‘Literary tourism is a huge thing,' Louise Penny says as Knowlton thrives as fictional Three Pines
Three Pines is an imagined place and does not exist on any map. But the fictional village in which author Louise Penny has set most of her wildly successful Gamache novels is inspired by Knowlton — a very real place in the lovely Eastern Townships region of Quebec — and its surrounding hamlets.
And from spring to fall, Three Pines tours, formal ones or the kind one organizes on one's own, are a hot ticket in the area.
'Louise has done so much for this town,' said Kirk Lawrence, a longtime friend of Penny's. 'Her fan base is surreal. People come from all over the world to see Three Pines.'
At Brome Lake Books in Knowlton, a special corner is dedicated to Penny and free copies of the Three Pines Inspirations map are available. From the map, 'people can get a Three Pines feel. It's like a self-guided tour,' said Brome Lakes Books co-owner Danny McAuley. A copy can also be downloaded from the bookstore's website.
In addition, a Three Pines map drawn by Penny's assistant, Lise Desrosiers, complete with some of the houses where the various characters live, can also be downloaded. Brome Lake Books carries Three Pines memorabilia, from mugs to coasters to T-shirts — as well, of course, as Penny's books. A hand-coloured puzzle based on Lise's map will soon be available for sale.
Tourism Eastern Townships has a Three Pines inspirations map. And Karen Warren, retired professor of outdoor and experiential education in Amherst, Mass., who writes the Outdoor Adventure Sampler, organized her own Three Pines tour of the area.
'Literary tourism is a huge thing,' said Penny in an interview.
'People travel around the world to see places they have read about or are characters in books.'
Melissa and Brian Whaley of Lee, N.H., travelled to the Townships for a few days in July because Melissa is a huge fan of the Gamache stories — the trip was a gift from Brian — and they wanted to see the places that had inspired the locations in the books.
Their stops included the Abbey of St-Benoît-du-Lac, the inspiration for St-Gilbert-entre-les-loups in A Beautiful Mystery (2012), and La Rumeur Affamée in Sutton, the inspiration for Sarah's boulangerie in Three Pines.
Melissa is currently re-reading the Gamache series — and loving it. To her, calling the books murder mysteries 'is grossly inadequate.
'They are an exploration of character — our failings and secrets, our idiosyncrasies, our inner beauty, our humanity. Her stories lead characters to forks in the road where they can choose life or death in metaphorical and real ways, while often not seeing but the half-step in front of them,' she said.
'Her stories are about community, both broken and redemptively life-giving just as it seems there is no hope or way. Friends and even some unlikely and tenuous allies show up and save the day. And then sometimes they don't, or they fall short — and grief lingers from book to book as it does in real life.'
The Whaleys stopped by Café Three Pines, which is owned by Penny — and Penny happened to be there. Melissa was thrilled to meet the author in person. 'So to say that I was overwhelmed to walk into Louise Penny's new café and realize she was there … I mean I'd hoped, but to get to talk with her and tell her how much I love her books ...'
Jim and Russetta Holcomb, visiting from Solana Beach, Calif., and staying at Hovey Manor in North Hatley, had not known Penny's work before arriving. Hovey Manor, it happens, is the inspiration for Manoir Bellechasse, where the Gamache novel A Rule Against Murder (2008) is set.
'The concierge enlightened us as to who she is and her story,' Jim said. Both voracious readers, they purchased two Gamache books there, then drove to Brome Lake Books for a copy of the most recent, The Grey Wolf (2024). Then they headed downstairs to the café.
'To our good fortune, Louise was at the coffee shop,' Jim said, 'and we had a beautiful encounter with her.'
Local Johanne Gauvin, riding director for Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest and a fan who has read all 19 Gamache novels, dropped by the café that afternoon with her mother, Danielle Lauzon. 'We came to say hello,' she said. 'The café is fabulous.' In 2019, Charest presented Penny with the Medal of the National Assembly for bringing so much in the way of tourism to the region.
'I tried to explain that Quebec, that the Eastern Townships, that Knowlton have given me far more than I can ever give back, but, happily, the medal was already engraved,' Penny posted then on her Facebook page.
