Years ago I made several  business trips to  Bremin and Bremerhauven (Germany) during Decemeber.  No one loves Christmas more than the Germans.  The markets and festivals leading up to the holidays were bright and fun filled despite the cold damp weather. But, I rationed, why not go to Bavaria via Switzerland (and see my good friend Willy) where the weather most likely would include snow, Very exciting until I couldn’t get reservations with mileage points.  Where else I rationed, where there German like Christmas markets available closer to home and after an exhaustive Google search happened on a German Christmas market in Quebec, Canada.

I’ve always heard that Quebec is a wonderful, old European like city much closer to home.  So fly to Montreal and take VIA rail to Quebec and a good change to snow to boot.  Sounds crazy, but why go, you ask, during the wet cold of winter.  Well, actually, travel during off season is preferable as I learned several year ago going to Dublin during February.  No one in their right mind goes touring during the winter, but, there are no crowds, reservations are easier to get and everything is cheaper in the off season.  And if its cold, bundle up.  So off we went, checking into an old hotel in the center of the old city right across the street from the German Market.

An interspersed with the old were modern arts.

One disadvantage of winter travel, particularly the further north one goes, is that it gets darker much soonerthan lower latitudes.  Not to worry, though, because lighting was subtle and inviting.

We’d hopped for snow and while there wasn’t much we were not completely disappointed.

And don’t forget Christmas . . .

Quebec was fun, lots of eye candy, great restaurants one of which was so good we had to go multiple times.  But all good things must come to an end, so after 4 days it was time to backtrack head home.  We left mid-afternoon by train for Montreal arriving after sunset to our old boutique inn overlooking the St. Lawrence River.  Like Quebec, evenings were just as inviting as daytime.

Montreal is a big city but we were able to immerse ourselves in the old section of the city.  We weren’t in Montreal very long but enough to visit the Notre-Dame Basilica.

We found a bakery and picked up treats for breakfast.  The quiche was the best I have ever every had in my life.  My only regrets were that we didn’t buy an extra quiche to take home with us and the other was that I forgot the name of the bakery.  Back home I tried to find the bakery on Google and Google Maps to no avail.  However, when selecting photo’s for this chapter, there was a shot of the pastry from the bakery and if one closely, there is the name of the bakery one each piece and voila there it was: the Maison Christian Faure  and would you believe they ship!