Carnaval - Bar du Glace

We have noticed that several bars in Montreal have outdoor ice bars. While we haven't visited one here, we did get to visit one at carnaval. We decided to sample a local drink - Carabou. Here's the recipe from the Carnaval website:

"Caribou, a feisty alcoholic beverage, became popular in the early Carnivals. The recipe comes from Ti-Père, a business that was first established on Ste-Thérèse Street in the lower city, then, more recently, in Old Québec. Suffice it to say a typical caribou contains brandy, vodka, sherry and port... Wow!"

At this particular ice bar, the Caribou was poured into a glass made of ice.

After finishing the Carabou, we stacked our empty ice glass with all of the other empty ice glasses on the ice bar.

Carnaval - Tire sur Neige

Maple syrup is processed in sugar shacks (cabane à sucre). From early-March through mid-April, you can visit sugar shacks to taste a variety of foods made from maple syrup. We plan to visit one soon. However, we got a sneak preview at Carnaval, where we had maple syrup on snow (tire sur neige).

First, a long wooden trough is filled with snow.

The maple syrup is boiled, reduced, and poured on the snow.

It cools to a taffy-like consistency and is rolled onto wooden sticks.

And, then you eat it.

Carneval de Quebec - Dog Sledding

I always wondered what dog sledding was like - for the dogs. Did they like it? Were they happy to be pulling a sled? While I cannot answer that question for every dog sled team, I would like to report that we saw very happy dogs at Carneval de Quebec.

There were two teams - the old pros and les juvéniles. (We named the teams ourselves based on 1) observation and 2) overhearing the dog sled guy refer to the silly team as les juvéniles. I love cognates.) And, they were teams in the sense of dog sled teams - not in the sense of a race. The races were the weekend before - the day we were there the dogs were just giving free rides.

The old pros are here - they were dying to get running, and kept on pulling on the harness just in case they could start.

Les juveniles, in contrast, nuzzled each other, ate snow, and stared off into space. We don't have a close-up of them, for which I have no explanation as they were exceptionally slow and silly. In any case, here they are meandering through the snow.

Carnaval de Québec - Canoe Race on Ice

The St. Lawerence River isn't completely frozen. So, why not race canoes on it? The Course en canot sur les glaces du Fleuve St-Laurent is held every year at Carnaval. The preliminaries were on Friday and the finals were on Sunday. We were there on Saturday and saw them practicing from a distance.


To give you a better idea, we stole a bunch of photos. The first two are from Carnaval's website and the thrid was from a fitness paddling website.

Carnaval de Québec - Ski Joring

"What," you ask, " is that skier doing behind those horses and why doesn't he have any ski poles?"


We watched an equestrian ski joring competition at Carnaval. It is a nutty sport, consisting of a team of three ... a horse, its rider, and a skier. The horse and its rider fly around a track, pulling a skier, who maneuvers in and out of cones, grabs rings off a poles, and jumps ramps.


Two of our friends recently told us that they and their dog are taking dog ski joring lessons. And, we have also learned that there is motorized ski joring, where several skiers are pulled by a snowmobile or some other piece of equipment.

You can put your safety concerns aside - for the time being, we are sticking with self powered ski sports.

Carnaval de Québec

We have suggested that you may want to visit in summer. We now think you should plan a visit some winter ... during Carnaval de Québec. It is the largest winter Carnival in the world. While the schedules for other carnivals conincide with Christian Lent (e.g., New Orlean's Mardi Gras and Rio de Janeiro's Carnival), the Quebec Carnival is scheduled on a solar calendar to coincide with the coldest days of the year (three weeks from the end of January through mid-February).

We went last weekend with the Irish Girls (the title that we will use to protect their identity). There were so many good things there, so this will be the first in a series of entries about our wonderful day at Carnaval de Québec.

First, let us introduce you to Bonhomme (the literal translation is "good man" but the actual translation is snowman). He is sort of the mascot of Carnival. One must by an effigy (for $10) to get into Carnival. It is worn somewhere visible - you will see it on our coats.

Our first stop was at the palais de glace (ice place). This year's was only somewhat impressive - we didn't even take a photo. This one was borrowed. However, you can see photos of all the ice palaces from 1955-2008 on the Carnival website.

Our second stop was the FREE Calgary Stampede Flapjack Breakfast. Here, one of the Irish Girls and S are in line for flapjacks and sausages. How many cowboy/cowgirl hats can you count?

There was a mechanical bull, but they loaded it up before S got to show the Calgary Stampede how to ride 8 seconds.

Next was the wild and wacky Normandin Soapbox Derby - which S may try to enter next year ... if she can find a sponsor (any takers?) and if we can get someone to translate the rules. We think the competition is based on a combination of creativity and speed ... but who knows. It is held on a street in Old Quebec, which just celebrated its 400th anniversary. For now, we'll leave you with photos of some of the course and our favorite soapboxes. But there is more to come in future blogs about the more wacky snow sports.

My Future Self

A few weeks back, my sister-in-law and I had conferneces in Orlando. We went a few days early and our Mom met us there. One of the highlights was Epcot's Spaceship Earth. First, there was an omnimover ride through time and space, and then we were provided with a glimpse of our future selves. Now you can see them too.

Me and my brother

(Originally I was in the female clothes and made dinner for my brother ... which really ticked me off. Now he is in female clothes and makes dinner for me ... much better. I suspect our omnimover was bugged and they heard the fit I threw when I saw my brother sitting at the table waiting for me to bring him dinner.)

My mom and nephew