Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/118148
(here) One of the hotel's suites, complete with ice bed and themed ice carvings; (below) the Ice Hotel bar. I find my friend Jeanne alone in the lodge of the Station Touristique Duchesnay resort, curled up in front of a roaring wood-fired stove. "Welcome to Quebec City!" she says, rising to offer bises, double-cheek kisses, which I receive awkwardly, unused to the greeting after a seven-year absence from the province. She performs a little twirl, and I stifle a laugh at the sight of the usually stylish Montrealler decked out in a pair of black bell-bottom snow pants, red turtleneck and Canadiens toque covering all but a few black curls. It's not unlike my own outfit, assembled from mismatched pieces of longforgotten winter wear. "I've already had my orientation. Yours is next," she says, and, seeing my confusion, adds, "Well, you didn't think we could just sleep on a block of ice without some instruction." No, I suppose I hadn't. In fact, until that mo ment I hadn't fully considered what a night in the Ice Hotel would actually entail. Nor do I yet understand what motivates people to want to sleep in a -5 C room built entirely of snow and ice. But that's what I'm here to discover. In the two years I spent in this province in the early 2000s, I realized that Quebecers have a love of winter that doesn't exist in the rest of Canada. Even the word – l'hiver – has an uplifting quality. It recalls the icy expel of breath on a crisp below-zero day. Lady Ice, Our suite, named contains elaborately sculpted ice furnishings and a 3-D snow goddess. It hangs in the air with anticipation, so unlike the heaviness (or is that dread?) of our winter. That difference in attitude translates to a winter culture in Quebec City that is the raison d'être for its famous Winter Carnival, a host of winter sporting activities and, of course, the Ice Hotel. This 32,000-square-foot architectural marvel, assembled from scratch every year using 20,000 tonnes of snow and ice, takes more than a month to erect, decorate and even wire for electricity. The overnight ritual, I learn in my 20-minute orientation covering everything from etiquette (snow pants are appropriate dining attire) to how to keep a mummy bag free of chill-producing 24 W E S T W O R L D p22-27_Quebec.indd 24 >> WINTER 2012 moisture (no breathing into the bag), begins with dinner at the Duchesnay. The bricksand-mortar resort just minutes from Quebec City has shared its property and amenities with the Ice Hotel for nine of its 12 years (the hotel is now located at 9530, rue de la Faune, 10 minutes north of downtown Quebec City). In its charming chalet-style bistro, Le Quatre Temps, Jeanne and I dine on a stick-to-yourbones meal of local elk venison and pork terrines followed by black cod in a creamy cognac sauce. Stuffed and warmed by the indoors, we head outside toward the Ice Hotel's glimmering castle-like form. We walk through the grand entrance, hung with a 225-kilogram ice chandelier. Two children play behind an ice reception desk, complete with frozen guestbook, before scampering over to the stairs of the lobby's short, but nevertheless tempting, ice slide. The adjoining wedding chapel is a mini cathedral that, unlike the snowy opaqueness of the Ice Hotel's exterior, has a nearly transparent facade. Inside, soft blue lights call attention to the ephemeral sanctuary. Our tour continues to the ice bar where a DJ is set up in one corner and bundled-up people have already started to dance. Others sip cocktails from thick, square tumblers (also made of ice) and chat animatedly from clusters of carved stools and benches, covered in animal skins (above) courtesy ©Xdachez.com 12-10-19 9:52 AM