in spring, summer fall or winter. There is something for every season. Experience the bilingual and multi-cultural flavors of the city above and underground!

Depart school on a deluxe, climate-controlled and restroom-equipped motorcoach (your exact departure
time may vary).

Arrive in Montréal, the second largest French speaking city in the world, in the late afternoon or early evening, and meet your Quebec Trips guide at the Hôtel Universel Montreal across the street from the Parc Olympique.

You’ll have about a half hour to check in and freshen up, then transfer to Old Montréal, above right.

Arrive at the 200-year-old Nelson Column, from which your guide will lead you on a short walking orientation tour of Place Jacques Cartier. Bounded on the north by Montréal’s distinctive City Hall and on the south by the Port of Montréal, and intersected by rue Saint-Paul, the oldest street in Canada, Place Jacques Cartier is a gathering place for Montréalers and visitors who congregate there in the spring, summer and fall.

The walking tour will end with dinner an historic building in the heart of Old Montreal.

Arrive at the centuries-old Restaurant du Vieux Port where you’ll have dinner amidst its ancient stone walls and hand-hewn wooden beams.

After dinner, return to the hotel by Metro.

Overnight security services begin upon arrival at the hotel at about 9:30pm.

Meet your guide in the lobby, then depart for an 8:15am breakfast at Eggspectation, a trendy new bistro-style café in Old Montréal that has become quite popular as much for its imaginative breakfast menu as for its eclectic architecture and décor.

After breakfast, you’ll walk to Notre Dame Basilica, the Jewel of Montréal, for a tour of one of the most beautiful churches in North America.

After your tour of Notre Dame, you’ll transfer to an accredited downtown French language school where you will participate in a 90-minute comparative French cultures class.

The class will be conducted by a university-degreed professional language teacher) and will familiarize you with the cultures of various French-speaking communities of the world including Quebec and France, of course, as well as Belgium, Switzerland, Louisiana, Haiti, Algeria, Tunisia, and others.

You will learn about their histories, music, literature and their cuisines, and through listening, speaking, reading and writing activities, you will leave the classroom with a greater understanding of the linguistic similarities and differences that exist between the French languages of these communities. A 90-minute “survival Québecois French” class is also available.

Board your bus and transfer to Place Montréal Trust, “le coeur de Montréal”, where you will descend into the vast Underground City.

There, upon arrival, you will be free for lunch on your own at one of the many European-style fast-food restaurants in the food court, then spend the early afternoon practicing your French in “la ville souterraine,” a 39-kilometer network of underground shops and passageways.

Meet the bus on McGill College Street and depart on a city sightseeing tour that will include many points of cultural and historic interest.

Your tour will end in the Village of Lachine, the site of the Lachine Rapids that halted Jacques Cartier’s 1541 exploration up the Saint Lawrence River, forcing his landing on the island that would become Montréal.

Arrive at Parks Canada’s Fur Trade Interpretation Centre, a 200-year-old stone warehouse built for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

While you’re there, you’ll enjoy an entertaining and highly educational presentation about the vital role that the voyageurs (who left this very warehouse in

their birch-bark canoes) played in the history of Canada.

Depart for la Sucrerie de la Montagne, and a memorable evening of French-Canadian folklore.

There, upon arrival, you will be driven to the sugar shack, a 100-year old restored barn large enough to welcome 600 guests, in a hay wagon pulled by two 2000-pound Belgian horses.

After an all-you-can-eat dinner of Québécois fare, you’ll learn some traditional dances and folk songs, and your evening will end with a sugar-on-snow party, with real maple syrup and real snow (stored in the winter and served every day of the year).

You will board your bus at about 9:00pm and return to the hotel.

Overnight security services begin at 10:00pm.

Day 3 A Bientôt Montréal

Breakfast at the hotel

Depart for downtown

Visit the Bell Center, home of the Montreal Canadiens. Here decades of hockey history has been made.

Lunch

Visit the Museum of Science or the Musée Pointe à Callière in Old Montreal

Depart for your school