Eastman

Eastman combines cycling and hiking trails with literary stops and a summer theater. When planning your trip, it’s worth first choosing what you’d like to focus on: Do you want to cover longer distances, explore trails through different landscapes, or include cultural activities in your days? The activities have different starting points and can be chosen to suit your interests. You can then base your search for accommodations in Eastman on the places and experiences that matter to your trip.

Cycling routes and longer trails

Eastman has more than 17 kilometers of cycling trails along Route Verte and the Trans Canada Trail. Of these, 11 kilometers are on car-free paths. These figures can help you assess your route options: if you’re specifically looking for car-free sections, you can take this portion into account when planning. The total length of the cycling trails and the car-free portion are two separate figures.

La Montagnarde offers another point of reference. This section of Route Verte No. 1 and the Trans Canada Trail connects Waterloo, Eastman, Orford, Magog, and Deauville over nearly 50 kilometers. La Montagnarde is a cycling, hiking, and cross-country skiing trail. If you’d like to include a longer connection in your trip, you can take the communities along the route and your preferred activity into account when planning. The nearly 50 kilometers refer to the route connecting the communities listed, not to Eastman alone.

Riverside trails and Parc Missisquoi-Nord

Parc Missisquoi-Nord covers 50 hectares. Several trails wind through wooded and open areas, and the park is rich in wildlife and plant life. This offers a different way to spend time outdoors than taking a longer route between several communities. If you’re planning your days around the landscape and trail character, you can consider these areas alongside the cycling and long-distance trails.

In the Eastman area, the rustic Sentier Riverain begins in Parc Missisquoi-Nord. It ends three kilometers downstream at Pont Durocher. The Michel-Fréchette footbridge also crosses the Missisquoi-Nord River; launching a boat is possible at this location. These trail and river stops offer different points of reference for planning: the Sentier Riverain is defined by its route between the park and the bridge, while the footbridge marks a river crossing. The Circuit de l’Abbaye is a separate long-distance hiking and pilgrimage trail: the 149-kilometer loop begins at the Abbey of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac and passes through the municipality of Eastman.

Literature, theater, and village history

There are several ways to discover literature in Eastman. At Lac d’Argent, a literary walk passes panels featuring texts by local authors. The Portage des mots trail is near Théâtre La Marjolaine and winds through a wooded landscape. Installations, sculptures, and tapestries present novels, comics, poems, and children’s books. The two literary trails have different focuses: one shares texts through panels, while the other combines different art forms with a wooded landscape.

Théâtre La Marjolaine was founded in 1960 by actress Marjolaine Hébert and is the oldest summer theater still in operation in Québec. If you’d like to include theater in your trip, you can consider this cultural venue alongside the literary trails. Since 2002, Correspondances d’Eastman has held a literary festival every September, bringing together thousands of people interested in literature, writing, and culture. September is therefore a useful date to keep in mind if you’d like to plan your trip around this annual festival.

The historical walk offers a different focus: through historic buildings, stories, and archival images, it shares more than 125 years of history. The village’s history also includes Saint-Édouard d’Eastman Church, built in 1960 for the Saint-Édouard parish and the village’s only remaining church. These stops complement Eastman’s literary offerings with historical themes.

Choose Eastman as your trip’s starting point

The distances and routes provide practical planning information without requiring you to stay in a particular location. To compare Eastman with other places, you can also explore Orford, Magog, and Mansonville.

For an overview of the wider region: Memphrémagog.