Trivia

Quebec is french speaking and mainly Catholic (98% of the population).  However only a small number are  practicing Catholics and about 85% of the churches are being sold off and closed.
The St Lawrence river is over 3000 kms long and links the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.  The river is narrow at Quebec City (800m) and it is here there are the last bridges before the coast.  After leaving here you can only cross the river by ferry. The river freezes here in winter and ice breakers are needed to keep the boats and ferrys working.
In Quebec City the first snow falls are in November and the last can be in April.  The average temperature in Jan/Feb is minus 25 degrees and as there is a consistant wind this lowers the temp to minus 36.  The city has an average 3.25m of snow every winter and the parks in the city are used for cross country skiing.

In Montreal during winter there is an underground system that allows you to catch the subway to work and then shop underground on your way home so that you don't need to go out into the cold.  There is 25 miles of tunnels under the city and this includes shopping malls as well as the subway system. We went for a walk downtown this afternoon and went down into the underground shops.  As it is now spring most of the shops were closing early in the day so we only had a brief glance at this interesting way of life.
We also visited the Notre Dame Cathedral here in Montreal and marvelled at the decoration inside. The stained windows and alter are just magnificent and the organ has over 7000 pipes ranging in size from half inch to over 30 feet in length. You could only wonder at how wonderful it would be to hear played. Pavrotti has sung there and wow wouldn't that have been something.