Mont Tremblant

Thursday 7th December

Chateau Beauvallon Mont Tremblant.

The Neal's arrived on Monday and after getting over the jetlag ventured off to Mont Tremblant to all try their hand at skiing.

They all took lessons on Friday with Luke and Tom on Snowboards and Chris, Cindy and Max having a go at Ski's.

The Chateau where we all stayed was really good with a chairlift close by that took us over the mountain to the main ski area.

Skiing after a couple of days.

Chris and Barrie ventured to the top of the mountain, what a view with a restaurant on top.

This was the car the day we left, it had snowed for most of the weekend.

Byward Market

November

Horse rides and Beaver tails in the markets.

Montreal

24 November

This weekend we visited Montreal, we took the train on Friday, it is a 2 hour trip through farming country.

We stayed at the Hotel Bonaventure which is very close to the station, you can actually get to the hotel by the underground which we only found by mistake on Saturday.

The hotel has a rooftop swimming pool.

The weather was overcast on Friday so we  walked though Old Montreal.

Old Montreal is a major tourist attraction;with some of its buildings dating to the 17th century, it is one of the oldest urban areas in North America.

In the eastern part of the old city (near Place Jacques-Cartier) are found Montreal City Hall, Bonsecours Market and Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, as well as preserved colonial mansions such as the Château Ramezay and the Sir George-Étienne Cartier National Historic Site of Canada.

 Further west, Place d'Armes is dominated by Notre-Dame Basilica on its southern side, accompanied by the Saint-Sulpice Seminary (the oldest extant building in Montreal). The other sides of the square are devoted to commerce; to the north is the former Bank of Montreal Head Office and to the west, the Aldred Building and the 1888 New York Life Building, the oldest skyscraper in Canada. The rest of Saint Jacques Street is lined with old bank buildings (like the Old Royal Bank Building) from its heyday as Canada's financial centre. The southwest of the old city contains important archeological remains of Montreal's first settlement (around Place d'Youville and Place Royale) in the Pointe-à-Callière museum. Architecture and cobbled streets in Old Montreal have been maintained or restored to keep the look of the city in its earliest days as a settlement, and horse-drawn calèches help maintain that image. The old town's riverbank is taken up by the Old Port (Vieux-Port), whose maritime facilities are surrounded with recreational space and a variety of museums and attractions. The Iberville terminal on the Alexandra Pier serves as the cruise terminal for about 50,000 passengers annually from large cruise ships plying the St Lawrence Seaway.

We took a bus tour around the city as of was raining most of Saturday.