Today is the final day of the 63rd edition of the Québec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament. This prestigious event has been part of the Québec City calendar since 1960, when 28 teams, mostly from Canada, competed in the old arena in Victoria Park. The tournament has expanded a bit over the years. This year, 120 […]
The Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament Read More »
The English class that I give for the Adventure Tourism and Ecotourism Program at Collège Mérici has quickly become one of my favorite courses. The participants are smart, curious, enthusiastic, and fun. They are everything a teacher is looking for in a student – everything adventure tourists are looking for in a guide. And this
The leaves are at their peak once again and the cruise shippers are here in force. After two cancelled years, it is a joy to have them back, at least for this Québec City tour guide. Among the sites they see during their eight-hour stopover is Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. A pilgrimage destination since the mid-17th century when
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Among the off-season contracts I accepted this year was a gig teaching English for adventure tourism and ecotourism. The Collège Mérici students who are taking the course are doing a one-year degree that prepares them to guide tourists in the great outdoors. They take classes in the arts and sciences necessary for braving the backcountry
My Fearless Fifteen Read More »
Québec City gets an average of 303.4 centimeters of snow every year. For those of you who think in feet and inches, that’s just a hair shy of 10 feet of snow. That’s a lot of snow. In 2008, a year that Québecers speak of with awe and anguish, Mother Nature provided 558 centimeters –
Old Québec is, not surprisingly, known for its old architecture. 411 years of existence have left us numerous varieties of vintage buildings that make a stroll through the streets a passage into the past. In fact, much of the Old City’s architecture was chosen in order to make the city look older than it was:
Luc Villeneuve has perspective. 360 degrees of it, in fact. Luc is a photographer who specializes in all sorts of full-sphere, interactive images. Interiors, exteriors – he documents anything that strikes his fancy, as long as it has a detailed story to tell. He thinks of his art as “painting with light,” a metaphor you’ll
One of things I love about living in Québec City is the proximity of the farms and forests that surround it. With only about 700,000 people living in the metropolitan area, the countryside is close for those who need it. And I am one of those who needs it. When you combine this yen for
Trois Ruisseaux to the west of Québec Read More »
It is quite possible that I have the best job in the world: Every day, I walk the streets of the most beautiful city in North America and I teach its history to interested vacationers. I also have the privilege of watching Québec City life unfold in real time from the front row. In the
We’ve got watering holes of all sorts in Quebec City: raucous and loud, quiet and contemplative. We’ve got a drink for every mood as well: coffee for mornings and a newspaper, cognac for evenings and a perfect meal.