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Published: December 16th 2006
Snowy Quebec
A white Quebec from the rather small plane!QUEBEC CITY AND ONWARDS!
More photos up on site of this, as well as of Toronto - some Billy Connolly photos from Bennie - cheers for that - on photo site.
I flew from Toronto to Quebec, via Montreal. The plane I was flying from Montreal to Quebec in was tiny! I was absolutely crapping it during take off, the weird noises it was making...however worse was yet to come as arriving in Quebec my crazy taxi driver didnt speak English and obviously the French must not have a word for 'lane' as he didnt appear to know what these were either! Worse still is that the taxi charges you about 30$ (about 15 pounds) and is the ONLY way to get from the airport to town, which I thought was a bit ridiculous for such a large city - so altogether not a good first impression of Quebec!
However, the city is stunning. It has been awarded world heritage status and it is easy to see why - so many old grandiose buildings all over the place - easy to see why it attracts so many tourists...however this is not the case at this time of the
The wall
One of the many gateways through the wall, which runs around the old town area of Quebec City year - something that annoyed me a lot in the city, as it appears to shut down tourist activities during December! I went to see the Citadell - no tours this time of year. I went to the Obervatory (on a clear, perfect day) but was only open 3 days a week in December (see the pattern here). There is also a wall which runs all the way around the old town part of the city, which I planned to walk around but guess what? It is closed off out of season!
Nonetheless, there were still plenty of things to see and do. The hostel, which was extremely quiet, is located within the wall. The hostel was nice, the main thing I missed being that they didnt have any tea (or a kettle for that matter)! Also, apparently it is illegal in Quebec province to bring in alcohol from outside the hostel if it has a bar, a law which I have broken many times during my stay in this province ('nation' 😉) so far 😉. Being in the old town, the hostel is within walking distance of lots of interesting buildings. One of my favourite, the Chateau Frontenac
Quebec from the wall
View of Chateau Frontenac on the left, overlooking the waterfront. Tried to go to Observatory on this day but it was shut - look at the blue sky, missed some great views! hotel, is one of only 2 buildings within the walls over 20 metres tall, as constructing ones taller than this was later banned, and is a fantastic building and one of the oldest hotels in the world, with great views on the waterfront.
I walked down to the lower town at night, outside the walls. I liked this part best, had much more character than the rest of the city I thought. I also discovered the court-yard where they filmed one of the final sequences in Catch Me if You Can, where Frank Abagnale is finally caught in a printworks in France... That sort of courtyard was typical of this part of town...
It seemed to me Quebec City was almost the opposite of downtown Toronto, so very strange to visit immediately after TO: no skyscrapers or extremely tall buildings within the wall - but much older ones; much quieter and more things closed; even the language is totally different - one thing that surprised me was just how French Quebec is. I had assumed that in being French speaking it was simply bi-lingual but in fact this is not the case - there were a huge number
Parliament
The Parliament building, flanked by the obervatory, ramada and hilton of people who didnt speak English at all, the taxi driver being the first I met in this class. Was strange, I think language is a huge barrier and makes you feel like an outsider immediately...
On the first night there I went out for drinks with Kirsten, an Austrian girl who I had actually met in the hostel in TO, Robert, a German traveller staying in same room as me and his mate Logan, travelling across from Vancouver but originally from an island just off Japan. The first people we spoke to in the bar were french and apparently did not speak English...however it turned out later in the night that they did! It was very strange and I cant help thinking that they only started to speak English when they realised that we werent Canadian (they didnt speak much to Logan the whole night!) - as it turned out they felt very strongly about Quebec becoming a separate nation from Canada (a big issue in Canada for the last 20 or 30 years)... I found their behaviour very strange and unwelcoming. However, we had a good night in the pub, which I spent most of trying to
Stalactites
Stalactites along our snow walk (had to look up if it was 'tites' or 'mites'!) learn to raise one eyebrow, as Kirsten could, but I most certainly cannot!!
