It’s Day 249 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I circled Montreal from the northwest to the northeast, from the Drive-in Saint-Eustache, in Saint-Eustache of course, to the Cine-parc Boucherville in Boucherville QC of course. The drive only took about 40 minutes.

The Ciné-Parc Boucherville was the first drive-in to open in Quebec in July 1970, but that wasn’t this Cine-parc Boucherville. Thank goodness for Mike Rivest’s Montreal Cinema History page and his note on a Cinema Treasures page, because this is very confusing. The old one, which closed in 1985, was just west of the Boulevard de Montarville at Route 20’s exit 95. The new one is just east of the Boulevard de Montarville at Route 20’s exit 95.

The current Boucherville opened as the Ciné-Parc Odeon, owned by Odeon Theatres, in 1974 with the same two screens it has now. It changed its name to Boucherville in 2006. This drive-in is still huge, with a capacity of about 2000 cars, and it’s still surrounded by acres of farmland.

From everything I read, what I can make out of it, the Boucherville is doing great. Daniel Séguin, general manager of Cineplex, which owns the drive-in, told Radio Canada in 2015, “Le goût d’aller au ciné-parc est souvent lié à la première visite quand on est jeune. On y est allé avec ses parents, et plus tard, on veut le faire découvrir à ses propres enfants.” Google Translate says that means something like, “The taste of going to the movie theater is often linked to the first visit when you are young. We went there with his parents, and later we want to make him discover his own children. ”

The YouTube video of the day show a fun-looking festival hosted by the Duval Scion car dealership in early 2011. There are just enough glimpses of the drive-in to make it worthwhile to embed here.

The Cine-parc Boucherville showed its final movies of the season last Saturday. This is the first time I’ve run into three dark days in a row since late May. I guess summer really is over.

Miles Today / Total: 32 / 28663 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 160

Nearby Restaurant: For one evening, I wanted to just stick around close to my hotel, but I found a real winner close by, Le Tire-Bouchon. I didn’t tell them that I thought the name sounded a lot like Tirebiter, and the food was much better than steel-belted rubber. The appetizer, entree and dessert were all one package price, so the columns I picked were green salad, duck magret, and Cru du Clocher cheese with walnut bread. Yum!

Where I Virtually Stayed: The Comfort Inn in Boucherville is a lot like most Comfort Inns in the states, and that’s a good thing. My room had the full set of modern amenities, and the hot breakfast in the morning was another Comfort standard. Just another solid place to stop for the night.

Only in Boucherville: This city is home to the Brasserie New Deal Brewing Co., a microbrewery that’s also a benefit corporation. That’s one of the three reasons I was happy to visit. The other two are fresh beer (of course) and the coincidence that it sits on the site of the original Ciné-Parc Boucherville.

Next stop: Cine-Parc Mont St-Hilaire, Mont-Saint-Hilaire QC.

It’s Day 248 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. My sojourn in Quebec continued. I drove an hour and a half east from the Templeton Drive-In Theatre in Gatineau to the Drive-in Saint-Eustache, in Saint-Eustache.

The Ciné-Parc Saint-Eustache opened in November 1971, less than two years after the province lifted its ban(!) on drive-ins. At the time, it was bilingual, with one screen showing movies in French and the other in English. In less than a year, it added a third screen, and in 1978 it added two more. The sprawling complex in this Montreal suburb is Canada’s largest drive-in and reportedly the largest outside the United States.

Like some large, flat, concrete-covered drive-ins in the US, during the day the ciné-parc also hosts a “marché aux puces,” literally a market of fleas. That market saw something I hadn’t heard of before – a fatal two-car accident in a drive-in parking lot, which happened in November 2008 according to Zone911.com. Then again, someone else spotted a UFO there a couple of years later, so maybe it’s just one of those places where normal physics don’t always apply.

The Saint-Eustache made the transfer to digital in 2012. Brigitte Mathers, president of the Mathers Group, which owns the drive-in, told L’Écho de la Rive-Nord, “Il y en a quelques-uns qui décident de ne pas investir. On parle d’environ 100 000 $ par écran.” Or as Google Translate put it, “There are a few owners who will decide not to invest. We’re talking about $100,000 per screen.”

