Across the road, the Rivière du Nord. Under your feet, the trail. More than a hundred seats when it is all open, a short seasonal menu, a cold pint, and seven rooms upstairs if you want to stay. Our terrasse in Val-David, in the Laurentians.
You settle in with the Rivière du Nord right across the way and bikes slowing on Le P'tit Train du Nord a few steps off. The terrasse is big, not intimate. Roughly 72 seats last year, about 45 more this year, plus another 12 to 16 on the side near the parking. A proper riverside terrasse in Val-David, open almost every evening in season. Only a storm or heavy rain stops it, and even then some seats are sheltered.
You have been pedalling since Saint-Jérôme, or walking a stretch of the trail. You roll in with tired legs, you find a place for your bike, you sit down. That is what it is for. Come off Le P'tit Train du Nord, eat a good meal, have a pint. Families are welcome, there is room for everyone. And if it gets late, seven rooms are waiting upstairs. Seven rooms, no more.
The menu is short, and seasonal, on purpose. Fish and chips done properly, the scotch egg, beer on draught, and private import wines Tim picks each week. Mike in the kitchen, Tim at the bar. Lunch on weekends, dinner all week. When you are done, the room is right upstairs. Dinner downstairs, bed upstairs, that is our kind of luxury.
