Following Marie, Our Guide to Three Pines
We arrived back in Oysterville at 9:40 yesterday morning – just in time for Dobby Wiegardt’s Schoolhouse Talk and also in time to be greeted with open arms by one of the crowd who said, “Oh! I thought maybe you were dead.” As it turned out it was the ten-day absence of my blog that had prompted that remark. As far as I know, there had not been a funeral held at the Oysterville Church – not in my name or otherwise.
But, I’m happy to report that not only are we alive and well, we had a wonderful trip to Montreal, Quebec City, and the Eastern Townships. It was the first out-of-the-country jaunt for Nyel and me in more than a dozen years and, frankly, I didn’t know if we were up to it. As I’ve known and said from my first trip abroad in the 1950s, “traveling is hard work.” And that was in the days of traveling ‘across the pond’ on an ocean liner which was, in actuality, far easier than these days of lines and lines and lines of baggage checks, body checks, ‘wanding’ and food-not-included…
In Three Pines
But, I digress. We passed all the traveling tests with flying colors. Maybe we were a little slower walking up and down those cobblestone streets in Quebec City but in all other respects we held our own with our three (younger) traveling companions – at least as far as I know. Sue and Bill Grennan and Kitt Fleming were fabulous friends to be with and, for us who have never traveled in ‘a group’ before, it was all (as Kitt would say) “delightful.” International Travel Test: Passed!
As for our Quest… whether or not we were successful in locating Louise Penny’s fictional village of Three Pines we’ll leave to our Mystery Book Club members to decide when next we meet with them and talk in detail about where we went, what we saw, and who we spoke to. I think it might come down to how literal a reader of fiction (and, in particular, a lover of Armand Gamache & Company) our listeners might be. As for me… I write non-fiction… I search for facts…. And I say, “Our quest was an unequivocal success!”
Hi Sydney:
Would love hearing more about your trip when you have the time. Friends and I read Penny’s books and I told them you were going on this trip. Notice you had a guide, so it was a serious trek with an expert? We wondered if you would be able to identify any of places she mentions in her books.