I have arrived finally and at long last at Manoir Hovey, to officially begin my Three Pines Tour. Woohoo!
The trip from Rutland was easy driving, no wait at the border. Took maybe three hours. My meetings went fine, by the way. Glad to have work done so I can dedicate all my attention to relaxing now.
After getting my things into my room, the first order of business was swimming in Lac Massawippi. Oh, the water is perfect! Here's the view (imagine Gamache and Rene Marie having an early morning dip).
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| My foot enjoying the lake. |
Then got dressed for dinner. The food here is seriously unbelievable. Really. For an appetizer, they served food that when described on the menu, made me scratch my head and wonder. But then, I could only moan with pleasure, and pop my eyes wide with surprise. For the moaning, they served in the center of the dish three zuchinni flowers stuffed with melted goat cheese on a bed of sprinkled powdery something. Amazing. Words cannot describe. For the popping, around the edge of the dish were pickled strawberries with some sea plant drizzled with a sauce. Pickled strawberries? Seriously? And what the heck is this sea plant? I still don't know. But wow! Tart! What a great combination of flavors! But wait... There's more!
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| View of the manoir from the dock. |
For the entree, they made, special for the vegetarian, this dish: on a bed of creamy risotto, perfectly cooked veggies, including those small round onions (what are they called?), fiddle heads, asparagus, beets, zucchini, and a few other tasty treats. Savored every morsel. Such yummy goodness. Then I relaxed with some of their specialty herbal tea out in the garden.
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| Manoir Hovey in the fading summer twilight. |
It's fun imagining Peter's family here, the storm, the surete set up in the library, where would the statue go, Bean running around the property, Mrs. Finney thinking Rene Marie is a maid. It also seemed really familiar and it took me awhile to place it - it reminds me of Lake Cayuga in Ithaca, NY. I'm guessing both lakes were created by the same glacial carving action.
When I returned to my room this evening, surprise again! It was so lovely, I just had to eat it. Mmmmmm, Belgian chocolate. It was sooooooo good. My first chocolate in probably two years. Just a little jump off that wagon for a few delectable bites. ;-)
Wish you were here! More on the morrow.
Dear Mrs. Jones,
ReplyDeleteOh man, that dinner sounds awesome! And it wasn't even composed of the animal flesh that I like to eat, but sounded oh so delicious. The picture with the adirondack chairs especially reminded me of what was described in the book. It made me think of the scene when Gamache was outside and started talking to the daughter, what her name, the one that was killed. I'm trying to remember what happened: was she smoking and trying to hide it? She was doing something to try to get ahold of her anger at her family. And that picture of the lawn and front of the manoir in the almost-darkness made me think of that.
Was there a cook in love with the crazy butler for years, but suppressing her feelings?
And the chocolate makes me think of the chick married to the son who got so crazy around her in laws and was trying to search around for the chocolate left on the pillows because she couldn't find anything else to eat. Awesome stuff.
Thanks for taking me with you on this trip, Mrs. jones. Got to wad to bed, but I'll look at the next post in the AM and comment. I can't wait for a post about the monestary!
Oh, and I did text you today, but if your service is terrible perhaps you didn't get it; I said: happy solstice!!!!!
Talk/write soon, my dear Mrs. jones. Hope the coziness and community feeling ranks up and the B&B.
Ever so fondly,
Dr deePlAcebO
Exactly! The rooms are very nice, and I think mine was the "broom closet", which by hovey standards is very lovely, but does not have a lake view or fireplace like many if the other rooms. Wish a tour were possible. I know some of the rooms are quite large and deluxe.
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