considered the crown jewel of the provinceof quebec, quebec city is one of the most historic cities in all of north america. itsunesco heritage cobblestone streets, the chã¢teau frontenac and trendy bistros and cafes offerold world european charm that simply doesn't exist in any other city in canada. to reallyappreciate quã©bec city you must visit in both the summer and winter. musicians, actorsand acrobats entertain during the summer months. when the temperature drops, quã©bec’s wintercarnival offers up a world-class event for people of all ages. you can even stay in themagnificent ice hotel. the following is a complete travel guide featuring the top attractionsand things to do in quebec city. if you want to experience a canadian citywith a bit of french flair, then you need
to visit quebec city. situated on the banks of the st. lawrenceriver, this is a town with good looks and a big heart. we only had a day and a half there, but thatwas enough time to wander the cobbled streets, catch some street performances, and visitmany of the top attractions. the following is a little video of our timein historic quebec city. we are no standing on the plains of abrahamand this is the location where the battle between the english and the french was fought.this was the battle that ultimately determined the fate of north america.
this battle was part of the seven years' warand it would be the deciding factor over the fate of new france, influencing the latercreation of canada. we just finished visiting the citadelle andif you get the chance i would suggest you try to be here by ten in the morning. thatis when they have the changing of the guard ceremony and it is a lot of fun to watch.they even have a pet goat that takes part so it really is a lot of fun. the citadelle is the largest british fortressin north america. now we're visiting chateau frontenac, oneof the most famous hotels in all of canada. it is a stunner. it is just absolutely beautiful.we're trying to capture it from different
vantage points. the hotel was designed by american architectbruce price. it was one of many "chãƒâ¢teau" style hotels built for the canadian pacificrailway company with the goal of promoting luxury tourism. today, a night at the frontenacstarts at $379 dollars. this boardwalk that we are currently standingon is called terrasse dufferin and it is a great place for a stroll. you can catch somestreet performers, eat some ice cream and you also get some great views of the riverbelow. the promenade sits right outside the chateaufrontenac and it is 425 meters in length. you can also catch a funicular nearby whichtakes you to the old lower town.
petit champlain is a neighbourhood locatedin the old lower town. it is quite picturesque, especially when viewed from the breakneckstairs. the narrow cobbled streets are lined with small shops and cafes. it's a reallyfun neighborhood to explore with a camera in hand. it is a human car wash. the basilica notre dame de quebec is the oldestchurch in the americas north of mexico. if you want to get a sneak peek at the crypt,you'll have to sign up for a guided tour. we're now walking along rue st. paul and thisis a great place to browse for antiques and you can buy some souvenirs.
just don't leave your visit to the end ofthe day because you may find that a lot of the shops have closed. the museum of civilization is a great placeto learn about the aboriginal peoples of quebec. we're here now in the port area. this is agreat place to take a ferry. a lot of people come here to exercise, to fish and just toenjoy the views of the st. lawrence river. it is a really relaxing place. the port of quebec is the oldest in all ofcanada and it played an important role in developing the region. today you'll find thatcruises have replaced much of the former freight traffic.
and lastly, you can't come to quebec cityand not catch a street performance! the city celebrates its performers and you'll oftenfind acts taking place in the town square and parks. grab a seat for some live entertainmentand don't forget to leave a tip at the end! and that concludes our brief but very enjoyabletrip to quebec city! we hope that you enjoyed this video and that it will help inspire yourcanadian travels. welcome to quebec city! we are here in thewinter capital of the world. and it is carnival which means everyone is out embracing thecold and embracing the winter fun. alright, so what are we doing next? we'regoing to be doing something i've wanted to do for years. we're going to dog sledding!woo!
go, puppies go! steer it. go, puppies! good puppies. come on, puppies. we're going ice fishing. we're going to becatching our lunch today. ready to fish? i'm ready. i've got my bait.i've got my fishing rod. let's do this. they ate your bait. they ate it and didn't come up.
let's go get some more. that is not very good fishing. i know. that's really bad fishing. okay, round two. let's get ourselves a fish. oh, we have a fish and i feel kind of bad. we got one. i know i eat fish but i feel a little guiltyright now. now it is time to cook it. lunch, right here.
just warming up. here is our catch of the day. this is thebig reveal. you can see the steam coming off. that smells really nice. i know, i think they'veput seasonings on it. oh, yeah. that looks good. have it. oh, i can't see. the smoke is goingin my eyes. alright, first bite. mmmm. how is it? that's amazing. can you look at the camera? they put some onions and spices inside anda little bit of butter. it's really good.
