Stay in a Floating Chalet at Bora Boréal in Québec's Eastern Townships 

click to enlarge

• Courtesy Of Charles O'hara
• A Minibora at Bora Boréal

Buoyant is better, if you ask me. Twenty years ago, while living near San Francisco, I envied residents of houseboats moored on the bay, no matter how damp and diminutive the dwellings may have been in reality. Or take pontoon boats: little more than porches set adrift but nonetheless brimming with boondocks élan. And so, when I heard that Québécois company Bora Boréal debuted eight floating chalets in the Eastern Townships' Haut-Saint-François region in March, I was eager to visit — and to explore an area most tourists bypass entirely.

It's the second outpost for the hospitality enterprise, which opened a mountain-wrapped site north of Québec City in 2020. The Haut-Saint-François region provides a gentler backdrop: The chalets' pale wood and clean lines lend Scandi-chic appeal to tiny Lake Batley, where lily pads dot a forested shoreline.

"The experience is about getting as close as possible to the water," Bora Boréal cofounder Nicolas Robitaille said.

The floating chalets are designed to showcase their lake environment while minimizing impacts on its ecosystem. Fully self-contained, they're equipped with solar panels, composting toilets and small, propane-fueled kitchens. In the winter, there's a woodstove; breezes off the lake provide summertime climate control. For showers, guests walk to a communal pavilion with hot tubs and a spa-like quiet area, where signs encourage visitors to learn about greening their routines, at home and away.

The sun-warmed water beckoned after the two-hour, 45-minute drive from Burlington to Haut-Saint-François, which saw the Appalachian rumples of the Sutton Range smooth to rolling farmland and forest. The east-facing, floor-to-ceiling windows of the Boravilla chalet I booked with a friend framed views of the facing shoreline. A ladder on our private deck descended into the shallow lake, where we swam with our toes skimming aquatic plants. A fleet of kayaks and standup paddleboards are available for guests to borrow, and we paddled slow circles past the neighboring chalets as barn swallows dashed overhead and white-throated sparrows trilled "Oh-sweet-Canada" from deep in the woods.

click to enlarge

• Courtesy Of Camille Distefano
• Boravilla interior

When the villas opened this spring, they sparked the interest of urban Québécois unfamiliar with the rural region, according to Shanny Hallé of Tourism Eastern Townships. "People were like, 'Haut-Saint-François? I've never thought of this place for a vacation,'" she said. "Now it's really nice to see that they are interested."

Some of the buzz is due to the nearby on-farm restaurant Les Mal-Aimés, a collaboration between farmer Yannick Côté and Sherbrooke chef Daniel Charbonneau that opened last year in Cookshire-Eaton. A sort of backwoods-gourmand humor enlivens the seasonal, 20-seat eatery; Charbonneau greeted us by using a hefty ax to shear the top from a bottle of effervescent Autour de la Pomme hard cider. The playfully haute small plates of the seven- and 10-course tasting menus are made using around 60 percent ingredients grown on-site, Côté said. Most everything else comes from within Québec, down to sea salt harvested in Gaspésie. The chef even eschews imported black pepper for the arboreal spice of wild-harvested green alder buds.

Even now, most Montréalers are unlikely to have heard of Haut-Saint-François. "It's not well known, but it's a very beautiful part of the Eastern Townships," said Côté, who grew up there.

Easygoing pleasures abound: When not floating or grazing on farm-to-table cuisine, visitors can walk the 3.6-mile network of trails through the peatlands and ponds of Johnville Bog & Forest Park or sample microbrews from Brasserie 11 Comtés. The road-trippable, 93-mile Circuit des Sheds Panoramiques features a series of nine artsy, open-sided "sheds" in spots with particularly nice views that invite picnics and leisurely exploration. And the whole region is contained within the sprawling Mont-Mégantic International Dark Sky Reserve, which draws stargazing enthusiasts from around the world.

Chorusing green frogs and Canada geese announced nightfall over Lake Batley, and the Milky Way flickered through the skylight just above my bed. While I found the loft where I slept to be charmingly Swiss Family Robinson-esque, the precipitous stairs required to reach it may not be suitable for everyone. Though we were a short walk from the parking area and pavilion, other units are accessible via a bumpy lakeside trail that would be hard to traverse with heavy luggage or mobility issues. (Robitaille said he plans to widen and smooth the path.)

