romont is one of the few Quebec towns born from a blueprint: in 1964, the Désourdy brothers designed a leisure city from scratch at the foot of Mont Brome, 45 minutes from Montreal. The bet paid off. The ski resort, opened two years later, has become the largest lit ski area in the Americas — you can ski until 10 pm across seven illuminated faces. In summer the mountain flips inside out: some of eastern Canada's most respected mountain-bike trails, a water park at the base, and since 2022 an Olympic-calibre indoor velodrome where Canada's track cycling team trains. The Old Village, with the brick houses of former West Shefford, lines up cafés, a microbrewery and an improbable chocolate museum run by the local confectionery since the 1990s. Add Balnea, its spa perched above Lake Gale, and the equestrian competitions inherited from the 1976 Olympic Games, and you get a resort town that lives off the mountain twelve months a year without ever feeling like a stage set.
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