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CTV News
7 days ago
- CTV News
Cafe Three Pines brings author's work to life in Quebec's Eastern Townships
Cafe Three Pines in Quebec's Eastern Townships brings the fictional world of Louise Penny to life. A fictional world has come to life in the Eastern Townships. Cafe Three Pines is nestled below Brome Lake Books in Knowlton, and it's making a buzz. 'When I have people come from out of town I go, 'Do you want the Louise Penny tour?' and we just stop everywhere. And this is just a crown jewel,' one local woman said. If you know the name Louise Penny, then you know the world of Sûreté du Québec chief inspector Armand Gamache. You also know the mystery novel series and Three Pines, the fictional town where the series is set. 'This village of Three Pines, a fictional village, was my ideal. My ideal bakery, my ideal bookshop, my ideal everything. So this whole design, I write about two fireplaces, and it's really cool,' the famed Canadian author said. Cafe Three Pines boasts a cozy country-style decor with pieces from Penny's own home. She says much like her books, the cafe is a love letter to the province of Quebec, and realizing its vision took more than 20 years. 'I remember the first couple of launches we had for the books [..] 'Still Life' and 'Dead Cold,' and The Cruelest Month. Nobody came. [...] There was no overnight success,' Penny said. Author Louise Penny Author Louise Penny signs a book from her community in Quebec's Eastern Townships. (Anastasia Dextrene/CTV News) - Despite numerous accolades - including being named a New York Times best selling author- Penny exudes a grounded energy. She greets visitors from around the world as they shop, eat and read. 'The cafe has just added value to those that come here. They can sample, you know, what she's written about in her books - the Armand's favorite croissant sandwich, what we serve as the Gamache croissant,' cafe manager Brian Quilliams said. Visitors can enjoy Three Pines' latte art and even Penny's family recipes. But most of all, the author hopes to leave visitors knowing this: 'No matter who they are, no matter what they think. No matter what their political bent is, they're accepted here. They can come [to Cafe Three Pines] and they are safe,' she told CTV.
Montreal Gazette
02-08-2025
- Montreal Gazette
Louise Penny chooses Ottawa instead of Washington for her latest novel's launch
New York Times bestselling author and Knowlton resident Louise Penny made headlines when she announced in March that, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats against Canada, she would not travel to the United States to promote The Black Wolf, the 20th book in her enormously successful Gamache series. It comes out Oct. 28. She realizes she is fortunate to be in a position to make that choice, she said: It will surely affect books sales and, by extension, the bottom line for her publisher, Minotaur. 'My publisher was so incredibly supportive and understands,' she said in an interview. The book's U.S. launch was set for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. But in February, after Trump dismissed half the appointed trustees and the remaining board members, most of them his appointees, made him the chair of the historic institution, Penny joined the growing list of those deciding not to appear there. Instead, she moved the launch to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, where the 2,065 tickets for the Oct. 28 event sold out within hours. She'll travel to several Canadian cities for the book's publicity tour and a couple of virtual events will be live-streamed from the U.S., but it's the first time in 20 years that one of Penny's tours won't include stops south of the border. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Louise Penny (@louisepennyauthor) Trump has said repeatedly that he would like to annex Canada, turn it into the 51st state and take its vast mineral resources. In an instance of fiction presaging reality, one of the threads in The Black Wolf is a movement to make Canada the 51st state. Penny was concerned that people would think she 'just ripped off the headlines' — this although The Black Wolf was conceived three years ago and completed a year ago, long before the issue made the headlines. The Grey Wolf, published last October, and The Black Wolf were designed together and intended as companion pieces, she said. Some of the pivotal scenes of The Black Wolf are set in the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a cultural building straddling Canada and the U.S. A black stripe running across the library floor and under the opera house seats marks the border between Quebec and Vermont. The book's publicity tour will end at the Haskell Nov. 1 and 2. In-person tickets are sold out but virtual event tickets can be purchased in Canada through Brome Lake Books and in the U.S. through Phoenix Books. 'It was fun to do that quick pivot from the Kennedy Center and the U.S. tour to National Arts Centre and then to end the tour at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House,' Penny said. Since the Haskell opened in 1904, the citizens of both countries have used it without going through passport control and customs. In March of this year, Kristi Noem, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, approached the tape in the library denoting the border and stepped back and forth across it. On the American side, she said, grinning: 'U.S.A. No. 1.' Crossing the line into Canada, she said: 'The 51st state.' 'She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, 'U.S.A. No. 1,' and didn't even say 'Canada.' Just, 'the 51st state',' Haskell executive director Deborah Bishop, who is Canadian, told the Boston Globe. 'When I wrote The Black Wolf, I worried I'd gone too far, ' Penny said. 'I no longer have that fear.' What frightens her, she told The Gazette, 'is that this is exactly what tyrants do: Who do they target? They target the libraries, the arts centres, the universities: places open to anyone who might have a dissenting thought.' Penny said she believes that many people who voted for Trump 'thought he was one thing and now are beginning to realize that he is not what he pretended to be. The challenge is going to be for the Democrats to come up with a viable, thoughtful, articulate candidate.' While it is true that many are glum about the current Trump administration, she said, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that his term will end. And meanwhile, 'it is so important to be optimistic, to look at friendships and support and do a lot of laughing. It is so important to know what we have. 'It is so easy to see the darkness,' she said. 'The tragedy would be if we allowed it to overshadow everything else.'
