Cruising The Saint Lawrence

Experts from the worlds of medicine, politics and government, finance and even show business will be on-board guests during Crystal Cruises’ New England/Canada itineraries in October.

The list of prominent personalities include the physician and international humanitarian, Dr. Bob Arnot, and the former Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle. They are among the notable newsmakers scheduled for four voyages departing from New York, Boston and Montréal aboard Crystal Symphony.

Additional special programming will highlight the line’s annual President’s Cruise, hosted by President Gregg Michel and his wife on October 30.

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Holland America Line’s Maasdam begins cruising to and from Quebec on May 8 (from Fort Lauderdale to Quebec City). She’ll do a series of Canada/New England cruises through the early summer before being joined by Eurodam in August and September. Quebec City, Montreal and Saguenay are extremely charming destinations that you’ll appreciate no matter if you’re staying only for a few hours or a few days, pre- or post-cruise. The stories that follow (today and throughout this month) are designed to enhance your time in Quebec.

A bartender at Quebec City’s fashionable L’EChaude restaurant expresses mock indignation when a visitor asks how Quebec’s capital compares with the province’s largest city, Montreal. “They are not truly French,” the bartender says, conveniently overlooking the fact that as a Canadian, neither is he. “In Montreal, people speak French 50, maybe 55, percent of the time.” He steps back from the bar and folds his arms to proclaim, “Here, we speak French 95 percent of the time.”

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I never suspected that I would come face-to-face with Canada’s aboriginal people, but that’s just what happened on the day I visited tiny Havre-Saint-Pierre. On a tour offered to cruise passengers, I visited the Innu people, and it turned out to be one of the most interesting tours of my life.

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