Laurentides, Montreal

Laurentides seem to be the favorite destination for winter sports.

We were there in summer, rainning, and couldn't get much more than the look of the natural beauty of the sights, and… mosquitoes. But that is a story to tell in my St. Sauveur page.

2 more images

Mont Tremblant is located at about 1.30 hrs from Montreal by car. It's supposed to be a major winter resort in Canada, but during the summer you'll also find a lot to do. It's a very beautiful place that reminds you of Swiss villages but built in a more modern style. Charming.

Yes it is possible to see wilderness in your trip to Montreal, and I learnt the lesson, it is really possible to walk on the water, and with that weird shoes it was a little bit easy to walk around, but beware of the thin level of ice, in some canadian lakes people die and they do not know why...

January 25th, 2005

No it was not...we were enjoying some days in the Laurentides where the winter treats you badly with no mercy! Here you can find my brother Pierre showing me that it is possible to walk on the water, when it is frozen of course!!!

January 25th, 2005

Nothing too fancy, the Village du Père Noël is theme park on the Christmas theme located about 50-60 minutes North of Montreal in Val-David.
Lots of fun for both children and parents.
Animals, activities, no mechanical rides, of course Santa Claus.

Opens at 10am to 6 pm during summer only.

Tremblant recently upgraded their lift system, have over 70 trails to choose from including a glade zone called the Edge(skiing between trees), a snow park (Gen-X essential), and a 5-star ski village.

From Montreal and International Airports:
Autoroute 15 North to Sainte-Agathe. After Sainte-Agathe, the 15 North merges with 117. Continue on the 117 North past Saint-Jovite. 2 km after Saint-Jovite, at the light, turn right on Montee Ryan (2nd Ultramar gas station on the left). Follow indications for Tremblant (about 10 km). 1 1/2 hour.

Warren Miller on the early days: "By today's standards, our cars were small, our skis were long, and it took six of us to pool enough money to buy a tankful of 25-cents-a-gallon gasoline and still have the dollar and a half left to buy an all-day ropetow ticket."*

Montreal is surrounded by beautiful countryside. We took a lovely drive by taking Autoroute 15 North to 640 East, this will take you into the Deux-Montagnes region where the apples are famous. There are apple stands and produce markets everywhere. We then took the very small car ferry from Oka, across the Hudson to Como which is in Ontario. The car ferry was very interesting, this teeny boat pulled a flat barge which had at least 8 cars on it. We didn't think we'd make it but we sure did. Oka is a cute little town worth a look around. From Como, we drove west along 342 to Hawkesbury (nondescript town) and crossed back over to Quebec. From here we took some local roads, passing some adorable little villages and churches until we reached 158 which we took east back to Autoroute 15. It was a lot of driving but worth it since we saw many different aspects of the region.