Quebec City

To my surprise, Dan & Juliana offered to take me to Quebec City today. I had really wanted to go there myself, but thought it would be just too cold to do it via public transport. Luckily, D & J had a heated car and a similar interest in seeing Quebec in the winter.

It turned out today was the first main day of Carnaval – Quebec City’s big winter festival. These events are fantastic ideas. It’s -35 outside and typically no one in their right mind would spend any more time than completely necessary, however for the few weekends when the weather is typically at its worst, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE comes out to play. The cities put on concerts, sledding, public ice rinks, ice sculpting and tubing, not too mention loads of chocolat chaud cafes. Mmm…hot chocolate at -35!

So it was that we ended up hurtling down a ice slide in an old wooden sled, spinning down snow in an inflatable tube and eating beavertails. I’m converted! This weather has its benefits after all!

(FYI: Beaver Tails aren’t as bad as they sound! I can just see Gabe and others out there going “what!! Tristan you’re a bad bad man!”. They are like stretched out donuts – take that sugary pastry, add maple syrup and nutella or more traditionally lemon, sugar and cinnamon and you have it. Brilliant invention, eh?)

Before too long it was nightfall (one of the downsides of being winter) and subsequently dinnertime. We opted for Aux Anciens Canadiens, a ‘typical’ old-style Quebecois restaurant. It was amazing – located in a converted house, with most of the tables in the loft, the food was hearty, unique and so Quebecois. We dined on buffalo, pheasant, bison and other meats, all prepared in thick, rich stews and gravies. Just how I like it!

To top it off, on the way home we visited the world-famous Ice Hotel. It was just as touristy as we had imagined, but it was special nonetheless. We’d missed the last tour for the evening, but we had a chance to wander around and see all the nifty sculptures, and take a ride on the mini ice slide there. We also went to the bar and had cocktails served in ice-glasses. As you do. The bar was pretty awesome – everything that could be made out of ice was – but it was just too cold to spend any substantial time there. Juliana kept ourselves amused by dancing around just to keep warm. Well, we thought we were clever!

I nabbed one of the special Heineken ‘bottles’ made of aluminium so as not to freeze, but I left it at D&J’s place. Ah well, that’s what memories and photos are for.

Our final stop for the evening was the 24-hr Maison de Bagel back in Montreal. This place is world famous and rightly so. There are queues there round-the-clock for the super-fresh bagels. Mmmmm… bagels