Cavaliers at Carnival!
by Jenny McGrady, MS French and Spanish Teacher

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It was a great big birthday party, and ten Middle School students recently traveled to Quebec City to enjoy five days at the city’s annual Winter Carnival, where they had the opportunity to practice their conversational French, learn some history about our neighbor to the north, and commemorate the 400th anniversary of Quebec.

Chaperoned by Jenny McGrady, MS French and Spanish Teacher, and Christine Cunningham, 7th grade history teacher, our students bundled up and braved the cold to experience events like the Winter Palace of Bonhomme, a castle built entirely of ice for the official Carnival Snowman Mascot. Imagine an outdoor DJ, colored lights reflecting off the ice palace, and dancing around in your snow suit--that is one fun way to keep warm!

Our CCES explorers also attended the Carnival activities on the historic Plains of Abraham where the British defeated the French and changed the face of our continent. There we were able to enjoy tube sledding, rodeo-style competitions of horse-drawn sleigh riders, international ice sculpture competitions and more!

Of course, we attended museums and historical tours as well, like the Musée du Fort, Musée de L’Expérience Française, the Basilique Cathedrale, and a period tour of the Chateau Frontenac, all in Vieux Québec, the old city. Vieux Quebec is on UNESCO’s list of historic places worldwide because it still has all of its old walls, gates and ramparts intact.

Outside of the city, our driver, Monsieur Fréderic, led us to the international pilgrimage site of St. Anne de Beaupré, where we toured the world-famous basilica and marveled at the artwork. We stopped on our way back to the city at Les Chutes de Mont, the famous waterfalls that are even taller than Niagara Falls. The braver ones among us bundled up in our snow gear and walked over a suspension bridge to see the ice and water of the falls from above, but some of us preferred the safer view from the terra firma alongside the cliffs.

On Friday evening, we dined at a traditional Sugar Shack where farmers tap mMaple trees and boil the sap to make the syrup for which Canada is so famous. Inside the large log cabin, we ate family style and enjoyed ham, sausage and meat pies with homemade soup and potatoes. Each table had a large bottle of freshly made pure maple syrup to pour all over the meats, and, of course, we had pancakes too! A local Quebecois musician played guitar, harmonica and spoons as we danced to traditional folk songs. Along with the square dance-style music, fun dances like the limbo, the hokey pokey, and the electric slide kept our students moving. Although far outnumbered by a school from Alberta, our Cavaliers played spoons and danced with the best of them taking only an occasional rest by the giant stone fireplace to catch their breath.

We finished the evening outside with a traditional “maple snow taffy.” Each student drizzles boiling pure maple syrup in fresh clean snow, which gives the syrup a taffy-like consistency. The warm chewy taffy is a pure maple delight, and our kids soon became expert in rolling it up on a popsicle stick and popping it in their mouths.

The Carnival Parade flowed through town on Saturday evening, our coldest day in Quebec with sub-zero temperatures. Carnival trumpets blasted everywhere in the streets, as the crowds cheered and enjoyed the incredible floats, decorations, music and acrobats. On Sunday, the students split into teams and ran all over the old town on a historical fact- finding scavenger hunt. Everyone won a commemorative 400th sticker, and the winners took home prints of the old city purchased from street artists, As wonderful as it all was, there is no place like home, and we were all happy to return safely to warm, wonderful Greenville and its 60 degree weather!

This was a first trip for the Middle School French students. Next year’s trip has been set for June 2009 to Barcelona, Provence and Paris. Contact mcgradyj@cces.org for more information.