arctic wilderness as we turn south for New Brunswick at Rivière-du-Loup.
This past year, twinning of the Trans Canada through New Brunswick was finally completed. The only time we venture from it is to check out the world’s longest covered bridge traversing the Saint John River at Hartland. We find the 400-metre spectacle is undergoing repairs.
Back on the highway I’m completely bonded with the S8. Behind the wheel or in the passenger’s seat, this car is comfortable, extremely fast, beautifully appointed and eager to please. It seems fitting that my first run on New Brunswick’s freshly minted highway is in one of the finest cars in the world. No wonder I pulled into Moncton with an attitude of ‘Hometown Boy does good’.
After a night on the town, it's time for the last leg. In summer, a 20-minute spin to Shediac on the Northumberland Strait to frolic in the warmest water north of the Carolinas would have been a no-brainer. But with a wind chill of –30C, we decide on Nova Scotia’s Glooscap route along the ever-changing Bay of Fundy,
a place where more water moves every day than in all the rivers in the world
combined.
We motor into Halifax late in the afternoon, exactly 72 hours after leaving Montreal. Of course we are happy to be home, but like the Swedish massage back at the Appalaches Lodge Spa, I don’t want this sensual experience with the Audi S8 to end.
By Garry Sowerby
* * *
Escape in Plain Sight
Find fantastic relaxation where you least expect them
By Lisa Calvi
HALIFAX, NS — We wanted a winter escape and what Canadian doesn’t? With our schedule dictating no exotic travel, we find ourselves, not lounging under a palm tree, but leaving the Salon Internationale d’Auto de Montréal and heading home to Halifax with an approaching snowstorm nipping at our fat Pirelli snowtires.
Not a bad assignment, though: Drive a delicious Audi S8 and transform our usual 12-hour blur through Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia into a three-day escape. We burn out of Montreal, putting effortless distance behind us.
Sitting in the passenger seat of the S8 is in itself a three-week vacation. Driving it is something else. The V10 engine eats up kilometres. The sound of its
acceleration is like chocolate melting on your tongue. Road and weather
conditions are inconsequential. Snowstorm in Quebec? Bring it on!
On July 3, 2008, Quebec City, the last remaining walled city north of Mexico,
will be 400 years old. Year-long celebrations range from world-class concerts
on the Plains of Abraham to a Meeting of 50 Giants from around the world to a breath-taking race on a 535-metre urban ice track that winds and dives its way through Old Québec on skates.
Despite the strong pull of amazing activities beckoning us from Quebec City, the road’s pull is stronger and the city falls away in our rear-view as we veer south.
We are anxious to get to our spa destination in St-Paul-de-Montminy in the Appalachian Mountains, almost in Maine. As the crow flies, only 25 kilometres away from the well-worn stretch of Trans-Canada along the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, but the landscape is a world away and here you can almost hear the banjo-picking coming from the mountains that form the border with the U.S.
At the Appalaches Lodge Spa, the howling wind lashes icy pellets of snow at the windows. Outside, steam rises from the thermal pool and yes, there are people
in the water. After a day tooling around on snowmobiles on limitless wilderness
trails, in freezing temperatures, what else would you want to do but go
swimming outside?
The next morning slate-tinged clouds scud across an electric-blue sky in a violent frigid snow-packed gale that follows us east throughout the day. Through small Quebec towns, the Audi sticks to the slippery roads like it was born here.
Pulling into downtown Rivière-du-Loup, we fill up at a favourite java joint, the Brulerie de l’Est. Back on the highway, we pledge that in summer we will visit all of the places whose names click by: Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha!, Cabano,
Temiscouata, the cozy coves dotting the shores of the pristine lake far below
the highway.
In Moncton, New Brunswick, at crowded St. James Gate, three-piece band Black Eyed Wednesday entertains with a varied repertoire of classic rock songs. Conversation with our jovial neighbor at the bar comes easy. She divulges that she can’t stay long because she has two steak bones in her purse. I assume she has a dog at home and leave it at that!
On the homestretch, we cross the Chignecto Isthmus, the 24-kilometre-wide scrap of land connecting Nova Scotia to the North American continent, then it’s on to the ‘racetrack’ past Joggins, where the remains of one of the world's earliest reptiles were found in 1851 in the 23-metre-high cliffs, through Apple River and past unspoiled Cape Chignecto Provincial Park, a definite must-see and must-do summer stop.
After Advocate Harbour, we regretfully bypass the four-kilometre gravel climb to Cape d’Or, the jaw-dropping jut of land that reaches far out into Minas
Basin. In the summer, the restaurant in the lonesome lighthouse clinging to the copper cliffs serves up seafood feasts while, out in the Basin, two colliding currents crash onto an underwater reef, creating the Dory Rip, a feast for the eyes but a fearsome foe for fishermen.
The remote and beautiful piece of road that winds its way from Advocate Harbour to Truro through 140 kilometres of pure driving delight, is the perfect setting for our ears to drink in the Audi’s thousand-watt, 14-speaker auditory masterpiece. Realizing our ‘escape’ is almost at an end, we crank up the volume button on the Bang & Olufsen system and for almost two hours, not a word is spoken.
No palm trees or sandy beaches outside the windshield, no glamorous cities or far-away airports on this assignment. But, in the middle of a Canadian winter, we’ve managed a getaway in our own exotic backyard.