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Nous sommes de retour d’une semaine de vacances dans la région de Charlevoix, une semaine au cours de laquelle nous avons rechargé les batteries et pris un sérieux bol de plein air! Au cours des articles qui suivront, nous espérons vous transmettre la beauté de cette région du Québec, qui allie les paysages de montagne avec les vues sur le fleuve Saint-Laurent.
Mais pour aller dans Charlevoix à partir de Montréal, il faut passer par Québec et près de la capitale nationale se retrouve la Chute de Montmorency. Donc, en guise d’amuse-gueule, un petit article sur cette chute haute de 83 mètres, la plus haute du Québec, et qui dépasse de trente mètres les chutes du Niagara, quoiqu’elle est beaucoup plus étroite.
We are back from a one week holiday in the Charlevoix region, a week during which we recharged the batteries and breathed lots of fresh air! In the coming articles, we hope to convey the beauty of this region of Quebec, which combines mountain scenery with views of the St. Lawrence River.
But to go to Charlevoix from Montreal, you have to go through Quebec City and near the national capital you find Montmorency Fall. So, as an appetizer, a short article on the 83 metres high fall, the highest in Quebec, which exceeds Niagara Falls by thirty metres, although it is much narrower.
On peut observer la chute sous plusieurs angles en empruntant le sentier qui mène à la passerelle. / You can observe the fall from various angles by taking the trail which leads to the suspension footbridge.
Des escaliers (487 marches) permettent d’accéder au pont suspendu offrant un point de vue spectaculaire sur la chute ainsi que sur les environs. / Stairs (487 steps) allow access to the suspension bridge offering spectacular views of the fall as well as on the surrounding areas.
Pont de l’Île-d’Orléans: La passerelle offre de belles vues sur l’Île d’Orleans. / The footbridge offers nice views of the Orleans Island.
Et le Québec n’est pas exempt de la folie des cadenas mais il n’y en avait pas beaucoup donc possiblement qu’ils sont enlevés au fur et à mesure de leur apparition. / And we aren’t exempt from the love lock craziness though there weren’t many of them so maybe they are removed regularly.
[Auteur/Author: Suzanne & Pierre]
Les voyages de Suzanne & Pierre 
La Chute Montmorency fait partie de ma liste de choses à voir éventuellement! 🙂
Très bon amuse-gueule… 😉
Merci Virginie. Bien contente que cet amuse-gueule a su te plaire…J’espère que tu aimeras la suite…
S’il y a de la verdure et des paysages, c’est sûr !!!! 🙂
I enjoy reading your posts in French and English. Do all Québécois speak English? Is it compulsory for them to learn it?
Thanks Trish. To respond to your question, not all Quebecois speak English. Learning English in school is compulsory but it is only a few hours a week and it start fairly late in the learning process. Not very easy to master English from those courses. You will find more people speaking good English in Montreal than in the regions. Plus, most of the bilingual people in Quebec these days are those that don’t have French as a mother tongue. I believe that the rate of people with French as a mother tongue that can speak English fluently has decreased over the years.
Pierre & I lived in Toronto for 25 years which means we had to develop our English-speaking skills and it explains why this blog is bilingual as we have friends that don’t speak both languages.
Thanks Suzanne. This is something I didn’t know. I had always assumed that all Canadians spoke English. Thanks for this information.
Hi Trish: Canada is officially a bilingual country (French & English); the two founding nations of the country. However, the majority of the French-speaking Canadian live in the province of Quebec which is officially unilingual French. If you travel through the regions of Quebec, you will find a lot of people who don’t speak a word of English – even young people. There are a lot of historical background on the situation but the French were the first to colonized the Canadian Territory and they lost it to the English in 1763…
Sounds like a good place to go to practise my French. Thanks very much for filling me in.
It would be as long as you went outside of Montreal or go on the French side of the city (East part). In Montreal, you will find lots of people who are bilingual and in general these people have no patience with people trying to practice their French so will switch to English as soon as they detect your accent.
That happens when I go to France, so I try hard to stick with old people who never learnt English. Thanks for all the information you’ve given.
An awe-inspiring location! Makes me a bit ashamed to realize how little I know my own country… 😉 And appalled to see that not even remote places are exempt from those darned locks!
Thanks Mel. It is indeed awe-inspiring and you are right that one often forgets to visit its own country which is why this year we decided to stick closer to home for our vacation. As you will see in the upcoming posts, this region doesn’t have anything to envy to the most beautiful places on earth. Though you do have a reason for not knowing your own country as you have been away for a very long time…
As for the locks, yup they are everywhere though the Chute Montmorency isn’t really a remote place as it is beside a highway and close to the St-Lawrence River and only about 15km from Quebec City. It is very easy to access not like other falls where you have to hike long distances to see them…
Très belles ces chutes ,impressionnant les montées d’escalier ,je les ferais volontier ça doit être magnifique vue d’en haut 🙂 Impressionnant la monté d’escaliers que je ferais bien 🙂
Merci pour votre note. Effectivement, l’effort de la montée est récompensé par de belles vues.