Thursday, Last Day

Well, I spoke too soon about the weather... Today was very rainy.  We invested in some 99 cent ponchos after our breakfast and tour of the Huron Indian Village, where we ate smoked buffalo and  delicious sweet rolls, among other things. 

In town, we had some time for shopping and lunch, then went on a tour of the Citadelle, which is still an active military base.  We then enjoyed some indoor time at an Improve Game Show, absolutely hysterical...think "Whose Line Is It Anyway."  We then went to dinner at Les Voûtes du Cavour, which was a little lackluster being a buffet and essentially only used by tour groups.  Last major event:  a historical experience.  A pair of presenters acted like the generals Montcalm and Wolfe of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, explaining in first person their rationales for choices made.  They also did a super-fun set of interactive activities, like teaching us how to load a musket, make a cartridge and perform an amputation.  Lovely!

Another hour of free time took us up to the end of our time in Québec.  We said goodbye to Christophe, our tour manager, who has been absolutely amazing.  We are now about four hours from the US-Canada border, and should be exhausted enough to sleep most of the way home!

Wednesday in Québec

Another gorgeous day, we've been so lucky with weather.  We ate breakfast at the Cochon Dingue in Vieux Québec...the most amazing hot chocolate EVER.  Croissants as big as your head. 

We saw much of the new part of town by bus and then had time to explore Old Town and get lunch.  A lot of students tried poutine.  After lunch, we drove out of town up the river (area is called the Beaupré coast).  We visited the Basilica of Saint-Anne, an amazingly beautiful and unusual church.  We then went to the Paré woodcarving shop, where they used wood carvings to tell French-Canadian legends. 

Then on to Montmorency Falls, higher than Niagara (by about 30 feet).  Back in town, we ate dinner at Spag&tini, an Italian restaurant in Vieux Québec.  We walked around the old square before heading to the SS Louis Jolliet, our dance boat!  Another exciting and exhausting day!

Tuesday: Scenery, Shopping and Syrup

We started out with a lovely breakfast of blueberry crêpes, chocolate crêpes, or scrambled eggs at La Petite Marche.  We then went up Mont-Royal for an awesome panoramic view of the city.  Back to the bus, we went to the Parc Olympique.  We took the funicular to the top of the world's tallest inclined tower.  Then it was on to the Biodome, where we walked through four different ecosystems and saw lots of animals (among the most popular were sloths, otters, a lynx, and penguins).

We had some free time for shopping and lunch at the Underground City in Montreal (fantastic food court...sushi, Vietnamese, Indian, Korean, popcorn, gelato, crêpes...).  Then we were back on the bus for a few hours driving toward Québec.  We drove straight to the Cabane à Sucre Napert, where we learned how maple syrup is made, took a small train ride around the property, ate a maple syrup-filled dinner, sang French and some American songs karaoke style (but with Michel the awesome piano player and costume hats), and did some more dancing!  CHS kids did a very nice rendition of Vive le Vent (Jingle Bells).  Then outside for a taffy pull...they brought out trays of snow and Popsicle sticks, then poured small strips of maple syrup on the snow.  We let it cool for a few seconds then rolled the syrup onto the sticks...et voilà!

Lots of sugar later, we got on the bus and drove 40 minutes to our hotel in Québec.  Checked in, sugar hi's became sugar low's, and all to bed!

Monday in Montreal

We got into the hotel a little before 8am and met Christophe, our tour manager.  We got some breakfast at the hotel and stowed our bags, then we were off!  We took the metro to Old (Vieux) Montreal, where we started out with a walking tour.  We saw the tents for Cirque du Soleil...apparently it's much cheaper to see them here in Montreal than in other cities (they start here and then take the show elsewhere). 

Our walking tour ended at the Notre-Dame Basilica, which we went inside to tour.  Gorgeous and not overwhelmingly large like the Notre-Dame of Paris.  After this, we had about an hour and a half of free time to get lunch and shop in Vieux Montreal.  A lot of the students tried the Québécois specialty poutine, fries with gravy and cheese curds.  Some tried the Montréalais specialty, smoked meat. 
After lunch, we got a different view of the city by bike.  Montreal has an amazing bike path system.  We did about 8-9 miles along the Canal Lachine.  We then were grateful to take the metro back to the hotel, where we got into our rooms and crashed for about an hour

Dinner at L'Académie was very nice:  a choice of soup or salad, followed by either shrimp, chicken and veal, or vegetable pasta, and then cake.  Deeeelicious.

Our final stop for the day was a dance studio.  We learned the fine art of hip hop dance!  Naturally, by the end of this, we were exhausted!  A quick bus back to the hotel, followed by bed.

En route

We had a smooth ride from Mantua to Canada, quickly got past the border and are a few hours out of Montreal.  The bus has wireless, a nice feature!  Once we arrive at the hotel, we'll meet our tour manager, get oriented and get breakfast!  Then off for a full day of touring.