Our last full day in Canada. Today we headed to Mont Tremblant - a ski resort, which is supposed to be pretty and quite active for trails etc during the summer. We got up early today as we figured with only one night there, we would want to do something today and the earlier we get there the better. So we were up at 7am, had breakfast (bagel, cream cheese and boiled egg for me, the boys had cereal and muffins). By 8am we were on our way, we decided to take the back route through agricultural land and then trees and lakes. It was interesting watching the scenery pass by, some huge property, not many animals although plenty of fromageries? One thing Canada isn't short on is space and wood to build property so property is that much bigger than at home and maybe there were plenty of cows - we just couldn't see them from the road. We did see a Road Runner from the road though (alive) so that was a bonus.
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My Beaver's Tail |
We got to Mont Tremblant around 11.30, perfect (any only one route barrée). Our hotel room was ready so we went to dump our bags - as predicted this hotel is the nicest of the lot - shame we are only staying one night! We have a proper kitchenette and a huge amount of room. We went in search of lunch and came across a Queue de Castor (Beaver's tails) a fast food restaurant where they deep fry donut batter into beaver tail shape and then add toppings. M & T went for hot dog, but I went sweet which is more traditional - apple and caramel sauce - it was delicious but probably about 1000 calories!
We then walked up the main shopping street - they have a pedestrian village here which is great - especially as it is right outside our hotel. We headed for the gondola which goes up the mountain (Mt Tremblant). We wanted to get a one way ticket up and then walk one of the trails down, no can do you have to walk up the mountain and then you can get a one way ticket down! Oh hum, we looked at the trails on offer - we decided on the one that took you straight up the mountain via a ski route - called "Le Grand Prix de Couleurs" it was steep, really really steep, and it was hot, really hot...we all dug in and we did it - they suggested it would take 60 to 90 minutes - I did it in 92 minutes and was very proud of myself. It was 2 miles long and took us up 611 meters. I'm guessing my knee is pretty much recovered now as it didn't get sore - very pleased we did that hike up the fjord the other day as that probably prepared us quite well.
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View from the top of the mountain |
when we got to the top the view wasn't the best as it was quite hazy, however, we all felt a great sense of achievement. We walked to the observation post right at the top just to say we had gone right to the top and then got the gondola back down.
We bought some tickets from a lady who we had a great conversation with regarding accents and understanding French French vs Canadian French. For example when we bought the tickets from her - I said 'merci beaucoup' and she said what sounded like 'durron' I looked blank and she said it is what you say if some says thank you it was 'de rien' but pronounced very differently. She said that yes the Canadian accent is very different to the French accent and also they use lots of different words. She said that the French get confused when they come across and often don't understand what is being said either. The other day for example we didn't understand when the waitress asked us if we wanted to order drinks and if we wanted the bill - simple things that we can understand and do in France but have trouble with here. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to bring Tom here after all - none of us have been able to progress our French really because we really can't catch what is being said to us and also as soon as we open our mouths people revert to English. However, being surrounded by French for two weeks should hopefully have helped. Tom should know all the baseball terms in French now eg "Grand chelem" is grand slam, 'prise' is strike, 'balle' ball, 'retirée' is out etc - not sure if that will help at all?!
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The FREE stand up chair lift |
Anyway we got the Gondola down, and were amazed at how long it took, we really did choose ourselves a hard activity for the day! Once down we saw a stand up chair lift which we noticed before. We noticed no ticket barriers and wondered if it was maybe free - it was, so we got it down to our hotel - what a bonus! We all had showers and flopped for a couple of hours.