December 23 – 28, 2017
This past Christmas, E and I decided to mix up our winter travel plans. Rather than going to Colorado to visit family and ski, we decided to hit the slopes of Quebec at Mont Sainte-Anne. Our winter trip was exciting to say the least. We started off driving up to Quebec City during a blizzard that hit Northwest US and Canada. Initially, we were expecting to get to Quebec City in the evening, but we did not arrive to our AirBnB until night. To relax, we found a board game bar, La Revanche, down the street from our AirBnB. So we ate and then went to bed exhausted.
Our first day in Quebec City was spent visiting the city. Since I had heard that Quebec City tends to be quiet on Christmas day, we decided to spend Christmas day and Boxing day skiing, leaving us two days to explore the city and the surrounding areas. Covered in a few feet of snow, Quebec City exhibited a snowglobe charm that is hard to find on the east coast. Although it was bitter cold, due to the so-called ‘Bomb Cyclone’, I still found the city to be a wonderful winter city. We decided to journey to the central tourist area around Château Frontenac and along the side streets, such as Quartier Petit Champlain. To keep warm, we occasionally stop for green tea lattes and coffee, but that still couldn’t keep the cold at bay so we grabbed lunch at La Buche, traditional québécoise cuisine. Although the food was more on the expensive side, E and I loved this restaurant and decided to come again on Christmas. What I loved most about this restaurant was the atmosphere and the availability of hot wine. Live musicians played traditional instruments, such as the fiddle, while customers dined. After dinner, we walked up to Marché du Vieux-Port and stopped at Musée de la Civilisation along the way. At that time, the museum had an interesting exhibit using scraps of clothing to represent the suffering and hopes of Native Americans in Canada, including the Inuit. After the day was spent, we went to dinner at a restaurant at the end of Quartier Petit Champlain, where I got my first class of vin chaud of the trip.
We spent the next two days skiing at Mont Sainte-Anne in the bitter cold. We chose to go to Mont Sainte-Anne over other resorts mostly because we thought the scenery would be gorgeous with the mountain overlooking the Saint Lawrence River. However, both days were bitterly cold and overcast. We still enjoyed the slopes and slept well both nights. Yet, on the final ski run on Christmas, I decided to go down a black diamond and assumed E would not follow since he is still learning, but I was wrong. We spent the next 45 minutes or so as the sun went down, trying to get E down the slope without any harm. At some point, E gave up and just sat down on both his skis and slid down rather than ski. It would have been funnier, if I wasn’t freaking out on the inside for both of our safety.
After spending two days skiing, E and I were both quite tired and cold so we took it easy on December 27. We only visited Montmorency Falls before heading back to the AirBnB to warm up again. E and I agree that a large bowl of ramen is perfect for post-skiing. However, of course Quebec only has European food. Yet, we managed to find a restaurant that satisfied our need of ramen. In the afternoon on Dec 27, we relaxed for a couple of hours at Nektar Caféologue over a cup of coffee before returning to the AirBnB once again to warm up. We ended the day back at La Revanche and played a couple of board games before going in for the night.
We left Quebec City for Montreal on December 28. Our initial plan was to spend a few days in Montreal, meet up with a few friends in New York for lunch, and then drive to Boston. However, our plans changed for various reasons. We arrived before we could check in to our AirBnB we decided to visit Notre-Dame Basilica in downtown Montreal. We parked nearby, unbeknownst to the fact that theft of tourists is a common problem anywhere in Montreal. And so, the lovely Canadians broke into our rental car and robbed us. At this point, E and I were done with the trip. We were cold, we lost quite a bit, we had to return our rental, and we missed our dog. We decided to cut our trip early and left for home the next day. Yet, we ended our trip on a somewhat good note, with a delicious meal at Le Robin Square.
Until next time,
ㅅ_ㅅ