Hi,Laurie!
It was wonderful (aside from the travel itself, that is!).
Everyone spoke French (my department chair had told me that they spoke English when he was there, so I was pleasantly surprised...when I could understand them! Most of the time it was o.k., but some folks had a very informal way of speaking and a heave accent, and they were tough to follow at times. I felt better when a native French speaking woman told me she had the same problem undertstanding!)
I was at the Hilton, which was at the top of a hill, and a great street--Rue St-Jean, was just a couple of blocks away. There, I found La Commensal, a yummy vegetarian buffet where I ate--a lot!--twice, and Archambault, a book/CD store that I've done a lot of internet ordering from, but have never been to.
The day after I arrived, I did a lot of walking around in the morning, then in the afternoon, I gave a 3-hour workshop on using fairy tales in the classroom. That night, I went on a "visite fantôme," a guided walking tour where the guide told us stories about hangings and ghost sitings and all sorts of the dark past of the city.
The next day, I went to a plenary session and two presentations (I WAS at a conference) and they were pretty good. One was a presentation by 4 Québecois story tellers, who talked about the history of storytelling in Québec, and each told a story.
I also went on a tour to the Beaupré coast, where we visited St Anne's cathedral, the Falls of Montmorency (nighttime and chilly), and a restaurant where they put on a kind of show, dressed in period costumes, and asking all of us to choose some potential husbands/wives and get married in the morning, to help populate "La Nouvelle France." I had a fiancé, but he chose someone else!!
Friday, I went to three presentations (actually, 1/2 of three presentations, because they were all mediocre at best. I refuse to sit through someone's incompetent or boring presentation. Though I sometimes get ideas for what NOT to do, or what I would do differently, and I take down those ideas and use them later.
I went on two excursions that day: a but tour of the city, and an evening theater/storytelling workshop where we broke up into 3 groups and each put on a play based on a traditional Québecois legend.
I loved just walking through the city, discovering things, and it was nice to see all the small stores that still exist, and not see huge signs for McDonalds (though they were around, they were quite discrete!). I loved the buildings and the trees, and the flowerpots on windowsills. It really is "the most European city in North America." Though the 30-50 degree slant of many of the streets was quite a workout! One day, I was carrying two bags of mineral water from a health food store I'd found (on rue St-Jean, called "La Carotte Joyeuse" attached to "Crac"), and while I was coming up the 50 degree tilt of the street to the hotel, which was on the top of the hill, the wind started blowing against me like mad, and I almost stopped moving! I felt like Alice in Wonderland, when one of the Queens tells her to run as fast as she can to stay in place, and to run even faster to go anywhere!
The weather was perfect! After continuous rain on the day I arrived (but was just travelling), we had sun, and it was in the high seventies/low eighties in the daytime, and sometimes seemed to get down into the fifties in the evening (a good excuse for buying a Québec sweatshirt and jacket!). Friday was the hottest, and I think I got out of there just in time, because it seemed like the temp was going to get hotter from then out).
Anyone who stays in Québec city for long must have a great backside...and bad knees!
That's my story!
Are you sorry you asked? LOL!
Québec City is like a little trip to Europe, hope it was a good one.
