France is Closer Than You Think! - Part 1 of 2

Part 1 - Summer Vacation 2007

June 28 and 29, 2007
We started our summer vacation with a nightmare, courtesy of Delta Airlines. We were “involuntarily bumped” from our flight to Vermont, thanks to overbooking and Delta not allowing us to check in online the night before departure. Fortunately for Delta, an agent was able to get us a flight (only 4 hours late) and gave me just the tranquilizer I needed… $800 in bribes. Later that evening, I learned to be grateful that we were only four hours late…people were sleeping in the halls of New York’s Kennedy Airport after delays of over 24 hours due to summer thunderstorms.

We pulled into our pit stop for the night - The Lang House Bed & Breakfast Inn in Burlington, Vermont - nearing 1 a.m., thankfully still on west coast time. We struggled to get up the next morning at 9:00 a.m., but were rewarded with a delicious breakfast in the parlor. Then, it was off to pick up our rental car and dessert at the Ben & Jerry’s factory! This was a fun tour, especially the sampling at the end.

We arrived in Quebec City just in time for dinner, European-style…at 8 p.m. Spencer decided on this trip he was going to widen his culinary horizons…he jumped off the deep end and tried escargot. He actually liked it! Amazing what a lot garlic & cheese can do. Later that evening, we pulled up to our four-bedroom chalet in Beaupre, Quebec, at the base of Mt. Saint Anne, just 30 minutes outside of Old Quebec City. Beaupre is not much of a town, but it’s clear that this area is a major ski destination in winter and an emerging mountain biking destination in summer. Everyone was tired and crabby from all the travelling over the past two days and nobody much appreciated the exciting trip I had planned for the next day…whale watching in Tadoussac, Quebec, a two hour drive up the coast. The kids were well on their way to driving both parents insane and it was only Day 2.

June 30, 2007
Everyone slept in - the record was 11 a.m. - which helped to re-energize us enough to get us through one more long travel day. We were welcomed to Tadoussac by a pod of beluga whales swimming through the channel! I took this as a good omen for our upcoming Zodiac boat whale watching excursion. We met our guides on the wharf and climbed into ridiculous looking, but WARM, rubber boat clothes. Sophie groaned at this blatant crimp in her style, but begrudgingly agreed to one photo only. I prayed to the Sea Gods for the retention of my lunch (and my dignity) and for enough whales to win me the adoration of my family for the next several hours. We set off at 4:30 p.m. into the enormous St. Lawrence River, which is reputedly full of krill attracting five types of whales - beluga (done!), humpback, fin, minke and blue. By 6:15 p.m., we had seen all but the blue whale…the most exciting being a humpback about 10 feet from our 12-person boat! It was an incredible experience, well worth the torment of a five-hour round trip bicker session.

Lance and I were determined to eat lobster in this tiny coastal village. Spencer branched out once again and ordered lobster for himself, reporting back that he preferred garden critters to sea critters. After this meal, both Lance and I concluded that France’s culinary talents did not make it over to the New World, not even to “New France” (AKA Quebec). The food has been inconsistent, at best, and below average, at worst.

Other than in the culinary arena, Quebec really is quite French, much more than we expected. Only other American tourists, who are few and far between, are speaking English and many Quebecois reply “seulement un petit peu” (only a little bit) when I inquire “Parlez vous Anglais?” However, true to the claim of The Lonely Planet, Quebecois are much more down-to-earth and warm than their ancestors from across the sea as evidenced by their reaction to my intermittent attempts at French.

July 1, 2007
Part of the problem with the Quebec region is that it’s big…and all the fun stuff is spread out. Today, we drove an hour to Arbre d’Arbre, a tree-based adventure course at the Duchesnay Tourist Station in the Sepaq National Forest. The web site reported an obstacle course through the trees, including zip lines and suspension bridges, for both children and adults. Nearby was a labyrinth, which reportedly takes two hours to complete (if you’re successful).

A bit of bad luck hit us…the trees were full, so we reserved a time for two days later (allowing us a day of recovery from driving). The labyrinth, however, was nearly empty. I’m sure the workers had a few good chuckles upon hearing us laugh and say…“There’s no way THIS could take two hours!” Nearly two hours later, we left defeated and frustrated, never making it to the end.

