La Belle Provence! Québec City
Bonjour mes amis! Last week, my principal, two other staff members and I had the pleasure of accompanying our Grade 7 and 8's to do a bus tour of Québec City. Ten hours on a bus, albeit a brand 3 month new Luxury Coach Bus, is still a very, very long bus ride! We picked up our very enthusiastic born and raised in Québec guide, Mathieu, at the Pickering GO Station. I also did this trip with our students 2 years ago, and I was amazed at how quickly the actual drive passed, with talks and rules recited by Mathieu, music and movies to hold our attention or not, I was equally surprised at how slowly the 2 days of touring seemed to go, as we packed each of those two days with more site seeing than I would do in a week. I had the feeling that days were much longer.Removed from my Learning Commons Library and Computer Lab, I was reminded the importance of getting in touch with the real places and people of the world, and how much learning goes on:
@ Musée du Fort, where one of our male students exclaimed, "That is one the best history lessons I ever had. That's how I learn best!" Models of land, battles, slide show of armies, navies...
Always impressive, is being able to talk in French, non-stop to everyone you meet. Here's a quick list of the great places we visited:
DAY ONE EVENING:
- Hotel Pur in Basse-Ville (this area has undergone a fantastic gentrification)
- Walk up to Terrasse Dufferin http://bit.ly/KSqOcL
- Les Fouilles de St Louis http://bit.ly/KjBsYx
- Château Frontenac
- Musique Québécoise http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/fr/listeMedia-chansons.html
- Samuel Champlain
- Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau, archevêque catholique de Québec et premier cardinal canadien
- http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/fr/elzearalexandre-taschereau
- Musée du Fort
- Place Royale http://www.mcq.org/place-royale/en/lieux.php?id=32
- Eglise Notre-Dame-des-Victoires
- Port de Québec
- Fresque des Québécois
- La Citadelle
- La Cabane à Sucre, Ile d'Orléans
- Les Gros Becs - Musique et Improv
- Ste-Anne de Beaupré Cathédrale
- Chez Marie Patisserie et l'érable
- Les Chutes Montmorency
- Soirée au Manoir Montmorency
- Buffet breakfast and return to Toronto... pics to be posted tomorrow!!!
