jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
Great to be back in the capital of New France for the first time in five years:
I guess that the sign above refers to the capital of francophone Canada, which could be considered a "nation," just like a Native American nation within the United States, I guess.
My wife had never been north of Trois Rivieres, so we spent most of Saturday being proper American tourists, including a great three-hour tour from Michelle Demers from Quebec City Tourism, who guided us all over town and patiently answered all of our questions. Here she is showing Juliet how it normally looks in Quebec during a normal winter (no snow on the ground here in the city right now, very odd):
Montmorency Falls, usually frozen in winter:
Had great crepes at Au Petit Coin Breton:
Then we joined the hordes of people making their way to the big show, the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship:
Kinda like a downhill racing course that winds through the old part of Quebec, except it's on ice, not snow. Four guys thundering down at once -- much more impressive than I had expected, especially when they fly right by you. There must have been 100,000 people there last night.
The next day, we finally made it to a ski area I’ve wanted to hit for years. The first 45 minutes of the one-hour drive to Massif du Sud are like traveling through a French-language version of Nebraska -- a road that goes straight as an arrow for miles at a time through a flat, rural landscape with tiny villages sporting farm-equipment dealerships. Finally, the very end of the Appalachian Mountain chain pops up.
We got a friendly welcome and all-day tour from general manager Morgan Robitaille and mountain guide Julien. Morgan has really been earning his looneys lately when he was forced into damage-control mode after the ski area’s one chairlift broke down twice, effectively closing operations for several days. But they finally got it fixed on Thursday and it was running smoothly with no lines.
After a flat section up top, the trails wind intriguingly through the trees with a nice sustained pitch for 1,375 feet.
On this bluebird day, the St. Lawrence River and the front side of Mont Sainte-Anne made a nice backdrop.
But the real selling point of Massif du Sud is the extensive blue-spruce glades, which cover almost 40% of the ski area. Unfortunately, after warm temps on Saturday, it went down to 15 degrees overnight and, despite the blazing sun today, the snow never completely softened up until the last 500 verts, taking out most of the trees. Still, we decided to give it a try in the mid-afternoon, and went under the rope on La Cathédrale.
Morgan and Julien are accustomed to nice dry snow in the trees, so they were less than thrilled with the conditions there.
Massif du Sud reportedly also has Quebec’s only cat-skiing operation, which is accessed through a 15-minute ride from the summit. At the end of the day, we headed back to the Sous-Bois (“glade” in French) Bar for some Belle Gueule beers.
To underscore the skiing-in-the-woods theme, even the beer comes out of a tree and it's poured by a cute Québecoise to boot.
We really liked Massif du Sud's intimate, unpretentious, no-industrial-tourism vibe. I’d love to go back when the woods are open.
I guess that the sign above refers to the capital of francophone Canada, which could be considered a "nation," just like a Native American nation within the United States, I guess.
My wife had never been north of Trois Rivieres, so we spent most of Saturday being proper American tourists, including a great three-hour tour from Michelle Demers from Quebec City Tourism, who guided us all over town and patiently answered all of our questions. Here she is showing Juliet how it normally looks in Quebec during a normal winter (no snow on the ground here in the city right now, very odd):
Montmorency Falls, usually frozen in winter:
Had great crepes at Au Petit Coin Breton:
Then we joined the hordes of people making their way to the big show, the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship:
Kinda like a downhill racing course that winds through the old part of Quebec, except it's on ice, not snow. Four guys thundering down at once -- much more impressive than I had expected, especially when they fly right by you. There must have been 100,000 people there last night.
The next day, we finally made it to a ski area I’ve wanted to hit for years. The first 45 minutes of the one-hour drive to Massif du Sud are like traveling through a French-language version of Nebraska -- a road that goes straight as an arrow for miles at a time through a flat, rural landscape with tiny villages sporting farm-equipment dealerships. Finally, the very end of the Appalachian Mountain chain pops up.
We got a friendly welcome and all-day tour from general manager Morgan Robitaille and mountain guide Julien. Morgan has really been earning his looneys lately when he was forced into damage-control mode after the ski area’s one chairlift broke down twice, effectively closing operations for several days. But they finally got it fixed on Thursday and it was running smoothly with no lines.
After a flat section up top, the trails wind intriguingly through the trees with a nice sustained pitch for 1,375 feet.
On this bluebird day, the St. Lawrence River and the front side of Mont Sainte-Anne made a nice backdrop.
But the real selling point of Massif du Sud is the extensive blue-spruce glades, which cover almost 40% of the ski area. Unfortunately, after warm temps on Saturday, it went down to 15 degrees overnight and, despite the blazing sun today, the snow never completely softened up until the last 500 verts, taking out most of the trees. Still, we decided to give it a try in the mid-afternoon, and went under the rope on La Cathédrale.
Morgan and Julien are accustomed to nice dry snow in the trees, so they were less than thrilled with the conditions there.
Massif du Sud reportedly also has Quebec’s only cat-skiing operation, which is accessed through a 15-minute ride from the summit. At the end of the day, we headed back to the Sous-Bois (“glade” in French) Bar for some Belle Gueule beers.
To underscore the skiing-in-the-woods theme, even the beer comes out of a tree and it's poured by a cute Québecoise to boot.
We really liked Massif du Sud's intimate, unpretentious, no-industrial-tourism vibe. I’d love to go back when the woods are open.
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