Not knowing it was Canada Day, we naively headed into Old Quebec for a re-enactment of a Witchcraft Trial. After a 40 minute unsuccessful search for a parking space, Lance dropped the kids and me off near our destination and renewed his search. The kids and I managed to find the tiny chapel that would serve as the backdrop for quite a unique and educational experience…six actors would take us back in time to 1661 to the trial of Daniel Boyle, a French Huguenot accused of bewitching a young Catholic girl. Lance made it just in the nick of time and joined us on the jury. This jury infuriated the power-hungry Bishop who resided over the “trial” by declaring Daniel to be innocent of all charges. Sophie looked up at me with widened eyes as he screamed that we would all be made to answer for this heretical verdict and said “But I don’t want to answer for that, Mom…” Crepes, chocolate fondue and a firework show viewed from atop the Citadel were our reward for the hassle of Canada Day in Old Quebec.

July 2, 2007
A mellow day today with very little torment in the car. We began our day with a 10-minute drive to Canyon St. Anne, where the waterfall is higher than (but not nearly as wide as) Niagara Falls. When we arrived at a suspension bridge, Spencer was quite thrilled to see an alternative route… a zip line suspended over 200 feet above the river. Sophie’s competitive nature overrode her fears and she zipped right along after him. We were quite proud of both kids as this was intimidating for the bravest of adults.

My goal for the day was to visit an authentic Sugar Shack where pure maple sugar products were made and sold to sweet tooth’s like myself (and my kids…Lance isn’t quite human in this respect, although I saw him come close here). After a picnic in front of a small store (where we unknowingly purchased alcoholic blueberry cider for the kids), we found Yolande sitting in front of her sugar shack, Sucre d’Art (just like the book said!), ready to educate us on the Quebecois way of producing the best maple products and let us taste her creations…maple jelly, maple cranberry jelly, maple caramel, maple butter, maple mustard, and maple vinegar. Pure Grade 1 maple heaven! Aunt Jemima should be ashamed…

On the way home, we made a brief pilgrimage to St. Anne’s Basilica in St. Anne de Beaupre. The basilica itself, built in the 1600’s, is quite pretty and well cared for, however it is surrounded by tacky religious souvenir shops selling plastic pietas and Jesus thimbles (all able to be blessed by the local priest). And what religious arcade wouldn’t be complete without a Cyclorama de Jerusalem, which has nothing to do with cycling, but is a 360 degree painting of Jerusalem on the day Jesus died. Thank goodness we’ll be long gone by the time an annual pilgrimage takes place in late-July!

July 3, 2007
Today we headed back to Arbre d’Arbre for some time in the trees. What a great concept…a physically demanding theme park designed in harmony with nature. The boys ditched us for the adult course and left Sophie mortally insulted to complete the course “pour les enfants” with her mother. As Sophie and I wobbled across a chain and plank “bridge”, a mother deer and two spotted fawns ran right past us. A little over two hours later, the boys returned, puffed up and pooped out. We “girls” were assured that we just wouldn’t have made it..Sophie because of her height and me, well I won’t even go there! Such testosterone…

After a hugely below average lunch at Subway (they’re everywhere much to Spencer’s delight!) and the best frosty cones ever, we headed to Vacances Valcartier…the biggest water park in Canada. I was not feeling 100%, so I decided to hang in the car with my book while Lance and the kids headed for the water. The final conclusion was that we were really lucky to have Soak City so near our house as it was much better than Canada’s largest.

July 4, 2007
It’s weird to be in another country on our nation’s birthday…there’s no sign of July 4th here. We would have to be satisfied with Canada Day! Since the adults were desperate for more reading material, we headed to the mall in search of a bookstore that just might have books in English. A definite sign of our desperation was a quick stop at Wal-Mart to buy a Nintendo DS for the kids, which we named Prozak. We found a heavenly bookstore with two rows of literary reading and I had to be dragged out of there with only three new adventures.

The kids begged us to take them back to the fondue place and bickered about who got to share the chocolate fondue plate with Dad (I wonder why nobody wanted to share with me???). This time, we tried cheese and beef fondue…the kids voted no on the cheese (tasted like wine) and a big yes on the beef.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t conducive to a bike ride on Ile D’Orleans, but we cruised around in the car (now a preferred placed to be thanks to Nintendo). We visited a house built in the 1730’s that was almost completely in its original condition. This house, owned by only two families since construction, was lived in until 1985. The “kitchen” consisted of a huge fireplace and a brick oven (that’s it!) and the “bathroom” was in the back yard (just imagine how cold Quebec gets in winter). As we were given a tour by a young girl dressed in period costume, the fromagerie next door, where the first cheese in America was purported to have been made, closed. We really need to wake up earlier than 11 a.m…

Dinner tonight was perfect…salami, ham and cheese with fresh bread in our condo. Tomorrow we will head over to Quebec City a day early, so we can more leisurely enjoy the city and the annual music festival.

