Tag: holidays

Fairmont Le Château Frontenac Christmas

1 Comment

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links that, by clicking on a link and making a purchase, results in a small percentage of compensation to me at no extra cost to you. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. We stand by all of the products that we recommend.

Booking to spend our Christmas at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac in Québec City, Canada is one of the best decisions that we ever made. This winter wonderland of a luxury hotel just oozes holiday spirit in December. What a wonderful place it was to spend my favorite holiday of the year! Read on if you’re thinking of making it a Le Château Frontenac Christmas.

Lobby Christmas Trees at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac

Why the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, you may wonder? I have wanted to stay at this hotel since I first glimpsed it in person when I was 15 years old. We were on a family cruise with Holland America Lines, originating in New York and ending in Montreal, with a few days in Québec City. The place is a castle (a real château) – it enchanted me immediately. I had to stay here someday, and that day finally came in December 2016.

A brief note about inclusivity: I’m Catholic by upbringing, I identify as Christian, and I celebrate Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday. However, I believe that if you’re an atheist, Jew, Muslim, agnostic, Hindu, Buddhist, etc., you’ll still have a wonderful time visiting the Château in late December! No shade to other ideologies here – just speaking from my own perspective as a Christmas-lover!

I was not disappointed. If anything, I had underestimated how great this hotel really was. I felt like a Christmas princess all week in this snow-covered palace! And, what better place than to stay in the most iconic symbol of the city itself – Le Château Frontenac?

White Christmas at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac

Getting There (In A Snowstorm)

Welp, driving to Québec City from New York City on Christmas Eve was not one of my BRIGHTEST ideas. To say the least.

Snowy Quebec City rooftops
Snow-covered rooftops of Québec City

We rented an SUV in NYC (from Laguardia Airport, which we were closer to than JFK) to make the drive up. I knew my Acura TL wasn’t built for snowy roads and we were going to Canada, after all. So, we rented a Nissan Murano and began our trek through upstate New York to the border.

Things were great until we hit a snowstorm around mid-Catskills! It kept snowing all the way until we reached Québec City. It took only about one hour longer than it should have, which was great. However, driving that far and long on snowy roads during a snowstorm means extremely tense shoulders and white knuckles for me.

Just a quick sidenote: drivers between Montreal and Quebec City are insane. We kept getting passed by Toyota Yarises doing 90 mph in a snowstorm. So, be warned!

Christmas Le Château Frontenac
One of the many Christmas decorations at the hotel

We arrived in town and began the meandering drive uphill toward the hotel. I was so glad we had the SUV at that point because there are some steep hills in Vieux-Québec. If you’re in doubt, rent the SUV with 4-wheel drive.

Continue reading →

Happy Women’s Day!/Feliz Día de la Mujer!

Leave a comment

Today’s International Women’s Day, and I have to say, women celebrate it with much more gusto in Argentina than they do in the USA. Feliz día de la mujer, a mis hermanas argentinas!

It’s always been interesting to me that, although Argentine society is afflicted with extreme “machista” (chauvinism, machismo), Argentine women really come together to celebrate a few different holidays and raise each other up.  Maybe it’s because they’re subject to such blatant sexism, that they celebrate it so fervently. Whatever the reason, it’s a really great day to honor the ladies in your life and celebrate their accomplishments.  Día de la Mujer is one of them, and another is Día del Amigo (Friend’s Day), which is July 20 every year, the anniversary of the first moon landing.

Friend’s Day is also a fascinating tradition to me, as a gringa. Really, it’s about celebrating your friendships and treating your friends especially well on that day. It’s basically a Valentine’s Day for your platonic pals.

Unless you don’t have a heart, Friend’s Day is a really great, feel-good day that will leave you with a smile on your face and a warmth in your heart. Unlike Valentine’s Day, when a lack of Valentine can cause depression, sadness, anger and hurt for so many.

Take a minute today to let your lady-friends know today that they rock. Not only because they do, but because they need to hear it every so often! Feliz día de la mujer!!!

Thanksgiving with the gringos

Leave a comment

Summer is just around the corner and in many ways, it feels like it’s already here. It’s about 90* outside lately, and even though it’s a “dry heat” , it’s still hot. Not really feeling like the holiday season. But it is. And it’s weird.

Thanksgiving was just a few weeks ago, and to answer your questions: Yes! We had a Thanksgiving! With turkey. In fact, we had 2 Thanksgivings: 1 on Thursday and the other on Sunday afternoon. Here, we had a long weekend as well, but it was because Monday was a national holiday; not Thursday or Friday.