Montreal Gazette
02-08-2025
- Montreal Gazette
At Louise Penny's Café Three Pines, a sense of community is brewing
By Susan Schwartz If you know the work of award-winning author Louise Penny, then you know Three Pines. You know Myrna's bookstore and Sarah's boulangerie and Gabri and Olivier's inviting bistro, with its two facing fieldstone fireplaces. You know Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, his wife, Reine-Marie, and the cast of characters including the artist Clara, Ruth the foul-mouthed poet and her pet duck, Rosa. You know that Three Pines, where most of the Gamache books are set, is a fictional village inspired by Knowlton, a part of the charming Eastern Townships community Penny has called home for more than 25 years. You know it's where she and her beloved husband, Michael Whitehead (1934-2016), a distinguished Montreal physician and scientist, lived together so happily. You probably also know that Whitehead was the inspiration for Gamache, the homicide investigator noted for his strong moral compass, his gentle nature and his deep empathy. Since the first Gamache novel, Still Life, was published in 2005, 18 have followed. They have sold 18.3 million copies in 35 languages. The 20th, The Black Wolf, comes out Oct. 28. Even if you don't know Penny or Three Pines, a delightful surprise awaits in Knowlton in the form of an inviting new café owned by none other than Penny herself. It's called Café Three Pines. Her dream, she says, was to create in the café the sense of welcome and safety offered in Gabri and Olivier's bistro. And with the help of a team of locals, that's what she has done. 'I knew exactly what I wanted: I could see it. I had written about it for 20 years,' Penny said. 'The tin ceiling. Having the beams covered in old wood so they look like the beams in the bistro.' And two facing fireplaces with fieldstone surrounds, just like in the bistro. Café Three Pines is tucked beneath Brome Lake Books, the place that inspired Myrna's bookstore, in a building on Lakeside Ave. that Penny bought in March of 2024. The bookstore 'is such a centrepiece for the town,' she said. 'I didn't want to risk it losing it.' The previous owner had used the space as an office and it was dreary, with an acoustic tile ceiling. But it was a huge open space, with a full-height walkout and the Coldbrook River right there. She saw the potential. Penny visits bookshops when she travels and has observed that many have coffee shops. 'It seemed like a natural marriage,' she said. There is an entrance to the café from the outside, but it made sense to Penny for it to be connected to the bookstore from the inside as well. That meant installing an interior staircase. The bookstore's husband-and-wife owners, Danny McAuley and Lucy Hoblyn, were in agreement — but 'I'm sure they didn't know what they were getting into,' Penny said. They endured 'month after month of hammering and banging' as the downstairs space was gutted and renovated and the staircase put in. Local contractor Victor Patenaude did all the renovations and the people at Knowlton's Buzz Café & Bistro 'acted as midwives to the café, essentially,' Penny said. They told her what was needed and even sourced the wood-framed glass cases in which the baked goods are displayed — from a Montreal vape store. 'That's the beauty of living for 25 years in a village,' Penny said. 'It's the rising tide: I spoke to each of the other bistro owners and explained what I was doing and that my intention was not to compete but to collaborate. ... Everyone realizes that, if Buzz succeeds, Caron (& Frères) succeeds, Raffields (Centrale) succeeds, then I succeed. We are there to help each other. 'It feels like the whole community has come together to help,' she said. 'It's mutual: It's that we are always there for each other.' The plates and cups are from Atelier Tréma in Bedford, which makes handmade dishware. They feature a Three Pines logo; the plates are engraved with expressions Gamache readers will recognize, like 'Goodness exists.' In How the Light Gets In (2013), Penny wrote of Gamache that he believed 'the light would banish the shadows. That kindness was more powerful than cruelty, and that goodness existed, even in the most desperate places.' Virgin Hill coffee roasters in nearby Foster created a Three Pines coffee blend and, with the help of Penny's assistant Lise, a Reine-Marie tea blend. Food consultant Ariane Querry sourced the baked goods from local bakers. Initially, the thought was to offer only pastries that appear in Penny's books, like croissants and pains au chocolat, but items including scones, oatmeal cookies and a breakfast sandwich were added along the way. Come fall, they're looking to offer a soup, said café manager Bryan Quilliams, a longtime Townshipper with decades of experience in the hospitality industry who has returned after years away. 'Managing a little café for one of the nicest people in the world is where I really want to be,' he said. Among his responsibilities, Quilliams hired and trained the baristas, who are unfailingly pleasant. Part of his job is 'making sure that my team is enjoying themselves, because that reflects on how the customers feel. The idea is for everyone to have fun,' he said. The baristas use three forms of latte art for the steamed milk atop the café au lait: the Three Pines logo, a golden retriever — Penny has two goldens — and a maple leaf. You won't find an Americano on the coffee menu — but there is a Canadiano. And baristas Emma Lee St-Onge-Audet and Ben McAuley handle the café's social media. Penny worked with longtime friend Kirk Lawrence of Kirk Lawrence Design on the upholstery, furnishings and some design elements. 