Montreal & Quebec

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We've spent our last two long Canada Day weekends exploring la belle province. The Montreal Jazz Festival is the best one I've been to out of Vancouver and Toronto. You can wander aimlessly around several blocks and many stages and be gauranteed to see spectacular musicians, you can buy beer and wine at reasonable prices without having to stay confined to a fenced in area, and best of all, the vast majority of it is free.

Camping in Oka National Park was great. There's a nice sandy beach along the Ottawa River that's pretty warm and shallow, though the water is a murky brown. There's also lots of mosquitos that made the hiking near the marsh a challenge (especially without bug spray). Nonetheless, it's a really nice spot I would definately return to.

Last year we toured several wineries in the Eastern Townships. That was also very nice. I'm sure I'll return repeatedly to Quebec, there is so much beautiful wilderness but also some great cities to explore. Montreal is constantly having world class festivals throughout the summer, and Quebec City is charming no matter what time of year you go. I just can't wait until my french is better.

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Comments

[Uncle Jason]

Canada Day trip
Hey Kristy those are really nice pics you two took, glad you had a good time ... are you two still planning to go to France ?

[kbard]

Hey Uncle Jason! How are you? Yes, Chris and I are leaving for Paris on August 9th and will return to Toronto on October 7th. We plan on visiting Amsterdam, Brussels, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux and Munich during our weekends and will be studying french in Paris the rest of the time. I'll be sure to post some of our pictures on this blog, I'm sure we'll be taking lots!