Now the Auberge Lakeview Inn is an altogether more chi-chi place. There's still a pub at the back, where musicians play on weekends and, in the mornings, where inn guests have breakfast. But now there is a pleasant dining room where the dancing used to be, and upstairs there are rooms with firm beds. Drinks can still be had on the veranda, but the atmosphere is quiet and relaxing, no longer raucous and untoward. If you want to get to know Quebec, start here.

 

In truth, the inn's eponymous view of Brome Lake was blocked over a century ago by splendid Victorian houses. One, built of stone, was the mayor's. Another, of painted white clapboard with black trim, is a gallery now. Further down the street are a country general store and a residence that, in its first incarnation, was a Molson's Bank. Along with the numerous mansions hidden at the far end of lanes behind low rock walls, gates and forest, it is another reminder of this village's high-born pedigree.

 

The pretty village of Knowlton, now a small town, sits in the heart of Quebec's Eastern Townships (sometimes called the Val d'Estrie). It cannot help but have a certain Ontario air because of its Anglophone pedigree, and it is one that is evident in the architecture. Knowlton was hard hit by the separatist storm of the 80s and 90s, but has weathered it. Today, there is a good bookstore here-Brome Lake Books-and a number of literary events staged year-round. One of them, WordFest is a bilingual summer festival, that has been reenergized to include workshops, literary cafes and concerts in mid-July.

 

Heading to the village of Eastman, now, come August, Kent Nagano, the ambitious and energetic conductor of the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, makes a point of visiting the area for a series of concerts during the nearby Orford Festival.

 

The Townships rival any part of the province of Quebec for beauty. A cycle or a drive through the Bolton Pass or through Mansonville, along the west side of Lac Memphrémagog (a roughly 40-km or 25-mi body of water that extends into the US state of Vermont), is breathtaking because of the region's undulating and surprisingly undeveloped valleys and gentle green hills. In winter, this is wonderful family ski country; in summer, villages will surprise you-as Bolton Falls did this writer-with a spa retreat built on the banks of a bubbling, fresh brook.

 

The homes tend to be modest here. Along the 243, the house that was a rest stop for the mail delivered by pony still stands, a Swiss flag now hanging from the arch of its refurbished front porch. The Canadian writer John Glassco, a contemporary of Morley Callaghan's and Ernest Hemingway's in Paris and author of Memoirs of Montparnasse, was one of those who, during the Second World War, delivered it.

 

This part of the Townships, with its twisting back roads and bootleggers' paths, has always been a place of pockets, of places out of time-houses hidden behind roads twisting between the low mountains and villages in which surprising accents persist. You feel poignancy for a culture slowly being erased as it passes into a realm of oral stories that will disappear as the people who speak them do.

 

There are fewer young Anglos to remember the English ones these days. They have moved to Ontario and the United States-but ties are strong and they keep coming back. Along Lakeside, the pretty street that runs between Chemin de Knowlton, the village's main street, and Rue Victoria, where the Lakeview Inn is, a little lane leads past the excellent Café Floral to Brome Lake Books, the store and inn that is the quiet cultural hub of the writer community here.

 

The most popular restaurant in Knowlton is Le Relais Restaurant Bistro in the Auberge Knowlton-the other hotel in the village. Like the Lakeview, you can dine on local Brome Lake duck, which is very good and provides the excuse for September's Canard en Fête, the Duck Festival-have a glass of good local rosé with it, too. The Canard en Fête takes place during the second and third weekends of September, when the leaves of the surrounding forest are beginning to take on their blazing autumn red and orange hues. It is comprised of food and wine tastings, various street entertainments and, would you believe, a duck race.

 

During the festival or not, a visit to the duck farm on Centre Road is well worth the journey. Stock up on the delicious charcuterie here-duck salami (whole, rather than sliced, is better), smoked slices of duck breast or actual magret, ready-to-serve, or confit to be cooked at home. The duck sausages, a sort of Townships frankfurter, are made with sun-dried tomatoes and fruits. And don't forget to pick up a tub or two of duck fat-tastier, and apparently healthier, to cook "Potatoes Anna" in than butter. Even if you yourself don't eat this criminally good dish, at the very least you'll want to be in the know and have a comment to make when someone else serves it in what is certain to be the year's busy renaissance of Julia Child's sinful recipes.

 

"Most museums are created to celebrate the past. This museum is being created to change the future," begins the introductory video to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, now under construction in Winnipeg, MB. The museum is being built on hallowed land at the historic Forks, which has been a meeting place for Canada's First Nations people for thousands of years. Winnipeg itself has always been one of Canada's most culturally diverse cities, with a rich arts scene strengthened by its First Nations, Métis and Francophone communities.

 

The physical home of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is scheduled for completion in 2012. It's a cutting-edge museum centred on ideas rather than on artifacts. It proposes to take visitors on their own life-changing journey. That's one that will stretch over 4,366 sq m (47,000 sq ft) of exhibit space, accessed by a series of ramps or bridges. A stairway and elevator will lead to the Tower of Hope, a 100-m (328-ft) glass structure with views over the city. Now you can watch the daily construction progress via two webcams on the museum's website.

 

People's own stories will help shape the museum's ever-changing exhibitions.  Visitors to the museum's website are also invited to contribute by sharing their own stories. If you've suffered discrimination, or if your story could be used to inspire debate and stimulate dialogue, you can become part of the human rights museum's archives.

 

Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights have created a "Shine" pin you can buy and wear, too, to show your support-for the museum, and for all human rights.

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