February, 1993
When I was in college in St. Louis, I studied French as my required language. I later learned that the teacher who taught the class was from Quebec and my French accent was Canadian not Parisian! I had the opportunity to enter a school contest for a scholarship and win a summer semester at Laval University in Quebec, Canada. My Dad felt it was a waste of money for room and board, so he said “no.” I was greatly disappointed. Deep inside I always had a yearning to visit Quebec. The opportunity presented itself one year when the American Academy of Pediatrics held their conference in Montreal in late April. Michael and I decided to attend.
After the meetings we toured the city. On Sunday we attended Mass at the Cathedral (a l/5th scale replica of St. Peter’s in Rome). The Catholic Church had just changed the Mass from Latin to the vernacular of the country. In Montreal, the Mass was prayed in French. After the conference we took a train to Quebec. On the way, it began to snow gently, with the purity and beauty of a new untouched snowfall. As the train passed through the countryside, I was surprised to see the farmers homes nestled together in a little town, always with a visible church steeple, and the farmers going out on their tractors to their farmland … like traversing the spokes of a wheel.
In Quebec we had a taxi driver give us a quick tour of the city. We saw Laval University first. Then we saw the walled and lower city. We were awed by the beauty of the ice sculptures in front of the famous Hotel Frontenac. We drove past Ursuline Academy (my high school had been Ursuline Academy in St. Louis) and the taxi driver made sure we visited a convent where the sisters were diligently making lace collars, place mats etc.
This was a wish fulfilling trip for me. Of all our travels, I think I enjoyed our Canadian trips. We have made two other splendid trips to Canada which I shall describe another time. Be sure to look in my scrapbooks from these trips.
Elaine's Memoirs 