Quebec, Canada
Besides the ice hotel, our primary reason for braving the bitter Québécois cold was Winter Carnival. Winter CarnI val is a celebration of all things winter for a people who proclaim to live in the “snow capital of the world.” The Carnival originated in the early 1900s as a way to brighten the long, cold winters for the citizens of Quebec. Since 1984 the carnival has operated annually.
The Carnaval lasts approximately two weeks and is full of revelry and festivity. Long trumpet horns are common place and can be heard blowing through the city. The smell of ice and maple and wood burning fires wafts through the windy streets. Elaborate ice sculptures, games, contests (like snow wrestling and ice rowing), sledding, live music, and middle-of-the-street dance parties are everywhere.
In addition to the main three carnival sites (set up within a four block radius in the middle of the old town), all over the city there are tiny parks with random ice slides, signs, decor and sculptures featuring the carnival’s mascot, Bonhomme (a snowman-esq creature who wears a red tuque - or hat - and a traditional red arrow sash).
Though the weather here over the last few days was insanely cold, Friday, Valentine‘s Day, was cold even for Québécois standards. It was (brace yourselves) -12 degrees with a wind chill of -18. Yes, those are negatives. It was so cold that my eyelashes froze and Josh’s his mustache grew icicles!
It is astounding the see how people just go on with their regular lives in all this cold and snow and ice. People were driving at normal speeds, running in the park and walking their dogs (though most of the puppers wore little shoes to protect their feet from the cold). Though we did ok the other two nights, Friday’s below, below, freezing temperatures had us skipping a traditional Valentine‘s celebration and opting to return to the hotel early for Chinese delivery. It was just too cold!
Last night, a much warmer 10 degrees, still left us shivering as we enjoyed the final night festivities of Winter Carnaval and waited along the main boulvard for the closing parade. I do not say this lightly, but the parade was absolutely worth the hours we spent in the cold.
It was one of the best I’ve seen complete with dancers and puppets and huge (multi- person operated) paper mache polar bears and owls and snow lepoards. We saw acrobats doing flips and tricks on moving floats, pogo stick performers on two-story high pogo sticks, fire ball jugglers and chain saw weliding ice sculptors rocking out to death metal. Like I said, totally worth it. Plus we were able to grab a few piping hot hot-chocolates since were stationed right in front of a Cafe Starbucks (the cafe part has to be first so the name is technically French - the official language of the city).
Quebec’s Winter Carnival is truly an experience to behold and the three days we spent exploring this area were just a scratching of the surface. If I had to pick a favorite part of this trip, I’m not sure that I could. It was all so lovely! Quebec is a ltitle French gem placed right in the middle of a winter wonderland. I wouldn’t want to live here, but - man oh man - was it ever fun to visit!
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