Published on Aug 9, 2019
The author who grew up in Magog and lives in Sherbrooke for the last ten years, published the excellent Hiroshimoi in 2016. She opens up to us about her favourite spots.
By Julie Roy
NB Due to the pandemic, some places could be closed. Inform yourself before leaving home.
Taste. For this first sense, Véronique Grenier invites us to reconnect with some treats from the past, made by Maryse Normandin-Turmel, co-owner of the Café Général, on Alexandre Street, in the heart of downtown Sherbrooke. “She revisits some classics of our childhood. A colleague who lives near the café buys the shop’s version of PopTarts which she leaves on my desk. Simply blissful!” she says.
*The Café Général closed its doors permanently in spring 2020.
Hearing. And what if we gave our hearing a break? This is what the author is proposing with a ballad inside the Parc écoforestier of Johnville, in the Cookshire-Eaton Township, at about fifteen kilometres from Sherbrooke. “I adore walking in this park because of the silence I find here. It’s the perfect place when I want to escape all my notifications.”
Smell. Like many among us, Véronique Grenier finds it difficult to resist the aroma of warm croissants, and she finds her own at Les vraies richesses bakery on King Street, in Sherbrooke. “The aroma as we walk in is amazing! I admit I have a weak spot for their raspberry, two-coloured croissants,” she confides.
Sight. Her favourite view lasts only for an instant, but it offers her almost surreal beauty. “When I cross the Terrill Bridge, towards Sherbrooke, at 8 o’clock in the morning, in the middle of winter.” Could I be more precise? “At that moment, the sun has just risen. The Saint-François River, at this exact spot, is half ice and half water, and everything is covered in a fine morning mist. The sun’s reflection, the traffic and the frost in the air, it’s a scene that delights me on those too cold winter mornings.”
Touch. It’s the contact with art that touches her most, and at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Sherbrooke she truly feels blessed. “Everything really has an effect on you there. It’s a true multi-sensory experience.” She also recommends the museum if we wish to initiate our children to the world of fine arts.
“And our sixth sense? I thought of something!” Impossible to resist when offered so nicely! “I love to go to the St-Benoît-du-Lac abbey, to listen to the Gregorian chants. I’m sensitive to aesthetic experiences and just being there is already transcendent,” she says.
The Townships in Five Senses
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