July 5, 2007
Before we left Mt. St. Anne, we took the gondola to the top of the mountain. Not worth the time and money, unless you’re a mountain biker willing to fly down a thawed out ski slope. For us, it was just foggy and cold with poor visibility.

As I know what a good PR firm can do for a very average hotel, I’m always a bit on edge until I actually see the hotel that I booked online. I was relieved when we pulled up to the Manoir de Victoria, which was just off Rue St. Jean, a quaint street we had scoped out the other day. Although it only had one room and was missing a kitchen, it was roomy enough for us to survive for the next three nights… hopefully.

We wandered aimlessly around Old Quebec watching street performers and getting our bearings. Every city has “the” hotel and here it is Chateau Frontenac, built in the late 1800’s and expanded over time until it had 618 luxury rooms. Hoping to hear a dynamic story about the hotel’s interesting history and peak at secret rooms not open to the general public, we forced the kids to do a guided tour. By the time it was over, they weren’t too disgruntled, but Lance and I were felt it was a bit flat.

I got lucky…Rue St. Jean, the street adjacent to our hotel, is one of the better sites of the 40th Annual Quebec Music Festival. Here we saw a variety of street performers throughout the evening when the street is blocked off. The best were four huge “gargouilles”, costumed acrobats on stilts that were quite authentic looking and made Sophie more than a bit nervous. The second you weren’t paying attention, one would come up behind you and grab you or tap you on the head, resulting in lots of screams as they headed down the street.

July 6, 2007
During Lance’s morning massage, Sophie and I walked our sweet teeth up Rue St. Jean for some window shopping and a visit to the tiny Musee de Chocolat. After Lance returned in a fully relaxed state, we forced the kids to walk several blocks to the Place de la Famille, another music festival site. Our kids are just too “mature” for face painting, hip hop dancing, and other juvenile activities at this venue, so we hoofed back to our neck of the woods. After lunch, Lance and the kids went swimming in our Grecian-style indoor pool and I crashed, albeit way too briefly. After dinner, we headed straight for the gelato place we had scoped out earlier and leisurely strolled up Rue St. Jean where we once again ran into the “gargouilles”…this time, much to Sophie’s delight. We sat for a short time on top of the ramparts and listened to an Irish rock band. Quebec is the perfect city to walk through, especially during the summer music festival, with some creative surprise just around each corner.

July 7, 2007
One way to keep Spencer’s busy brain occupied is to give him a guide book and let him lead you on a walking tour. The only problem is, just when you get one occupied, the other one starts complaining! Spencer never got permanently lost as he took us from the St. Louis Gate, down Rue St. Louis by a tree imbedded with a cannonball and 400 year old houses, through an old “red light” district, into the quaintest of squares - Place de Royale, by the oldest stone church in North America (where a wedding was taking place), along the best street in Old Quebec - Rue Petit Champlain - and through narrow winding streets back to our hotel.

After dinner, we went in search of ghosts. We met our tour guide from Ghost Tours of Quebec at the end of Rue Petit Champlain. Donning a top hat and overcoat and carrying a lantern, he led us on a walk through the old city, stopping at points where heads had been chopped off, people were hanged, ships were sunk, or there had been ongoing reports of hauntings. My goal of keeping the kids from complaining on a tour was achieved! We ended up in an Anglican Church, the oldest one outside of Europe, where the organists have been plagued by a bothersome ghost for years. The ghost’s identity is purported to be either that of a remorseful mother who had killed her baby and brought it to the church to help it get to heaven or the soul of a woman with narcolepsy who had been buried alive by her neighbors who believed her to be a victim of cholera. If ghosts have a scent, I could smell it here…the place smelled old, but in a strangely pleasant way. Lance and the guide were the last to leave the church and couldn’t get out of there quick enough.

Our favorite dinner to date was had on Rue Petit Champlain at Le Lapin Sauté…escargot with chevre and sun-dried tomatoes, warm French cheese topped with honey and almonds, and maple rabbit and pork. The view of the city’s prettiest street was as good as the food.

Read Part 2 - Summer Vacation 2007 about our adventures in New York City...

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