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

DAY TWO

• 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

DAY THREE

• Ste-Anne de Beaupré Cathédrale
• Chez Marie Patisserie et l'érable
• Les Chutes Montmorency
• Soirée au Manoir Montmorency

DAY FOUR

• Buffet breakfast and return to Toronto... pics to be posted tomorrow!!!