CAC Summer Niagara Region Outing – 2026
By George Dyke….
Once again, the Niagara region beckoned for Citroën Autoclub Canada’s annual summer outing. The event was originally slated for Saturday, July 18, but smoke from forest fires burning in northern Ontario, western Canada and the USA made the air quality in the Toronto area the worst in the world! Not a day you want drive a Citroën with windows down, let alone socialize at Niagara’s wineries. Along with the air quality concern, the weather forecast called for thunderstorms.
Those factors caused us to re-schedule the outing for the following Saturday, July 25, when hopefully we would all able to breathe much better! It was a smart move as the smoke had cleared, and the moderate temperature, along with the scattered cloud sky, made for a perfect driving day.
View a photo gallery of the day here:
We met at Chris Deja’s home in Oakville at 10 AM for a breakfast snack before departing and avoiding the traffic jam we got into last year along Lakeshore Rd.
Our route took us north of Oakville and along a still lovely rural route toward the Niagara Escarpment in the ever growing area of new housing developments.
We stopped in the city of Dundas for lunch at the well reviewed Betula restaurant, then made our way over to scenic Ridge Rd on top of Niagara Escarpment, traveling onto Beamsville where we descended to our first winery stop at Back 10 Cellars.
The crowd there was appreciative of the french flair we provided with our Citroën entrance. After a tasting there we jaunted over to 13th Street Winery in St. Catherines. Of course we had to answer a few questions from folks there who wondered about our cars before making our way to the impressive wine bar and relaxing for the balance of the afternoon.
While our outing officially ended at 13th Street Winery, those of us heading back to toward Oakville stopped in at the Piper Arms in Burlington for dinner, before bidding farewell until we meet again.
It truly was a day that one would be hard-pressed to improve. And a big thank-you goes to Chris Deja for helping us have a perfect send-off.