We are going on a road trip..... yeah.... Nous alon a Montreal chez Quebec State! The French speaking State of Canada, in case you were wondering! Very exciting.... About a 6 hour drive...
Quebec is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level. Quebec is Canada's largest province by area.
Friday morning, early (quite to Sarah's dismay...) @ 8.30a.m. off we went with our little cases, driving on the road to Montreal! Huda was driving! Bettie and Chris, who are friends of theirs, have organized our little get-away....and we will catch up with them in Montreal.
The countryside is beautiful, very European flavour. Huda & Sarah got excited about the cows "we don't see cows in Ontario".
Australia watch out - they have 'BIG' things here too.....
We had lots of discussions about whether to stop or not at the many roadside places, which all look the same and have the same restaurants and facilities - its' like deja vue..... The only legit reasons for actually stopping were: gas (petrol), coffee, washroom (toilets)...
OK,yes you've spotted it, we are advertising for Tim Horton (a Canadian insitution, coffee & doughnuts...yes, very balanced diet...)
It was a very pleasant drive.
Once we reached Quebec State, all the signs were in French. The whole of Canada has to put signage in both, English and French; however in Quebec you find a lot of signage only in French.
The trafficlights were square (the red lights - apparently for colour blind people...).
Once we reached Montreal outskirts we drove next to a river, I got very excited.... "maybe we can stop, there is water to the right!!!"....maybe next time....
We checked into our hotel, the Fairfield Inn by Marriott, right at the airport. Very nice room and VERY friendly staff! Most important, they have coffee AND TEA!!! Hurray.... however, still everything plastic and wrapped in plastic, very disappointing....as the Canadians are in general very environmentally conscious.
We made it.....
View from our hotel window
We caught up with Bettie, Chris and André, our guide for the weekend - a good friend of Bettie & Chris'. He was driving a 'people mover', so all six of us could fit in the car!
First night we went to a very nice and authentic Chinese Restaurant, Chez Ping, the food was yummie and there were lots of 'greens' (vegetables), very healthy meal!
It has been a long, but enjoyable day.... we all crashed that night - bonne nuit!
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