Hi!<BR>My husband and I will be traveling from Quebec to Montreal at the 2nd week of march.<BR>Is there any city that you recommend for a stop? Any charming 'French village'? Any typical restaurant/cafe/creperie?<BR>Thanks,<BR>Patricia

Pat<BR>It is only about 2 hours from Montreal to Quebec. As far as I can remember from our trip, once you are out of Quebec, you are on a big highway and nothing looks appealing (charming French Village-wise) until you see Montreal across the water. Going INTO Quebec, we found the homes on the streets charming with their shutters and lace curtains. <BR>

Sure, but you have to take the north shore (Rte 40) as opposed to the Autoroute (Rte 20) on the south shore of the St Lawrence River. Stop in Trois Rivieres (Three Rivers--sorry I don't mean to patronize) and look around. Not particularly charming (especially in the Winter), not a city, but an interesting town not much visited by the summer herds migrating from Montreal to Quebec City and vice-versa. In my view, a &quot;hidden delight&quot;. Ask when you get there about restaurants, etc. Everybody's bilingual.<BR><BR>Now, in the second week in March, nothing in Quebec is terribly attractive, but on the South Shore, there's nothing at any time. Giv T.R. a shot.<BR><BR>DES<BR><BR>

davidess-<BR>What about the town called Hudson? Would that be worth the trip? We have wanted to visit a few times and never end up getting out of Montreal.

Scarlett--God, no!! It's actually on the way to Ottawa(not Quebec City) and has nothing to offer unless you are an insanely devoted local history buff. And that only in the summer. Avoid, avoid. . .<BR><BR>DES

<BR>Lol~ OK OK!! I won't go there!!<BR> I had read that it was very English and there were lots of antique stores. But I will listen to you

There are a few nice villages on the North Shore, between Trois-Rivi&egrave;res &amp; Qu&eacute;bec City. Follow Route 138. Deschambault is particularly nice.

ttt

Davidess, I have to take offense to your remark re: calling Trois Rivieres by it's French name is patronizing. Would you call Los Angeles, 'The Angels', San Diego 'St. James' or Montreal 'Mount Royal'. In the bad old days of English dominance of Quebec and Canada it was considered proper to anglicize French place names even in schoolbooks and this understandably enraged the French. Just as I don't want anyone calling my province Colombie Brittanique, I feel strongly that Trois Rivieres and Sept Isles have no other names than that which the residents apply to it.<BR><BR>Sorry for the delay - I was having trouble accessing the new system.

Well, GaryA, you're right and I apologize. On looking at the post, can't quite figure just what I had in mind at the time. Maybe I thought I was talking to an allophone. Put it down to too much claret (or should that be Bordeaux?). Sorry again.<BR><BR>Incidentally, Russell Smith's column in the Globe and Mail to-day on the use of &quot;it's&quot; as a contraction vs &quot;its&quot; as a possessive is a good one, and I recommend it. Now, how's that for sliding from patronizing to paternalistic?<BR><BR>DES

Heard Berthierville was a cute little town. Anyone know?

Believe it or not, there is an association of &quot;charming French villages&quot; in Qu&eacute;bec It is called the Association des plus beaux villages du Qu&eacute;bec and despite their lack of modesty, they are very charming! Here is their Web site : http://www.beauxvillages.qc.ca. You can locate the ones that are between Montreal and Quebec from a map (click on Villages, on the left-hand side).

Thanks! All valuable information..<BR>And the site www.beauxvillages.qc.ca is very helpful..

Going to Quebec from Montreal we took the Autoroute for speed. Coming back we used the other highway on the opposite side of the river and found several small towns that we stopped in and browsed around. Several nice antique shops, good places to eat, and it was a nice casual way to make our way back to Montreal. I do not recall any names right off hand. We did find that many of the shop keepers were not conversant (or at least did not seem to be) in English, so our small knowledge of French was quite useful. If you have time the slower route back to Montreal is quite pleasant.