i think it is time for a romantic sleigh ridefor two. so right now we're getting ready to go insidebonhomme's ice palace. let's go visit him. i even once went to mexico. it's a littlebit warm. when i got there i was about eight feet as i am usually and when i came backi was five foot four. i melted a little bit. is that a video? let's do something memorable. audrey. and you're from? kingston, right? okay. hello, my friends from kingston. we're withaudrey right now. we invite you to come to
the biggest winter carnival in the world inquebec city. i love you all and wish you a joyeux carnaval. i love you all and wish you a joyeux carnaval. merci. bye, bye. bye, bohomme. i don't know about you but i'm getting hungry.it's time for a beavertail. it looks like a few other people have thesame idea. they have a reese's pieces beavertail. i thinkthat is the one i'm getting.
oh my, what do we have here? reese's piecesbeavertail with chocolate and peanut butter and a hot chocolate because i really needto warm up. show me that reese's pieces beavertail. oh,my gosh that looks amazing. i wish i could capture the smell on video. alright, let's take a big bite of that. and? that's hitting the spot right now. that'sreally good. no. yeah. go max. way to go max. go max. sam wanted a horn to toot.
alright, unfortunately all things come toan end. we've had an absolutely marvelous day out here at the carnaval. it's been somemorable. now it's time to go home and warm up. faster, horses! faster! and how is the ice princess this morning? doing very well. this morning we are headingin to the old city. we're going to do a bit of a walking tour on our own. let's head intotown and check it out. we are about to enter the old city. there are real benefits to waking up earlyon a sunday morning. we've practically got
the old part of the city to ourselves. andwhat a different feel. in the summer it had a totally different vibe and now in the winterit's like an entirely new city to explore. so i just noticed there are railings all alongthe street and i think it is because it is so steep and it gets so icy in the wintertimethat if they didn't have these babies people would just be sliding all the way down. well,we've been sliding a lot anyways. yes. so it is kind of cool being here in the winterbecause even though it is february it still feels like christmas never left. like we stillhave christmas trees, christmas lights, lots of red. so it feels very festive. absolutely. we found a little place where to warm up.there is a little outdoor fireplace. it is
our own personal fire place. and we really need it after all that walking.put your legs up by the fire. it's a dragon! it's a snow dragon! a firebreathing dragon. alright, it is time to warm up. let's go fora hot chocolate and maybe even a cupcake. yum yum. lead the way. how is that hot chocolate? mmmm. that is sogood after that really really cold walk. alright, it's time to lick your lips. you've got creamall over your face. there you go. that's some kind of classic canadian food.here we've got nanaimo bars. audrey is digging in. very canadian. let's have that first bite.mmmm. sweet enough for you?
it's such a nice breakfast. and i've got fudge and bonhomme de carnaval.and this guy has been really nice to me but unfortunately i'm going to have to take abite out of his head. sorry, bonhomme. does he taste good? he does. what do you have over there? and the lastindulgence of the day - we've got pure maple sugar fudge. i'm not surprised you would go for that. you'realways looking for fudge wherever we go. i don't have anything to say - it's just purebliss. now if you can believe it we were bonkersenough to be doing ice canoeing out in the
saint lawrence with those massive chunks ofice. it was just one of the craziest things we've ever done. we can't wait to show youthat video as well. so now we're working our way up to the chateaufrontenac. that means climbing a lot of steps. i'm already out of breath. we still have afew more to go. lead the way. it's a little steep and slippery over here.i almost feel like i could go snowboarding. do it. do it. and the concludes our walking tour of oldquebec. now we're going to head back to our hotel, warm up a little bit and get readyto do some more exploring in the afternoon.
we are in a winter wonderland today also knownas the ice hotel here in quebec city. let me take you in. have a seat while you wait to be checked in. the vortex of time! welcome to the spa. this is where you cometo warm up right before going to bed. or when you need to pee. it looks like a sauna in there. woah. we're going to ride the grand slide.if you don't fall down first. we're going to enter the bar and drink inglasses made of ice.