Yet pleasures abound for travelers willing and able to navigate such lumps. Great blue herons made regular visits to the nearby shore, and we spotted a porcupine shuffling, unhurried, through the adjacent forest. We loved our three-night stay: In between paddling sessions, we sipped Labrador tea-infused lager on our private deck, curled up by a campfire and exchanged bonjours with neighbors by the hot tubs.

As light rain stippled the lake with concentric circles, a beaver nosed through the water, bound for a nearby stand of maples.

"It's so Canadian," my friend sighed.

Do beavers revel in their buoyancy? Perhaps for them, it's just another day at the pond. But travelers float on borrowed time, and I savored each passing moment.

What can I do on the way from Vermont to Bora Boréal?

click to enlarge

• Courtesy Of Tourism Eastern Townships
• Marché de la Gare de Sherbrooke

If you cross the border at Stanstead, it's scarcely a detour to stock up on treats from family-owned organic cheesemakers Fromagerie La Station (440 chemin de Hatley, Compton; 819-835-5301). In addition to offering tastings of their award-winning cheeses — the softly aromatic Raclette de Compton au Poivre snagged Best in Show at the 2024 American Cheese Society Judging & Competition — the small shop offers a great selection of local wines, ciders, sausages and preserves.

Another provisioning stop is the regional capital of Sherbrooke, 40 minutes from Bora Boréal. Train station-turned-gourmet market Marché de la Gare de Sherbrooke (710 place de la Gare, Sherbrooke; 819-569-0909) has a butcher, a pastry shop, charcuterie and a good selection of regional beer. There is live music on the weekends.

If you want to make a day of it, you'll find plenty more to do in the laid-back city, population 174,000. Try the food and microbrews at Siboire Microbrasserie (80 rue du Dépôt, Sherbrooke; 819-565-3636), whose 100 percent Québécois Sherbière lager pairs perfectly with its airy fish and chips.

Housed in a historic bank, the Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke (241 rue Dufferin, Sherbrooke; 819-821-2115) hosts the small but excellent exhibit of Indigenous artwork "Creation Stories: Land/Medicines" through September 1 as part of the Contemporary Native Art Biennial. A permanent collection includes multiple canvases by noteworthy Eastern Townships painter F.S. Coburn. Colorful murals are scattered throughout the city, which you can explore using maps available at visitezsherbrooke.ca/en.

If floating around Lake Batley isn't relaxing enough for you, try Strøm Nordic Spa Sherbrooke (1705 rue Roy, Sherbrooke; 819-481-2772; entry from CA$59), on the banks of the Magog River. Though smaller than the other Strøm locations — there are five scattered across Québec — it's got a full complement of saunas, hot pools, steam rooms and relaxation areas, as well as refined, boreal landscape-inspired dining at its on-site Restaurant Nord.

How should I plan ahead for my visit to Bora Boréal?

It's a two-hour, 45-minute drive from Burlington to Bora Boréal (441 chemin Batley, Bury; 855-387-6243; chalets from CA$249 a night plus taxes and fees). Book well in advance if you plan to combine a visit with a reservation at Les Mal-Aimés (29 QC-253, Cookshire-Eaton; seven- and 10-course tasting menus CA$100 and $145 respectively; wine pairings CA$75; open Thursday through Saturday, May through December). On the weekend, and with 48 hours' notice, the restaurant also offers picnic baskets to enjoy on the farm (CA$95 for a two-person basket).

While the Brasserie 11 Comtés (225 rue Pope, Cookshire-Eaton; 873-825-7075; beers from CA$5) is open daily, the pub food — by the Mal-Aimés team — at its Restaurant au Cuisinier Déchaîné (873-825-7090) is only available in the warm months, Thursday through Sunday, from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; no reservation is required. Year-round trails at Johnville Bog & Forest Park (3999 chemin North, Cookshire-Eaton; 819-566-5600) are free to access during daylight hours. Find more information about the Circuit des Sheds Panoramiques at shedspanoramiques.com/en.