Anyway, while inside the walls there are not many tall buildings, outside this is not the case: the Parliament buildings are flanked (and pretty much spoiled) by three tall buildings - a hilton hotel, ramada hotel and the observatory. Also, the information signs outside the Parliament building (and throughout the city) are in French only - hardly useful for tourists!!
Whilst there were many things about Quebec that I thought were very frustrating, I still thought it was a very nice city - the time of year I was visiting doesnt help, its a shame it wasnt January when the city hosts what it claims to be the biggest winter festival in the world...
But if someone was to tell me beforehand that I would only be in Quebec for 3 days, and that 2 days later I would have been skiing down Mont Tremblant I would have told them they were crazy: firstly I had no idea where Mont Tremblant was, or what you did there (the 'Mont' should have given me a clue, but my French isnt that great) but, more importantly,
The Tipi!
Tipi in the hostels backyard! I have no idea how to ski!
What happened was that Robert, who had been waiting in Quebec for repairs to his car, got his car back and decided he wanted to go to Mont Tremblant and asked me if I fancied it... I thought why the hell not! A random roadtrip to somewhere Ive never heard of sounds like fun! Logan was meant to come too, but slept in so we left without him!
Mont Tremblant is roughly about 5-6 hours from Quebec. But firstly I suggested we visit the 'Ice Hotel' - an igloo hotel - about half an hour from the city, which Meaghan (my Canadian friend from Glasgow who Ill be spending New Years with 😊) had recommended to me - but guess what!? It wasnt complete yet! It opens January 1st - April, so instead we saw the construction of the hotel!
The drive to Mont Tremblant was great, up through the hills past Montreal. There were great views left, right and centre out there, I ended up taking a huge load of photos! The first day there we took a snow walk towards the mountain, about 5km away from Mont Tremblant
Roasting marshmallows
Robert roasting marshmallows in the Tipi (he had never done this before!) village. However, as it had rained the night before, the snow wasnt that deep so we didnt really need snow shoes! We walked through the forest up towards the mountain, enjoying all the scenery and wildlife... no sign of any wolves or bears yet 😉
The hostel was very nice and had a Tipi in the backyard! So the second night there we took out some booze (technically not breaking the Quebec anti-alcohol law as we were drinking outside the hostel...), lit a fire and toasted marshmallows - great fun! Afterwards we went up towards the mountain in the bus to check out the bars there, but it was very quiet - apparently the season kicks off for proper this weekend - out of season once again - doh!
Up towards the mountain, whilst looking around the day before, we had discovered a beginners slope and I thought I might give skiing a bash, having never skied on snow before and only for a couple of hours on dry ski slopes as part of a big group in Scotland (so basically I knew nothing!). However, thanks to instructions downloaded from the net and tips from the chap operating
Ready for skiing
Me n Homer ready for skiing! (Didnt take him up the mountain due to his fragile state after Niagara...) the conveyor belt up the slope, I picked it up fairly quickly and could link turns confidently within an hour. So I decided to go up the mountain!
Robert, who knows how to ski and snowboard, accompanied me on my first trip on his snowboard. I was fairly confident, having not fallen once on the beginners slope - this was about to rapidly change! The first time down I pretty much fell down the whole mountain! It didnt help that we lost the beginners track down and ended up on an advanced track! However, the next couple of times I was much better (on the beginners this time) and improved a lot - the main thing was I had so much fun and it was a great experience - with great views from up the mountain!
After skiing, we headed onwards to Montreal, where I am just now - recovering from the days skiing (my knees are killing me!). I am staying here until the 21st, when I will head on to Ottawa to meet Jenni.
So that's me for the moment, Au Revoir for now!
Mich
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carol
non-member comment
merry xmas
hi mich glad the skiing went well.we are off to sunny climes for xmas hopefully warmer than you are.have a merry xmas though it sounds as if your merry all the time!speak to you soon.xx