Heritage of Quebec with New Brunswick's Acadian Trail
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Tour Code NFAC 10 Day New France - Heritage of Quebec with New Brunswick's Acadian Trail 10 days Created on: 26 Sep, 2021 Day 1: Arrive in Montréal, QC Arrive in Montréal and check in to your downtown hotel. This evening we have a welcome dinner with the rest of our fellow travellers and learn about the history of this city and its important place in Québec and within Canada. A stylish and elegant city with a distinctly European flair offering a vibrant mix of the old and new where you can immerse yourself in the French heritage of North America. If you arrive early this day, there will be time to stroll through narrow cobbled lanes with 17th century buildings, quaint shops, galleries and sidewalk cafés. Montréal is a city with a thousand different flavours, from award-winning restaurants to ethnic food stalls and locally grown products. We will enjoy the cuisine this city has to offer. Overnight: Montréal Included Meal(s): Dinner Day 2: Montréal - Québec City, QC Today we enjoy a classic city tour with an expert local guide. Experience an overview of Montréal and its historical sites, where you will discover all of the characteristics this city has to offer. See the highlights of one of the world's largest French-speaking cities in the world with stops at the city's best attractions, where you can explore and have time to take pictures. You will visit the Notre-Dame Basilica, St. Joseph's Oratory, residential and financial districts, Old Montréal, French Quarter, McGill University and take in some panoramic views from an observation point on top of Mount Royal, from which Montréal gets its name. We board the 6:30 pm VIA Rail train from Montréal, and following the St. Lawrence River, pass from city suburbs to the rural landscapes of forests and rich pastures, dotted with tiny villages that extend to Québec City, the oldest walled city in North America and the heart of the French Canadian culture in Canada. Overnight: Québec City Included Meal(s): Breakfast and Dinner Day 3: Québec City - Bathurst, NB Today we discover Québec City (the Upper and Lower Towns) through its history, architecture and culture. We explore the walled city and the historic Lower Town, but also travel outside the city walls to see Parliament Hill and the famous Plains of Abraham. Old Québec is a UNESCO designated World Heritage City. Many Québec historic sites such as the Québec fortifications, Chateau Frontenac, Québec Citadel, Plains of Abraham and Québec Ã?le d'Orléans make up important landmarks of Old Québec City and the nearby region. Many different influences have shaped Québec's history over the past 400 years - the First Nations, the French, the Acadians, the British, the Americans, the Germans and the Irish, to name a few. There is a lot to discover here by foot. We plan to walk through some pedestrian areas like the Dufferin Terrasse, around Chateau Frontenac, Place-Royale (birthplace of the city), and the Petit-Champlain borough.There will be some free time this evening before we board The Ocean train at 10:50 pm tonight and head east towards the maritime provinces of Canada. Overnight: On Board VIA Rail Included Meal(s): Breakfast and Dinner Day 4: Bathurst, NB Canada/USA 1-866-814-7378 Page 1/3 We arrive in Bathurst late morning and do a brief drive tour of the town before checking into our hotel. There will time this afternoon to explore this quiet Acadian town on your own or accompany your Tour Leader to the Daly Point Reserve just northeast of Bathurst harbour. The Nature Reserve boasts some 100 acres of pristine salt marsh and wooded plots as well as trails and is alive with wildlife and especially birdlife which attracts bird-watchers by the hundreds. The park is dotted with deciduous and coniferous trees and is designated as part of the Acadian Forest Region. Overnight: Bathurst Included Meal(s): Breakfast and Dinner Day 5: Bathurst, NB We drive east this morning to the Acadian Isles and the very tip of the Acadian peninsula. Our first stop will be the Village Historique Acadien. Originating from 17th century France, the Acadians were the first French settlers in North America. Le Grand Dérangement (the deportation) deprived them of their lands and scattered them throughout the world. The Acadian Village portrays the ingenuity and determination of the Acadians as they started a new life in a new continent.Recognized for the authenticity of the historic recreation, the Village Historique Acadien recalls the life of the region's Acadian ancestors from 1770 to 1949. More than 40 historic buildings with interpreters in period costumes, give an impression of going back in time in history. Each of the characters has a story to tell and a craft or custom or piece of history to share with you.We drive on to the tip of the Acadian Peninsula visiting Lamèque Island and remote Miscou Island where you will find wind-swept beaches, a unique lighthouse and peat bogs that turn fiery red every autumn. Overnight: Bathurst Included Meal(s): Breakfast and Dinner Day 6: Bathurst - Shediac, NB Jutting into the warm waters of the Gulf Stream current, this lively and historic region is filled with coastal charm and cultural significance. On our drive along the southern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence we will discover the heart of L'Acadie. We will make many stops along the way as we drive south from Bathurst to Shediac, the "Lobster Capital of the World", visiting the towns of Miramichi and Bouctouche enroute. Depending upon local availability, we will aim to join a late afternoon cruise of Shediac Harbour in the Ambassador, a converted lobster fishing boat. Overnight: Shediac Included Meal(s): Breakfast and Dinner Day 7: Shediac - Charlottetown, PEI Before we depart from Acadia and drive across the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island, we will stop in Cap-Pelé. The area is North America's largest exporter of smoked herring and we visit the Smokehouse Museum and later stop at by a working smokehouse where you will not only smell the smoked herring, but get to taste some. We will visit a fishermen's workshop to see how lobster traps are made, then the Aboiteau wharf lobster pound and see Sainte-Thérèse-d'Avila Church, built in the shape of a boat.We then cross the Confederation Bridge that connects the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. The curved, 12.9 kms (8 mile) long bridge is the longest in the world crossing a sometimes ice-covered stretch of water and it is one of Canada's top engineering achievements of the 20th century. After 60% of Prince Edward Islanders voted Yes to a bridge in 1988 and after four years of construction using more than five thousand local workers, the Confederation Bridge opened to traffic on May 31, 1997. Overnight: Charlottetown Canada/USA 1-866-814-7378 Page 2/3 Included Meal(s): Breakfast and Dinner Day 8: Charlottetown, PEI Charlottetown is the Birthplace of Confederation where in 1864 the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Québec met to form the new country of CanadaOn our full day tour of the island, we will see the rolling farmlands, stunning seascapes, tiny villages and bustling harbours along the Blue Heron Drive enroute to the North Shore. On arrival into Cavendish there will be time to visit Green Gables House - the old farm site inspired by LM Montgomery's first novel Anne of Green Gables. We will stop at Prince Edward Island Preserve Company located in one of Canada's prettiest villages and sample some of their locally made delicious jams and marmalades. Overnight: Charlottetown Included Meal(s): Breakfast and Dinner Day 9: Charlottetown - Moncton, NB We drive back to the mainland and to the National Historic Site of the Monument-Lefebvre. Located in the Memramcook valley of southeastern New Brunswick, the Monument-Lefebvre building is the symbol of the renaissance of contempory Acadie and home to "Reflections of a Journey - the Odyssey of the Acadian People" exhibit where visitors can immerse themselves in all things Acadian.Before ending our tour in Moncton, Atlantic Canada's Entertainment Capital and a city deemed the "Most Polite City in Canada" by Readers Digest, we will aim to visit the Bay of Fundy's iconic Hopewell Rocks. Overnight: Moncton Included Meal(s): Breakfast and Dinner Day 10: Depart Moncton, NB This morning after breakfast bid farewell to Québec and New Brunswick's Acadian Trail as your trip comes to an end. Overnight: Included Meal(s): Breakfast Canada/USA 1-866-814-7378 Page 3/3.