Je me souviens...

Bonjour, tous le monde! I'm sorry that I haven't written in a couple days. We've been too busy having FUN! To get you all caught up... ice skating in Montreal turned out to be a dud. The indoor rink was so warm that it felt like we were skating in Florida, we could barely hear the music, and my legs were so sore from our 500 mile hike the day before that I was having trouble skating. Boo. Considering I'd been looking forward to ice skating in Canada for weeks, I was not pleased with the experience. But, you will learn later that it all ended up being okay. :) To add to the disappointment, the chocolate shop we wanted to go to 'Chocolat de Chole' has apparently been closed for 4 months. Luckily for us, we found another chocolaterie down the street and got some yummy pralines. As promised, we also tried some poutine, which was good but definitely not something either one of us would eat often.

Poutine

Tuesday morning, we woke early to take on the 4 hour drive to Quebec City. When we got there we were completely blown away. What a beautiful and enchanting place! I felt like we were walking around a fairytale land. We headed to our hotel first, a cute little place called Hotel Chateau Bellevue, which was right across the street from the famous Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. After checking in, we got a quick lunch and walked through the city to the Musee de la Civilisation, which lucky for us is free on Tuesdays. We weren't really sure what to expect, but were excited to see that the main exhibition was all about mummies! We got to see several mummies that were over 2500 years old, including one that was unwrapped! Creepy! We also learned all about the mummification process, which was really interesting. Another nice exhibit was one all about the development of human thought. More of a conceptual display, but we got to see some cool brain slices! After the museum, we continued to explore Vieux-Quebec Haute-Ville, or upper level which is within the city walls, and Vieux-Quebec Basse-Ville, or lower level which is near the Saint Lawrence River and down the cliff from Haute-Ville. It was particularly beautiful because the city was covered in snow. Once it started to get dark and cold, we headed back to Chateau Bellevue to get ready for dinner. We decided this would be the perfect evening to get dressed up and eat in style. Dinner was at Cafe Sirocco,a southern European cafe, where we started with an appetizer of calamari, I had Poisson et Fruits de Mer and Ryan had Osso Buco. After dinner, we went to the Hotel L'Astral's revolving rooftop restaurant for some "bowls" of coffee and some black forest cake. The view was amazing! It was strange to see the amount of neon lights the city used at night. It was an interesting contrast to the historic and ancient feel of the city during the day.

The next day we enjoyed a nice breakfast at Chateau Bellevue and then headed out to explore the rest of the city and check out some of the boutiques. But the VERY BEST part was outdoor ice skating in the middle of Quebec City! So romantic! That and the hockey game made the trip about as perfect as it could be! We had a quick lunch at a Creperie and then had to start back for the resort. We stopped at the IGA to grab some supplies for dinner, and were delighted to find that we finally made it back in time to enjoy the jacuzzi before it closed. After dinner, I pretty much passed out on the couch - explaining the further delay in receiving your daily updates.

Today we had planned to head up to Mont-Tremblant, an local ski resort and village, but found online that most of it is closed right now. Plus, it's been raining all morning. So we've decided to make a leisurely trip back home.

This trip has been so great, and Ryan and I particularly enjoyed spending it together. :)

C'est tous!

Le Frontenac

Le Fin.