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Québec

Christmas at the Chateau Frontenac in Québec

Program No. 19228RJ

Come celebrate Christmas amid the tradition of Québec City and iconic Château Frontenac, where you’ll enjoy a seasonal concert and the city’s festive atmosphere.

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5 days

4 nights

9 meals

4B 2L 3D

Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner

Quebec City, QC

Old Québec, City History, Spirit of Christmas

Quebec City, QC

Museum of Fine Arts, Free Time

Quebec City, QC

Ferry Ride, Rue du Petit-Champlain

Quebec City, QC

Program Concludes

Quebec City, QC

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At a Glance

Christmas approaches in Québec City, a 400-year-old gem of Old World ambiance right here in North America! Enjoy four nights of yuletide learning as you wander narrow cobblestone streets, taking in the fairytale holiday atmosphere throughout the city’s festively decorated windows, lit warmly against the winter air. The city's most beloved landmark, the Chateau Frontenac, is your home as you discover traditional tastes of the season like "tourtière" meat pie and local delicacies made from maple, a fundamental Québec ingredient.

Activity Level

Keep the Pace

Walking up to two miles daily over uneven terrain, sometimes snow covered. Standing, stairs and cobblestones.

Best of all, you’ll…

Experience Québécois Christmas music during a private concert and in the streets with locals caroling door to door.
Indulge in perhaps the grandest Christmas tradition in Québec City, the annual dinner at the Chateau Frontenac.
Enjoy a visit to Québec’s Museum of Fine Arts, located on the city’s famous Plains of Abraham.

General Notes

Program includes independent time to explore the city and several meals on your own. Group Leaders will provide directions for self-directed excursions. Suggestions for free-time activities provided in preparatory materials.

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Andrée Girard

Andrée Girard has been an active figure on the arts scene in Québec and in Canada for over 25 years. She worked as a broadcaster for CBC radio and television before becoming programming director for CBC French radio’s Chaîne culturelle for several years. She was also a founding member and director of the Conseil québécois de la musique. Over the course of her career, she has been associated with the creation of the Opus Prize, as well as the development of the Canadian Conference of the Arts.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Andrée Girard View biography

Sylvie Nadeau View biography

Born and raised in Montreal, Sylvie Nadeau loves Quebec's largest city, the province's vibrant, creative multicultural hub, which she has been exploring her whole life on foot, by subway and on her bike. A professional in the travel industry for over 30 years and a recipient of several awards honoring the quality of her work, Sylvie hosts and coordinates the activities of Road Scholar groups with competence and enthusiasm. Her funny French accent and infectious joie de vivre give all her programs and tours a very personal color. A sports enthusiast, Sylvie is offering a new series for active travelers in addition to the many programs she already coordinates, all highlighting the many colors of Quebec as presented by passionate Quebecers dedicated to sharing the richness of their unique Canadian Province.

Marie Legroulx View biography

Marie Legroulx, a native of Québec City, has a bachelor's in history and a master's in Québec literature. She taught French and Québec literature at local universities for over 20 years. In 2008, she returned to college to become a professional in the tourism industry, and has since been leading historical, architectural and literary explorations. Québec history and language are topics close to her heart since she is a twelfth-generation Québécoise whose ancestors settled on the St. Lawrence River in the mid-seventeenth century.

Suggested Reading List (7 books)

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You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.

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Christmas at the Chateau Frontenac in Québec

Program Number: 19228

A People's History of Quebec

by Jacques Lacoursiere

A People's History of Quebec is a lively guide to a little-known part of North American history. It tells of the settlement of the St. Lawrence Valley, but also of the Montreal and Quebec-based explorers and traders who travelled, mapped, and inhabited most of North America, and embrothered the peoples they met.

Champlain's Dream

by David Hackett Fischer

In this enthralling biography, acclaimed historian David Hackett Fischer brings to life the remarkable Samuel de Champlain—soldier, spy, master mariner, explorer, cartographer, artist, and Father of New France.

Shadows on the Rock

by Willa Cather

Set in seventeenth-century Canada, an evocation of North American origins highlights the men and women who struggled to adapt to the new world even as they clung to the one they left behind. The novel covers one year of the lives of Cecile Auclair and her father Euclide, French colonists in Quebec.

Bury Your Dead

by Louise Penny

BURY YOUR DEAD has come out to some spectacular results - hitting the extended New York Times bestseller list, as well as the USA Today and bestseller lists in Canada! It has been named one of the Top Ten Mysteries/Thrillers of 2010 by Amazon! This sixth Gamache mystery is set partly in the tiny fictional (and oddly murderous) village of Three Pines, in Québec’s Eastern Townships. However, most of the action takes place in Quebec City, a vibrant and sophisticated fortress city that lives in the present while guarding its past. It’s February and bitterly cold in Quebec City, but Chief Inspector Gamache barely notices. He's consumed with grief and guilt over his past mistakes. He spends his time with his now-retired mentor in the peaceful library of the Literary and Historical Society, a bastion of the dwindling English population. If Gamache thought death was finished with him, he was wrong. The body of a celebrated eccentric is found in the Lit and His, and Gamache is drawn again into hunting a murderer. The victim was an amateur archeologist with a monomaniacal pursuit to find the body of Samuel de Champlain. This is the great mystery that has haunted Quebec for centuries - Where is Champlain? The founder of Quebec died 400 years ago, and while the burial places of nuns, farmers and minor functionaries of the time are known, no one knows what became of the Father of Quebec. How could this be? As Chief Inspector Gamache digs through the crime and the venerable old city, it becomes clear the murder is rooted in this 400 year old mystery, and in people long dead but perhaps not buried. It also becomes clear to the Chief Inspector that to find the truth he needs to confront his own ghosts, and bury his own dead.

A short history of Quebec

by John Alexander Dickinson and Brian J Young

A Canadian classic, A Short History of Quebec offers a concise yet comprehensive overview of the province from the pre-contact native period to present-day constitutional struggles. The authors bring a refreshing perspective to the history of Quebec, focusing on the social and economic development of the region and its diverse peoples.

Montreal & Quebec City Guide - Lonely Planet

by Montreal-based author

Montreal and Quebec City really serve it up. You've got old-world grandeur, new-world sensibilities and big-city charms - there's enough neighbourhoods, restaurants and festivals to keep you mon-dieu'ing for months. This guide, penned by a Montreal-based author, gets you straight to the action. Pick & Mix: buy and download individual chapters from this book You could download free: Introducing Montreal (Very interesting!)

The Two Solitudes

by Hugh MacLennan

First published in 1945, and set mostly in the time of the First World War, this story revolves around the life and times of the fictional character Paul Tallard and his struggles in reconciling the differences between his English and French Canadian identities.

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Christmas at the Chateau Frontenac in Québec

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At a Glance

Best of all, you’ll…

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