The weekend in review - Québec Winter Carnaval 2008 (Saturday)

Saturday Feb 16th.

Saturday started with a quick breakfast of waffles and coffee. We then soon departed to the Musée de la Civilisation (conveniently located directly across the street from Jeff and Stef's! It was free admission so we HAD to go. There were two exhibits we went to see; Dragons: between Science and Fiction and Urbanopolis.

The Urbanopolis was a little too sci-fi / space agey for me, but I did, enjoy the Dragon exhibit, enough to take some illegal photos for you all to see. :-)

This was an impressive instellation... a chandilier...

This was in the main lobby... the boys (Didier, Stef and Jeff) are underneath...

A wonderful marble statue of St Michael and the Dragon...

After the Musée we made our way slowly up through the old city. Snow snow wherever you looked!...

This was a car in a parking lot... you can just make out the rear bumper and top of the tire...

And ice... cascading down the cliff face like a frozen river... I love this...

After brunch, we made our way back to the Carnaval, and passed Bonhomme's Palace again...

Then made our way to the plains to see the snow sculptures..

-----

At this point I have to unfortunately report that this year, over all, both the snow and ice sculptures were greatly lacking, both in creativity and number. Last year I must have taken almost 150 pics alone of the sculptures, this year not even 50. What snow sculptures there were were a bit to 'conceptual' for my liking - hence I've only shown you the two that I actually really liked - and the Ice Sculptures.... well generally you can't spit in the old City without hitting one... they're in front of every bar and resto and store... this year I don't think I saw 30. Disappointing to say the least...

-----

And now back to Carnaval fun...

Here's a pic of a bunch of of retards out for the annual "Bain de Neige". Yup, 'mature' grown adults stripped down to their skivvies playing in the snow... it was MINUS 18 plus windchill at this point in the day... and each team had to stay outside for a minimum 15 minutes at a time in their competition... to win what we don't know... my guess was double pneumonia.

Please notice now how Civilized people dress on a day such as this...

...please notice the sheer lack of exposed flesh... It's not that we're prudes, we'd simply rather live past the weekend...

While on the Plains of Abraham we were passed by a few of the local Public Transit vehicles... seems that little has changed in 400 years on this front...

From about 3pm to 5 pm Didier and I explored the city some more, window shopping, sight seeing, and on occasion sampling hot cocoa and delicious pastries. We returned to the boy's place around 5:50pm had a wonderful Raclette dinner and then made our way back out into the frost and snow to see the Grand Parade... It was short and sweet, maybe 30-35 minutes. Just the right amount of time to entertain, amaze you with their visual splendour, without causing any un-due hypothermia.. And here was my money shot of the parade... Bonhomme Carnaval...

As soon as the parade was over, we scurried our butts back to the condo for, yup, you guessed it hot cocoa and bailies... and then off to bed... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The weekend in review - Québec Winter Carnaval 2008 (Friday)

Friday Feb 15th.

We took our time to get there, after all Thursday night was LOST and Valentines Day. ;-) We left Montréal at noon and arrived in Québec City around 3:00 pm

We checked our luggage at the bus terminal and took a walk toward le petit Champlain and the lower part of the old city. We took our first tourista photos in front of the Marché du Vieux-Port. They always have a horse and buggy, but this year only a horse... nonetheless it was well done as always... (It's one of the things we love most about the Carnaval; all the ice and snow sculptures.)

Didier 'twixt the horse's legs...

Shawn twixt the horses legs...

In front of one of the multitude of small restos in the old part of the city...

Yet in front of another petit resto...

And talk about your Postcard, Perfect Photos... this was just near Place Royal...

Le petit Champlain...

And the Château Frontenac. (I just can't get tired of taking pics of this place...)

There's no shortage of Snow in Qhkeep up with it, and to alleviate it's great weight on buildings it's not uncommon to see people shovelling the snow from the roof. Here there are three people at work removing the snow from the Main Tourist Information building in the old city...

And now back to Place Royal. This one was a total cutie, of course me and the man are a sucker for anything with a bear motif...

...and so could not escape the opportunity for a few more pics...

We walked around and around, up and down the Old City. Just taking it easy, enjoying the beauty of the architecture, the snow and the people. At 5 PM we headed on over to our friends Jeff and Stef's condo. We took a few minutes to warm up, catch up and then we were off to Pick up our luggage at the bus station then returning to their condo for a little apero before heading out for the evening...


It's extremely difficult for me to visit Québec City without going to le Cochon Dingue... I have on occasion NOT gone there while in the city, but I can assure you ALWAYS against my will. This trip was to be a success however, as the boys made reservations at 6:30 pm. (can't be too safe when it's carnaval... places in the old city fill up before you know it!. Within 45 mins of our arriving the place was full and people were lined up to get it)


Group Shot (l-r): Jeff (Jean-Francois), Me, Didier, and Stef...

A delicious meal was had by all, and oh too soon we were back out in the cold of the night, walking around, taking in more views. Honestly I could so live there in the winter... even when it's not Christmas, there are trees and buildings lit up so wonderfully, as this pic will testify... Restaurant aux Anciens Canadiens.

Within time we reached the epicentre of Carnaval Life and the Ice Palace of Bonhomme Carnaval. This year modelled after the palace of Henri II...

Inside the Palace were many sculptures, (but the camera was acting funny in the -25' weather - go figure, so I didn't got many)...

Here's a quick vid of how trippy it looked inside the Palace with all the lighting at night...



Les Francais... Samuel de Champlain et Didier Buisine...

And La Crémière... closed down for the winter due to avalanche! heh This was on the Grande Allée... and we thought the image of an Ice Cream shop practically obliterated from view by an astounding amount of snow was too good to pass up! ...

We walked around the Upper city for about an hour, popping in to this ice bar and that, and of course having some hot Caribou... YUM! and by the time we got back to the boy's condo we were sufficiently chilled to the bone...

Proof of the truly bone chilling weather of the evening I present you this pic... Please ignore the 'glazed look' as I had not yet thawed out... Please DO notice the ICE in my beard! (that was covered by a scarf nonetheless while outside) ...

After re-heating with a hot cocoa and Bailys we called it a night... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz