The Quebec Carnival - Part Quatre

The Ice Hotel

The ‘inside’ temperature was maintained at 23F-26F at all times. The floors were covered with clean, white powdery snow and all the furnishings were made of ice.

The Ice Chapel holds regularly scheduled Sunday services and the ice-benches are covered in fur. For winter weddings, the staff change the 'everyday' fur for white animal fur ...

A ‘discotheque’ and bar where drinks are served in blocks of ice that have been bored-out in the center to accommodate your cocktail, served by bartenders dressed in parkas.

The guest rooms are beautiful. Ice-beds are covered in fur and you recieve a standard-issue sub-zero sleeping bag upon check-in. No bathroom, sink or mirror kind of takes the romance out of it but ...
The dramatic lighting is a sight to behold.

The Quebec Carnival - Part Trois

Armed with our ski-wear and my determination, we boarded our train to Quebec City. The train guy told us it would be "40 degrees below" in Quebec City. Ha! A little cold weather wasn't going to scare me off!

I had reserved a (surprise) romantic horse drawn carriage ride upon our arrival to the incredibly beautiful and historic walled city of Quebec but was soon dissappointed to learn that "it is too cold for the horses, Madam". No problem.

Venturing out on foot with only a 'walking tour' map of Quebec City was probably not my best decision but hey, hindsight is 20/20. After about 2 miles into our frigid trek, we came upon a lovely French restaurant with a roaring fireplace ...and no one spoke English! Now that's what I'm talkin' about! A different culture! A different language! My frozen husband was more impressed with the fire.

In the following days, we found The Quebec Carnival to be well organized with plenty to do. The giant snowman mascot "Bonhomme" was everywhere, outdoor ice skating shows, dog sled racing, ice sculptures, an outdoor theatre, tobagganing, zip lines, music and dancing were just some of the attractions but what kept us going was their signature drink - "Caribou". A mixture of wine, sugar and brandy, you could get it anywhere and it was always served hot.

EVERYBODY ventured out in this weather!

A Little History... The Quebec Carnival in Quebec City, “Carnaval’ in Rio de Janeiro and ‘Mardi Gras’ in New Orleans are based upon indulging yourself silly prior to Lent, a period of Catholic sacrifice and repentance that leads up to Easter. Many Catholics will ‘give up something for Lent’ as an exercise in self-sacrifice. For my friend JoBeth, it has always been tortilla chips, others swear off alcohol or chocolate. The point is…you should ‘give up’ something you will really miss for about forty days.

Today, these celebrations are a really good excuse for a winter party.

The Quebec Carnival - Part Deux

We arrived in Montreal on January 24th.

Enchanted by the cobblestone, gas lantern lit streets and centuries old architecture I could care less about the bone-chilling cold.

Mr. Something? – not so much...

We stayed in the heart of Vieux-Montreal (Old Montreal) at a lovely little place called Auberge de Passants de San Soucy.

Somewhat intimidated about trying to speak lousy French, I was thrilled when the cabbie spoke perfect English. The ‘Auberge’ is a relatively unknown converted stable, circa 1650-ish. No elevators..."all part of the charm", I thought.

As my sweet husband carried our bags up three flights of a narrow, creaking, spiral staircase...

Our room was just what I would have imagined – lace curtains with windows that opened out onto a view of the quaint street below. Character seeped from the stone walls and it wasn't difficult to imagine what Montreal could have been like back in the day.

Mr. Something was less impressed with me opening the windows in –30C (-22 F).

That evening, Mr. Something insisted that we dress appropriately before heading out on the town - to the tune of - ski bibs, thermal underwear and neck gators. A little overkill (in my opinion) but he insisted and I caved. All in the name of "keeping the peace" and I'm so glad I did.

For the remainder of our trip to Quebec, we may have looked like masked 'Michelin Men' but we wouldn't have had it any other way.

The Quebec Carnival - Part Une

I have always been a sucker for a good festival even though I am the first to say that many don’t amount to much…same old cotton candy, local bands, artwork and performance artists but some are exceptional. Take the annual Quebec Carnival in Quebec City, Canada for instance. OK, so it’s a little chilly up there in February - what's the equivalent of -40 degrees Celsius anyway? Believe me, at that temperature - it’s moot point.

Knowing that my hot-blooded, native Texan husband would not share my enthusiasm about a near-arctic ‘vacation’, I nixed the idea of pumping him up with visions of ice sculptures, great cuisine, French-Canadian culture and dog-racing. Instead, I reached down into my imaginary bag of “Things-I-Want-To-Accomplish-in-My-Life” cards and pulled out the one that said…”The Quebec Carnival.” He relented.

Woo Hoo! I was so excited. Let the planning begin…

Dallas to Montreal... stay in a quaint little boutique hotel in Old Montreal for a couple of nights, then off to Quebec City via train for The Quebec Carnival! I could hardly contain myself. I tried to recruit other friends to join us (and you know who you are) but for some reason, they were just not interested.

Anyway, during the planning stages of our trip, I came across yet another reason to go…Quebec City had a real ICE HOTEL!!! I had seen one once on The Travel Channel and thought it would be cool to stay in one. A little pricey, a night in The Ice Hotel would be worth it as this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! I called Doug at work to share my great find – I could tell by his tone that he was apathetic. “Do me a favor” he said, “Look into it a little more, before you book us.” Fair enough.

I soon learned that you are expected to sleep in a sub-zero sleeping bag, upon an ice-bed covered in fur when staying at The Ice Hotel. The kicker is that none of the rooms had bathrooms as ice-toilets and sinks would be problematic. So… if you had to get up in the middle of the frosty night to use the facilities, you would have to schlepp down the snow covered hallways to the heated bathroom trailer where upon I would probably just wind up spending the night.

The good news was that The Ice Hotel offered tours daily and that would be just fine with me.