'He knows me well and he knows the books,' she said. 'It was really helpful.' Lawrence, who has worked with Penny on homes she has lived in in the Townships and on her apartments in New York and London, said: 'We have done so much together.' Furniture at the café, which can seat about 30, includes wing chairs, armchairs, two overstuffed sofas, one of which was originally in Penny's own home — 'I have redone that sofa maybe five times,' Lawrence said — and a leather sectional. There's a long table and a round one that Penny had had in storage. The upholstered pieces, purchased mostly at estate sales, were re-covered in soft pale shades. 'Louise likes pastel colours — greens and blues,' Lawrence said. 'We wanted it to be really welcoming. ' Said Quilliams: 'Louise approved everything in terms of ceramics, menu items, furniture, colours and the look and feel of the place. She said she wanted it to feel like you were in your living room.' The café has been open to the public since mid-June and, as Penny observed during a recent visit: 'You can see how it looks like the bistro in the books ... I think a lot of people feel that way — that the bistro is a character in the books.' The ceilings are high and walls are hung with pieces to which she has a connection. A William Morris poster beside one of the fireplaces, near the tall take-one, leave-one library shelf, is a personal favourite. An eye-catching reproduction of an oil painting by American artist Alex Katz of a skye terrier named Sunny is on the other side of the same fireplace. As a child spending holidays at the family home in the Laurentians, Penny helped out at the kennel next door — and one of her charges was a skye terrier named Sunny. There are several paintings by eminent British-Canadian artist Richard Jack, who was Canada's first official war artist — and Penny's husband's grandfather. Some of the art is specific to the Gamache books — 'and Kirk is genius at hanging,' Penny said. One poster says 'Noli timere,' Latin for 'Be not Afraid.' They were the last words of Irish poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013). In A Better Man (2017), Gamache says Heaney was one of his favourite poets and, as chief superintendent, he'd had a framed poster of those words in his office. Penny has such a poster in her dining room, where she spends every morning writing. On the cafe's back wall there's a pink neon version of the expression ' Surprised by Joy.' It was Penny's husband's favourite expression and she has pieces like it in each of her homes. The title of an autobiography of British writer C.S. Lewis and of a poem by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth, it describes an experience of unexpected and profound joy, often as part of a spiritual or emotional awakening. When she met and fell in love with her husband, 'I was, indeed, surprised by joy,' Penny has said. Since Café Three Pines opened in mid-June, it has welcomed 'people from next door to New Zealand and many places in between,' Penny noted. The café 'is meaningful for me as a sanctuary: I go a couple of times a week.' 'We all yearn to have that safe place, where we are accepted for who we are. There is so much isolation. It gives me so much joy to see people there with their laptops. That is what this is about,' Penny told The Gazette. 'People write to me who are going through something really difficult ... I write back and say, 'I hope that, when things get difficult, you think of yourself in the bistro.' I think of Michael in the bistro in front of the fireplace, with Armand, with Reine-Marie. I would love for people in extremis to know that there is a place they can go to in their heart.' Another thing driving Penny's excitement about the café was having a place for the local dementia support group to meet — both caregivers and the people they care for. She and her husband were open about his dementia diagnosis and had dreamed of a clublike place where the men and women could have activities, be together, have lunch — 'where the isolation so common with the disease could be broken and caregivers given some precious time for themselves,' as Penny observed. So Café Three Pines is open to the public daily from 9 to 5 except Mondays, when the dementia support group meets there. During a recent Wednesday afternoon visit by Penny, about half the patrons seemed to know her books; the rest were locals and others dropping by to enjoy the café. 'There are people who have no idea who I am,' she said — and that's fine with her. Of course Penny doesn't just slip into the place unnoticed like the rest of us. She had no sooner entered the dog-friendly café with Muggins, one of her two goldens, when a crowd of patrons gathered round: They wanted to greet her, wanted to be photographed with her and, mostly, wanted to tell her how much they love the Gamache books. She smiled — Penny's entire face lights up when she smiles — as she engaged in conversation, posed for photos, signed autographs. She truly appreciates the enthusiastic greeting, she said. 'I spend so much time alone, writing: This is a tonic: I come out and the people are so nice. This is the reward.' When the dogs accompany her to Café Three Pines, it's one at a time 'or it's a to-do,' Penny said. 'I took Muggins last week and then Charlie, the rescue, all by herself. I was chatting with someone — and hasn't Charlie eaten someone's shortbread?'
