With a 9 month old baby at home, we were still figuring out how to vacation as parents. We’d enjoyed travel to Europe the past few summers, but wanted something we could do on a shorter timeframe. We had also purchased a house and were busy planning for construction. We decided to drive to Montreal and Quebec City. Although it wasn’t Europe, the French language and Quebec City in particular have a European vibe.
Day 1 – Ausable Chasm (Tuesday)
We left in the late afternoon on Monday and spent the night in Plattsburgh NY, about an hour from the Canadian border. That gave us the day to visit Ausable Chasm. This place was pretty under the radar, but was a ton of fun. It is one of the earliest tourist attractions in the US, having opened in 1870. It’s a natural chasm in the mountains with a bunch of activities to do. We did the Via Ferrata adventur trail, where you clip in to harnesses and climb along the cliffs of the chasm and some rope bridges. We also did a rappelling tour and tube raft ride. Right outside Ausable was a small Underground Railroad Museum that we visited as well.
That evening, we drove across the border (took about an hour to get through) and had dinner at Yakimono Sushi Bar in Montreal. We then finished up our drive to Quebec City that night. It was pouring raining, and hard to see even a few feet in front of us, but we made it to Quebec City in one piece.
Day 2 – Quebec City (Wednesday)
We started the day with a free walking tour of Quebec City. We started by the Parliament building, and explored the old town of Quebec City. We saw the old city walls, learned about the conference between Churchill and FDR during WWII that took place here, and learned about the upper and lower towns connected by Funicular. After the tour, we walked through Place Royale, the center of the city, and the famous Frontenac hotel. We also visited a small museum to see the oldest ruins of the original fort built in the city.
Musee de la Civilisation – Museum didicated to human civilization, and the history of Quebec and French colonialism.
La Citadelle de Quebec – This old fortress of Quebec maintains some of the old British customs, and we watched the Changing of the Guards, Canadian style. This is also right near the Plains of Abraham, which was the site of a key battle between the French and British during the 7 years war (the British won).
Crepuscule – At night, we went to an outdoor “cirque du soliel”-like show with acrobats, music, and fireworks. Quebec City has events like this regularly throughout the summer, and it was very festive.
Day 3 – Montmorency Falls & Ile De Orleans (Thursday)
Parc de la Chute Montmorency – this waterfall (taller than Niagara) was really nice to visit. There’s a staircase / hiking trail that takes you from the base to the top of the falls, which allows you to see it from all angles. After climbing up, we took the zip line across the front of the falls and back down which was amazing.
Ile de Orleans – This island right outside of Quebec, allowed us to see the French Canadian countryside. We visited a small museum on rural life, did some blueberry picking (they were delicious), and went to an old fashioned Maple Syrup factory. It was cool to see how the weather affects maple syrup production, and we took home some maple syrup butter which is an awesome way to eat it.
We drove back to Montreal on Thursday night, and Sam made Rita try some obligatory Poutine at the kosher pizza store.
Day 4-7 – Montreal (Friday – Monday)
Friday
Bike Tour – We joined a group tour through the streets of Montreal. Stops were Old-Port, Latin Quarter, La Fontaine Park, Plateau, Mont-Royal Park (entrance), McGill University campus, Business district, Old Montreal and Mile-End. Of course, we stopped at St. Viateur Bagels for some delicious Montreal Bagels (significantly different from a NY bagel).
After the tour, we kept our bikes and rode along the Lachine Canal (system of canals to get boats up the river) to the Atwater Market. After returning our bikes, we did a self-guided tour of Old Montreal, seeing some of the landmarks and doing some shopping.
Sunday
Pointe-a-Caillere Museum – Sunday was a bit rainy, so we started in the Pointe a Caillere museum which is a archaeological site on ruins of the oldest settlements of Montreal, and a museum about French, British, and Canadian History. This is one of Sam’s favorite museums. After that, we stopped by the Notre Dame Basilica, which is known as one of the most beautiful buildings and most visited in North America.
Montreal Biosphere – a huge sphere that was the site of the US pavilion at the ‘67 expo, now houses a museum of environmental science. That night we also had tickets to Piknik Electronik – a EDM concert near the biosphere. The scene was a bit weird so we didn’t stay long.
Monday
This day was pretty unstructured. We started by heading to Mount Royale, a hike outside of the city, which gave us nice views above the city. We then did some shopping nearby, and visited a pop-up Barbie expo which had a ton of different Barbie dolls dressed as different characters. Also worth noting, while we were in Montreal, there was an exhibit around the city called Cite Memorie, where the artist projected videos and artwork around town on walls, trees, and anything else.
Day 8 – Drive Home / Fort Ticonderoga (Tuesday)
On our drive home, we stopped for a few hours in Fort Ticonderoga to break up the drive.
Fort Ticonderoga – an 18th century star shaped fort built along the main route between Canada and New York. It played a role in the Seven Years / French and Indian War, and the American Revolution and the Battle of Boston. Not too much to see here, but was a good opportunity to stretch our legs.