By all reports, those investments are paying off as movie-goers are rediscovering the benefits of a drive-in in Quebec as they are elsewhere.

The Vimeo video of the day spends most of its time talking with folks waiting for the movie, but the first minute provides a nice glimpse into what this place looks like.

These days, almost all the movies they show here are in French, but dark screens are the same in any language. At this time of year, the Saint-Eustache is only open on Friday and Saturday nights.

Miles Today / Total: 93 / 28631 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 160

Nearby Restaurant: With all this Frenchness around, I wanted to duck in to a little bubble of America, so I had dinner at the Texas Star, which happens to be owned by the same company that owns the drive-in. A rib eye steak and salad hit the spot, and the margaritas helped me feel even more at home.

Where I Virtually Stayed: One of the closest hotels to the ciné-parc is the L’Oasis de l’Ile, an amazing little hideaway on a private island in the Rivière des Mille Îles (River of a Thousand Islands), a channel of the Ottawa River. I relaxed in the outdoor pools in the afternoon and enjoyed a continental breakfast in the morning. It was just amazing that this was a short drive away.

Only in Saint-Eustache: Just over the river in western Montreal, the Gibeau Orange Julep restaurant is a 40-foot diameter orange. Wikipedia says Hermas Gibeau built a slightly smaller orange concrete sphere in 1945 where he sold Gibeau Orange Julep, a drink similar to Orange Julius. The restaurant and its orange sphere were rebuilt larger and further back from the roadway when it was widened as the Décarie Expressway in 1966.

Next stop: Cine-parc Boucherville, Boucherville QC.

It’s Day 245 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and my 20th in Ontario. Despite the Labour Day Weekend traffic, it took just over an hour to drive from Kingston to the Port Elmsley Drive-In Theatre, just west of Port Elmsley, about halfway between Smiths Falls and Perth.

I’m fortunate to have two very good history sources for the Port Elmsley. The blog of Arlene Stafford-Wilson, author of Lanark County Chronicle and several other books, and the drive-in’s web site’s History page combine to flesh out a lot more details than I’ve found for a lot of drive-ins.

First, the beginning. The drive-in site says says that there’s a legend that Bill Williams won the 10 acres that the drive-in sits on in a poker game. Stafford-Wilson cites The Perth Courier in writing that construction of the Port Elmsley was under way in September 1952, and it opened in May 1953. But, according to the drive-in site, it “closed a couple days later as the land was so marshy that dozens upon dozens of cars got stuck opening weekend.” After adding a whole lot of gravel, the problem was solved.

The Williams family owned and operated the Port Elmsley from its opening until the end of the 1997 season, when it shut down. It stayed dark until Jan Stepniak bought the drive-in in 2000. Dave Bird and his family bought it in 2007 and converted to digital projection in 2012.

Bird told CTV Ottawa, “Growing up as a kid I think I took them for granted like everyone else, it never occured to me that they’d disappear or go away,”

If you want to see what the Port Elmsley looks like, I’d recommend a 2011 post at the Lord of the Wings blog. It describes a night at the drive-in with over a dozen photos. Note for US readers: Pogos are the Canadian brand name for corn dogs.

Miles Today / Total: 59 / 28321 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Nut Job 2 / 159

Nearby Restaurant: I enjoyed an unpretentious tasty lunch at the Rocky River Cafe in Perth. A half-pound Rocky burger and some French onion soup fortified me against the chilly, overcast day.

Where I Virtually Stayed: It’s always nice to find a small motel that has everything I need and helps me stay in my lodging budget. The Tay Inn faces the Trans-Canada Highway and looks like just another old-style motel, but it’s very nicely maintained. My room had the full set of modern amenities, and with a Tim Hortons across the street, I didn’t have any problem with breakfast.

Only in Perth: A stone house built in 1840 for a senator in Canada’s first parliament has been converted to the Perth Museum. The ground floor features rooms set in period detail, but the third floor includes an array of minerals and fossils.

Next stop: Skylight Drive-In, Pembroke ON.