How did the Mont Tremblant get its name?
The heritage and origin of the name of this area is rooted in an old Algonquin legend from the early 17th century. The Algonquin natives believed that every life form was composed of a body, a soul and a spirit.
The Algonquins called Tremblant "Manitou-Ewitchi-Saga" - the mountain of the dreaded Manitou. The legend says that the Manitou, proud and protecting God of the wilderness, caused the mountain to tremble in a storm of falling rocks and timber when man violated or infringed upon surrounding environment.
In memory of this legend, the first [EUROPEAN (they forgot to mention that)] settlers to come to the region called the "trembling mountain" Mont Tremblant.
For more information about the area, please visit our history section.
So that's where I am right now. I'm living next to that trembling mountain for a week. This part of Canada is simple, beautiful, and kind. I'm picking up French better than I thought I would -- and I'm proud of how often I'm attempting to speak it to locals instead of chickening out & going with English. Our guest home here (#305 at Club Intrawest) is idyllic with its fireplace, wonderfully comfortable furniture, perfect kitchen (can I bring it home?), whirlpool tub, and front porch with autumn-colored adirondack chairs. On top of those things, our porch looks over our grilling pavilion & personal playground for Avy. (Is it really any wonder we spent our first two days here in Mont-Tremblant?)
Mont-Tremblant is mostly a ski-resort area for winter, but for autumn vacations like ours its great for golf (if you like that kind of thing), its awesome hiking & biking trails, its three quaint little villages, and -- my favorite -- its AMAZING Scandanavian Spa. I don't like the word "spa" because of how America has spoiled the word for me. It always makes me think of an overpriced sterile palace where snobby white people sit in towels while being waiteded on hand-and-foot as they sit in their towel-turbans & mud body masks while sipping bloody maries. Le Scandinave Spa is far from all of that...except there are towels involved. The Scandinavian way is this: spend 15-30 minutes in "heat therapy" (Finnish Sauna, Norwegian Steam Bath, or an outdoor hot tub with a waterfall), then 15-30 minutes in "cold therapy" (one of the 2 cold pools with waterfalls, or the river), then 15-30 minutes in a "relaxation solarium" where you literally sit and do nothing but relax & maybe sleep. And of course, silence is mandatory everywhere. It's an introvert's heaven. (Guilty there.) I topped of my time in this cycle with a 90-minute Swedish massage with Claude. It was pretty much the best day of my life.
Thursday & Friday we spent in Montreal, which is a little less than 2 hrs from here. It might possibly be my new favorite city in the world. But that's for another post on another day...there's so much to tell.
Today (Saturday -- our last day...sniffle, sniffle) we are spending in the villages around here & we will probably ride on the Cabriolet that takes you across the resort village, which is very touristy but still fun. (Fun fact about the resort village: it's built so you can ski the whole thing in winter.) Here's a youtube video of the cabriolet ride (gotta love youtube...).
If you want to look at our trip pictures (just a few of them -- I'm having trouble with my card reader), feel free to check them out.
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| Canada Trip - October 2008 |
