Thursday 11 April 2024--Dismal drizzly day...dreich, the Scots would call it. Get out fairly late again, and go for a drive to see a couple of villages up the valley of the Rivière Rouge. First is La Conception (pop~1500). Signboards along the main street inform me that there was once a good deal of activity here--mills, general store, hotels, various shops, all gone now. The large church, always the center of Québecois village life, burned down in 1945; the 1952 replacement is relatively modest. The other large building in town, across the street, is a former school that now houses the Hôtel de Ville, a library, and the offices of the local telecom. The one really striking edifice is Le Pont Couvert, an event venue that sits on a bridge over the Rouge, down at the foot of the main street. I gather there was a traditional covered bridge here originally; it appears to have been replaced by a concrete road bridge. The modern highway bridge just upstream replaced it as the main through-route. How and why it was closed to vehicular traffic and topped by Le Pont Couvert, I don't know.

Ten miles upriver, I pass through the center of Labelle (pop ~2800), which has a good bit more commercial life--a car dealer, a grocery, restaurants. I'm hoping the restaurant in the former train station, on the far edge of the village, will be open, but I'm not surprised to find that it isn't. I stop for a few photos, anyway. The rail line, known colloquially as le P'tit Train du Nord, was built in the 1890s to serve the lumber industry, running from Montréal to Mont-Laurier, another 50 miles northwest. Later, it brought tourists to the Laurentian ski country. The train fueled the economic life of the northern villages, but the line itself was never profitable, and improved roads in the mid-20th century led to its closure. Today, a commuter line runs from the city as far as St-Jérôme. From there to Mont-Laurier, the right-of-way is now a multi-use trail, 125 miles long.

If the numbers posted on Wikipedia are to be believed, these northern towns have all been growing in population, slowly but steadily, over the past fifty years. I'd have thought otherwise...it's another thing I can't explain.

I have in mind to take a back road to Mont-Tremblant Village, which is roughly halfway between St-Jovite and the mountain itself. The weather dampens my enthusiasm. Besides, I want to be back in St-Jovite before the sausage shop closes, so straight back down route 117 I go. I enjoy a sausage dinner in my apartment, and then a few pints at La Maison du Brasseur.