Our next day we had breakfast at our hotel, then boarded the coach to depart for the Monteregie region on the south shore of the beautiful St. Lawrence River. Marie-Josee Pinsonnault was our guide today and she was a delight. So cheerful, energetic and funny. She is with Tourisme Montreal and gave us a running commentary on Montreal as we were traveling through it.

Our first stop was Les Jardins Daniel A. Seguin in St. Hyacinthe. These teaching gardens belong to the Institut de technologie agroalimentaire. There are 12 acres to explore and there are divided up into themes – French, Japanese, Zen, water and others with a collection of over 350 varieties of annuals to look at. Visit www.jardinage.net
 

Lunch was at Les Vergers Denis Charbonneau where we all lunched on huge crepes, glasses of fruit juice made with fresh strawberries and apples and had sparking apple cider along with strawberry/rhubard pie and ice cream for desert. Needless to say we all wanted to fall asleep after that! But did take the time to do some shopping there before boarding the coach. Visit www.vergersdc.qc.ca
 

Our last visit for the day was to Les Jardins de Versailles, famous for their fields of flowers grown especially for dry flower arranging. Visit www.lesjardinsdeversailles.ca

Thank you to Tourisme-Monteregie for this wonderful excursion and lunch! Thank you again Tourisme Quebec for the wonderful coach transportation and guides – they were incredible! Visit www.tourisme-monteregie.qc.ca

As we head back to Montreal our group will now split in two – those who are staying in Montreal will go to the Casino de Montreal where they will enjoy dinner and special seating for the fireworks competition. Portugal will be competing this evening.