what do you got in your hands? vodka cranberry. mmmmm. and my lips didn't get stuck because theyprepared the ice a very special way. i couldn't tell you how but it is a special way. cheers! salut! welcome to the medieval chamber. i slept here two weeks ago. what happened?i survived. i'm alive. hey, you're here. and well! so basically like i told my husbandi looked like a beached whale. okay. because you're in your sleeping bag exceptfirst of all you go in the saunas, you go
in the spas to warm up and then afterwardsyou go inside and there is a whole section towards the indoor pavilion reserved completelyonly for our roomed night guests. where they have locker rooms, lockers fortheir stuff, etc. so once you're done with the spa and the saunayou go inside and you dry off and then you put on what you're going to need to sleep.and it is basically a little spandex thing or it has to be artificial like fleece. ithas to be artificial, not artificial but synthetic fibers. nothing cotton. so no white socks. like i'm wearing rightnow. basically, you then come into your room. accessis from nine pm to nine am. we don't give
out rooms. we don't do early check ins orlate checkouts. okay, because we have visitors. all of our clients have to mingle well throughout.so basically we arrive in your room and there are two candles or a fire place going andit is to take the humidity out. the fireplace obviously there is no heat.we would have a meltdown. okay. the sleeping bags are in huge pouches andthey're thermal sleeping bags. you are basically looking like a mummy. okay. then you get on the bed. this is the fun part.you get on the bed, you get in to your liner of your sleeping bag and then you get in thesleeping bag and then they tell you you have to change your pair of socks.
you're like really? i'm like mummified inthis thing and you're standing and you're like this. so basically i went down, i thenput on a change of socks while you're in the sleeping bag, there is absolutely no humidityand then you mummify yourself. you're all zipped up. this was me. this was my husband.okay. it's true. my husband, i could only see hisnose. i'm like man you snore. zip that thing back up. it didn't work. if you're all quiet there is no sound. itis phenomenal to sleep here. you go to bed around midnight and then we wake up peopleat eight in the morning because you're sleeping that much. now you're going to say majole,what about the three am pee pee?
well, it does happen. we all have to go sometimes.and now you're entering into my private bubble. but at five thirty in the morning i've gotto go pee. whether i'm in vancouver, whether i'm in quebec city five thirty my alarm clockgoes. so my husband and i we said whoever wakesup at night, whoever needs to go pee wakes the other up saying honey do you want to comewith me to the bathroom? so when i woke my husband up at five thirty he's like i don'tthink so you're going alone. the only iffy part is the three seconds youput your boots back on. that's the only thing that was cold because you're leaving it outside.you don't put anything on any ice. i didn't put my glasses on the ice because it wouldgo in. literally. okay, you put everything
in your boots or in the pouch. so basically in your sleeping bag pouch. yourcoat, you open it up, you put it on your bed and then you're sleeping on top. so it getsyour body heat. inside your thermal sleeping bag it goes up to twenty four degrees. atone point you're in the night unzipped everything and i needed to breathe. i really, it's agood thing that there are showers here in the morning. that could also be a sign ofhypothermia you know? no, but it was really everybody you're really hot. the minute youunzip you see the vapor coming out. okay. it is a sleep that you cannot have anywhereelse. the oxygen that you're breathing in is phenomenal.
and we couldn't leave without checking outthe maple sugar shack. you lead the way. well, i didn't come away empty handed. checkout this. i've got two different maple syrup products. all dressed and ready to go? oh, yeah. taping them on. so you look a little bit ridiculous. i feellike a robot. and you look like a robot. but these are actually our outfits to go ice canoeing,so we've got special socks, special boots and hockey pads. i'm so excited to try ice canoeing. this isas canadian as it gets.
these are large, medium, small. my shoes. can you stand up? for a second. put your feetlike this. like that on the toe. yeah. so we have a super exciting morning today.we are out here in quebec city and we are going to be going ice canoeing. all gearedup. practicing in the snow but we're going tobe hitting the ice soon. so we officially survived ice canoeing onthe saint lawrence river. if you can have a look behind me you'll be able to see whatexactly we were trying to canoe in. i mean it is a combination of ice, a bit of water,chucks of icebergs. it's crazy!
one of the most exciting events of quebec'swinter carnival was the ice canoe race. this event is exactly what it sounds like.teams hit the frigid waters of the saint lawrence river with their canoes and race through amix of ice, slush and water. originally, a means of winter transport, icecanoeing has become a sport for the bold and brave. having had the chance to try this ourselveswe had some serious respect for the teams competing. here is a look at this legendary event. alright, the big moment we've been waitingfor - the carnival parade. everyone is out and we're all bundled up. let's get this partystarted.
chicken noodle soup. trying to stay warm.is that chicken soup? it's time to toot my horn. good job.
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