Sumith Prasad
Amazon Prime Video’s mystery series ‘Three Pines’ revolves around Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who arrives in a village named Three Pines to investigate a series of crimes. In Three Pines, Gamache encounters people who are bound together as a community, helping each other in times of need. The chief inspector also gets surprised to see the unity among the residents of the village, even in the face of severe challenges. In addition, the beauty of Three Pines as a village is guaranteed to captivate the viewers. If you want to know more about the region, you are at the right place!
A Blend of Real and Imagined Villages
‘Three Pines’ is a television adaptation of Louise Penny’s mystery novels. Three Pines, the village, was conceived by Penny for her novels. In the show, Three Pines is a village located in the province of Quebec. However, there isn’t a real-life village named Three Pines in the province. Having said that, Penny was inspired by the real-life Quebec village of Knowlton to create her fictional village. Knowlton is part of the Eastern Townships, a historical administrative region in southeastern Quebec, located over a hundred kilometers away from Montreal. After marrying Michael Whitehead, Penny settled in Knowlton and the region inspired her enough to become her Three Pines.
“The Eastern Townships and Knowlton, Que., may not inspire anybody else, but I think it’s this incredible treasure. That’s what happened with [my late partner, Michael Whitehead] and I. We looked all over for a home and we found it there. It’s a pastoral place. It has little villages and rolling hills and bakeries and restaurants. It’s that kind of community,” Penny told CBC. Penny’s search for “roots” led her to the village and her experience in the region affected her enough for the writer to transform the same into her fiction.
“I missed having roots. I was desperate to put down roots, to find home. I understood that it was a physical place — but it was an emotional place as well. The power of belonging was something that I’ve never had. But we found it in the Eastern Townships. I wanted to translate that in the books, to what it feels like to find home,” the writer added. The sense of community, togetherness, and belonging the residents of Three Pines cherish in the show is a reflection of the way of life in Knowlton. Le Relais Restaurant-Bistro and Brome Lake Books in Knowlton are guaranteed to remind us of Olivier’s Bistro and Myrna’s Bookstore in the show as well.
Penny’s novels have several references to local landmarks and establishments located in Knowlton. The abundance of the same paved the way for the conception of the “Three Pines Tours,” a guided tour of Knowlton, focusing on the venues and establishments that inspired the writer to base Three Pines on the village. In addition to Knowlton, several other real-life villages also inspired Penny to conceive Three Pines in detail. “Three Pines has long been both a setting and a main character in my books. It’s fictional, for sure, but inspired by all sorts of villages. Some in Quebec, some elsewhere in Canada. Some Vermont towns have inspired the books, as well as English villages,” the author told Barnes & Noble.
Read More: Three Pines Episode 1 and 2 Recap and Ending, Explained
