Jul. 3rd, 2004 04:35 am
I'm a travelin' man...
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textualdevianceSo, it seems my dilemma about what to do to get outta Dodge this year has been somewhat solved: It's been more or less decided we're doing a driving tour of New England this fall.
I've gotten some good advice from some, anyone else familiar with the area and can give some pointers? Places we should be sure to hit? Things to avoid? At the moment, the plan is to do a big loop starting in Boston, and going up to Halifax, then up to Quebec, down the river to Montreal and then back through Vermont to Boston again.
We're not into B&Bs or anything terribly twee, although some of those Newhart-styled Inns might be nice. Mostly we just don't want to be smothered by overly-nosy lodging staff.
I realize the area will probably be rather full, as this is busy season there, which is why I'm planning now. Advice about the Canadian part of the trek would be especially welcome. 14 years out of school and my French is well out of practice. Am I going to get beaten for being a stupid American if I fumble with it in some of the smaller Quebec towns? I don't plan on straying far from the river or border (Riviere du Loup would be the furthest out), so hopefully that will help. (I'm quite familiar with Vancouver and Victoria, and have done Toronto, so I'm not a Canada virgin, just that part of the country.) Is a side trip to PEI worth it? What are drive times on the lesser highways like? Do you usually keep up to speed or are they small enough to add a lot of time?
What about scenery? Any unusual features? Waterfalls are a big fetish of mine, so those would be good. We also like oddball things, so long as they're not too far off the main route. Any long stretches of boring nothing to avoid?
I've gotten some good advice from some, anyone else familiar with the area and can give some pointers? Places we should be sure to hit? Things to avoid? At the moment, the plan is to do a big loop starting in Boston, and going up to Halifax, then up to Quebec, down the river to Montreal and then back through Vermont to Boston again.
We're not into B&Bs or anything terribly twee, although some of those Newhart-styled Inns might be nice. Mostly we just don't want to be smothered by overly-nosy lodging staff.
I realize the area will probably be rather full, as this is busy season there, which is why I'm planning now. Advice about the Canadian part of the trek would be especially welcome. 14 years out of school and my French is well out of practice. Am I going to get beaten for being a stupid American if I fumble with it in some of the smaller Quebec towns? I don't plan on straying far from the river or border (Riviere du Loup would be the furthest out), so hopefully that will help. (I'm quite familiar with Vancouver and Victoria, and have done Toronto, so I'm not a Canada virgin, just that part of the country.) Is a side trip to PEI worth it? What are drive times on the lesser highways like? Do you usually keep up to speed or are they small enough to add a lot of time?
What about scenery? Any unusual features? Waterfalls are a big fetish of mine, so those would be good. We also like oddball things, so long as they're not too far off the main route. Any long stretches of boring nothing to avoid?
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Oher than that I have no recommendations, only intense jealousy.
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I don't know if you've ever been to that part of the country before, but you should also keep in mind that *everything* is really close together there... and when you're looking at most driving atlases, the scale is completely different from what you might be used to with Western states.
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(and for pure kitsch value...swing by 'Mamakins'..Aerosmith's Club...I saw..um...some band there once..a long time ago..heh.)
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Harvard Square is required if you visit Boston...even though it's technically in Cambridge...
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Quebec
First, timing - by "fall" do you mean September or November? 'Cause Sept can be still hot (starting to cool off at night though) and November can be snow (as in blizzards even); you need to be aware of dates 'cause weather IS a factor here.
Second, most important probably - in Montreal, don't worry about lack of French; this truly is a bilingual city and only in the extreme eastern part of the city might you run into "kill-all-anglophone" kinds of francophones. (So, well, just be aware of where you are is all.) Being from California, any foreign language I recognize is likely to be Spanish or Chinese; I took a couple of French courses after moving to Montreal but am still shy about speaking it, mostly because although I can now say what I want to say, simplistically, in French, I can't actually understand the reply because the Quebecoise accent is nothing like French-from-France (which, oddly enough, is how the courses at Berlitz are taught even in Montreal). That said, if as an American you say "oui," "si'l vous plait," "merci" and, oh, "tres bien" once in a while, most tourist-spot Montrealers will be pleased that you have tried. In the outlaying regions, well, you're on your own - bring a French/English dictionary, show it obviously when trying to ask for directions, etc., and hope for the best. You won't be viewed as stupid, believe me; this region gets so many ignorant Americans that one who even recognizes that a different language is spoken here is usually given a benign reception....
For housing, there's a good "apartment-hotel" in downtown Montreal, called "L'Appartement," not surprisingly, that was reasonably inexpensive when I last looked (but, that was when some of my in-laws visited 7 years ago, prices may have risen a lot since then because we have since moved to a place with more room and could put in-laws up instead of having them in a hotel). The advantage being it's an apartment full-on, with its own kitchen, door, etc. And it's in a great location - Sherbrooke St. a block from Parc/Bleury (depending on which direction you go). Early September still has the World Film Fest going (until a week past Labor Day), I think October has the Festival of New Cinema (actually better now than the WFF, which is snooty and insular these days, sigh)
Waterfalls - your best bet is Quebec City, Montmorency Falls just outside the city and visited by riverboat regularly - higher than Niagara Falls, without any accompanying build-up of tourist-mecca-junk, it's pretty breathtaking. My husband Chris and I are going to take the riverboat cruise from Montreal to Quebec City in, um, 3 1/2 weeks I think it is, coming back the next day, and if you're interested I'll be happy to give you a "report" on that trip. But I don't think that trip runs much past mid-September, fyi.
Side trip to PEI - I visited there in 1994, when a Vancouver friend was working toward her PhD and teaching for a year at the university in Charlottetown; her year there coincided with a time in my life in San Francisco when I really needed to get away for a bit (my best friend and I had "broken up," two other close friends had moved far away to Germany and Hawaii respectively, I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome and since I work as an adminstrative assistant I thought I was facing a loss of employment forever, and my younger brother was diagnosed with AIDS - not HIV+ it was too late for that, though he lived another 10 years). I REALLY needed someplace not where I was, took a 6-week sabbatical and spent a week of it with Fiona and her husband Tom in a country cottage on PEI. All I can really say about it is - if you find you need to be in a calm place during your trip, go there; or if you truly love Anne of Green Gables, there's a sight or two for you to see. Otherwise, well, it might be interesting to drive over the new bridge taking you there (10 years ago it was a ferry), but....
Hope this helps somewhat!
Re: Quebec
Ali-in-confusion