I consumed parts of 6 different turkeys cooked at least 4 different ways. It was glorious. Of course, when you’re in Argentina, you’re bound to drink a ton of wine. One of my personal favorites is the Azul Reserva blend, which is also the favorite of one of our hosts. We also brought with us to the first gringo feast a bottle of Melipal Rose, which, according to one of my friends who is also a wine expert, is one of Argentina’s finest roses.  I would like to put the accent on the “e”  right here, but I’m not using my regular laptop, so forgive me. We didn’t get to open the bottle (everyone brings wine everywhere here, so we had enough) – but I am hoping to find an occasion for it soon.

Dinners were great and it really has begun to feel like “home”  here, even though it may not really be our home after May. The friends that we’ve made here are fantastic, and there’s a real sense of community among the expats, anyway. If I couldn’t be home with my family, I still enjoyed my new “family” here in Mendoza.

Last Monday (the holiday), we went to Anna Bistro (which I’ve written about before) and drank a few bottles of Lurton’s Pinot Gris… a refreshing, light white, while having lunch with friends of ours on their outdoor patio. It was really nice.

If it’s not going to feel like the holiday season, I might as well enjoy the fact that they’re during the Spring and Summer here, right?

Bring on the whites and roses!

St. Paddy’s in South America

Leave a comment

Okay, my blog updates are becoming few and far between and I promise I’ll change that. I’ve been working pretty long days (the usual) but my weekends are becoming more and more jam-packed with fun things instead of sitting in my bedroom blogging about random observations, so… forgive me.

Anyway, this year was my first St. Paddy’s in South America. It was my fifth St. Patrick’s Day in a row that I’ve been in a different city.
Here’s a breakdown:
2007 – NYC
2008 – Austin
2009 – Paris
2010 – Las Vegas
2011 – Mendoza

Let’s rank these now from most fun to least fun experience:
1. NYC
2. Austin
3. Mendoza (can’t decide whether it’s better or not as good as Austin)
4. Paris
5. Vegas (we were out really late the night before and none of us were in the mood to party)

So, as you can see, Mendoza St. Patrick’s day is pretty legit. Here’s why. There is one Irish pub here. One. And it’s called Believe Irish Pub.  However, since it’s the only one, you can say “the Irish pub”when you get in a cab, and everyone knows where you’re going. It’s on Av. Colón and it’s the place to be in Mendoza for St. Patrick’s.

The night featured some random guys playing the tin flute and other traditional instruments, but instead of being dressed like leprechauns or something, they were dressed like medieval serfs in brown and drab colors. They had on weird hats. And it was just strange.

No Guinness for me this year, because they only come in small bottles here. Instead we drank Stella Artois and Andes Porter (a Guinness substitute at best) because they come in the liter-size bottles and the bar was so crowded, we ordered 4 or 5 liters at a time.

The turnout was amazing – it seemed like every expat in Mendoza was there – plus any Mendocino ready to party. I’ll post some pics in a few days of the crowd and you’ll see. The normal size patio in front spilled over to the front of the shops on either side, and we took over the street in front so that one full lane of traffic was blocked by people standing around.

While there was no music outside other than Peter pan and friends, it was a great night out. They could do with some satellite bars for the occasion, but all in all, a solid experience.
Erin go bragh!

Will you be my Valentine Asador?

Leave a comment

Started this week off right with a Valentine’s day asado after work. However, this was after my “novio”(BF) sent me a ton of pink lilies to my office. Turns out, he was able to order them online, without speaking Spanish, and have them delivered in Mendoza. I was über impressed. 

The funny part is one of our CEO’s came in to tell me on Tuesday (the day after V-day, for those of you following) that my flowers had made me the subject of some hot gossip; How does the girl who’s been in the country for a little over a week get flowers for Valentine’s Day already? She must work fast!

I’m still impressed with my novio. Good boy.

The asado was fantastic, and I got to meet new people – a couple who were also expats. And it helps that the other guests at a party are chefs, because dang, the guy can make a MEAN steak.  We drank 5 bottles of wine between 3 people and it was an amazing night.

You may have noticed or became jealous of my usage and correct spelling of über earlier. I’m pretty impressed with myself that I’ve learned the international keyboard setting on my Mac actually has a function. Now I can write emails with to all the “Señors”, asking for the “sustitución”, and when they say “sí “, I can reply “Está bien”. Or something. Very exciting.