We left Cornwall mid morning to start heading into Quebec. Outside was overcast and dreary, which suits our moods. Everyone is tired. Tired of different hotels every day, tired of the routine of unloading/loading the jeep, tired of sharing a room, and; tired of driving. We are all ready to be “home”. Or in a space that feels like home. And right now, it is all within grasp. 12 hours to be exact.
We had hoped Moose would be dozing when we crossed into Quebec…for one main reason. Pranking our teenage son. Moose knows a bit of French, but not enough to keep up in Quebec. So, since day 1 Chris has planned to send Moose into a store when we crossed into the province. Here; unknowingly he would end up having an English/French exchange. Alas….Moose was awake and announced our arrival into Canada’s largest province. We still sent him into a store, where he successfully had an enjoyable exchange with a clerk.
I wish I could say we spent days exploring Quebec. For such a beautiful province, with such rich history and incredible restaurants and shops, days would be the bare minimum amount of time needed to visit. However; our plans for visiting Quebec seem to change as the days went by. Originally we wanted to explore Montreal, Quebec City, and their surrounding areas. Part-way through our trip it became just Montreal and Quebec City. And last night we decided to drive through Montreal, and just visit Quebec City and the Notre Dame de Québec Basilica Cathedral.
It is just over an hour from Cornwall to Montreal, a quick drive through the countryside. A scenic route where I could appreciate the grassy farmland, the orange and gold trees, and watch the world go by on such a rainy day. It was quite relaxing. Entry into Montreal however; felt then, quite chaotic. A very busy city to start, now add in loads of construction. Here many semi drivers will cut in front of you in the blink of an eye, at least signaling, whether there is room or not. And the merge lanes from the construction…oh my goodness. Zipper merge, nope. Merge ahead of time, Nope. MERGE at the very last moment in front of the lit-up arrow sign, YEP. Talk about congestion. Montreal was not my favourite city driving experience, having now driven across the country.
We continued on the Autoroute, hwy 40, towards Quebec City…we thought. We were en route to a busy day of exploring and tasting. Expected to arrive around 1:00pm. But at this point there was no excitement or life in the car from the kids. We pulled off at Trois-Rivieres and had a group chat by the harbour. We let the kids decide what they wanted to do… they wanted to get home…to NS.
As much as we wanted to explore some of Quebec and not just drive by and see it…that was what we all needed to do. Chris and I don’t want to see Quebec as a checklist: tada we made it, okay we saw it, next stop and we are done. No…we want to experience everything Quebec has to offer, and forcing 2 kids who have nothing left is not the way to do it. PLUS! Quebec is now in our backyard per say. A weekend away is not going to be a hard task, so stay tuned for that.
And so we pushed ahead. Chris found us a lovely hotel a few hours away to make the final push. We stopped in Riviere du loup and stayed at Hotel Universal . What a gorgeous and bustling hotel. With very modern rooms, a pool, nordic spa and dining room and bar. Once we did unload the jeep…again we found our room, with a wee bit of confusion. No one wanted to go to the pool. No one wanted to go into the dining room. I didn’t even feel the urge to relax in the nordic spa…which we had a view of from our room. We were beat. And better yet, in one day we would be home. So we ordered room service. Which was superb by the way and quickly settled in for the night shortly after.
Cheers xo Mel
