Vaughan to Trois-Rivières: the old city halfway to Quebec

The city between Montreal and Quebec

Trois-Rivières, founded in 1634 at the mouth of the Saint-Maurice River where it enters the St. Lawrence in three channels, is the second-oldest city in Quebec and the one the Quebec City drive passes at its midpoint on Autoroute 40's north shore — an old town of stone streets around the rue des Ursulines, the Ursuline monastery's museum, the port's promenade, the terrace over the river, and the cathedral; the Boréalis museum in the old pulp mill's filtration plant, telling the story of the paper industry that made the city the world's newsprint capital; the Old Prison's tour in the 1822 jail; the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame-du-Cap at Cap-de-la-Madeleine across the river, one of the country's pilgrimage basilicas; and, in August, the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, the street race through the city's exhibition grounds. For Vaughan it is a night on the way to Quebec, and for a group of racing friends it is the August weekend of its own.

The old town, for the halfway stop

The historic district is a dozen blocks between the river and the cathedral: the rue des Ursulines with the monastery and its museum of the nuns who founded the city's hospital and school in 1697, the Manoir Boucher-de-Niverville's seigneurial house, the Place Pierre-Boucher, the terrace's view over the river's islands, the port's promenade and the Musée POP's Quebec popular culture beside the Old Prison. A chauffeured family on the Quebec City drive stops for two hours: the drop at the rue des Ursulines, lunch on the rue des Forges, the terrace, and the Sprinter at the port for the last hour and a half to Quebec. The city's tourism site has the district's walk.

Boréalis and the Old Prison

Boréalis in the mill's old filtration plant on the Saint-Maurice's bank is the museum of the paper industry — the log drives on the river, the mill's machines, the workers' city — with a rooftop terrace over the rivers and a children's route; the Old Prison's tour is a guide's hour in the cells of the 1822 jail that closed in 1986, for older children and adults, with the prisoners' stories on the walls. Together they are a family's afternoon and the reason a Trois-Rivières stop becomes a night.

The Grand Prix, in August

The Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières is a street circuit through the city's exhibition park run since 1967, with a weekend of NASCAR Pinty's, sports-car and rally-cross races in August that fills the city's hotels; a group of Vaughan racing friends books the Sprinter for the weekend — the drive Friday with a Montreal lunch, the hotel, the grandstands Saturday and Sunday, the drive home Monday — with the chauffeur as the driver and the Montreal Grand Prix post covering the June race that is its bigger sibling.

Cap-de-la-Madeleine

Across the Saint-Maurice the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame-du-Cap is a pilgrimage basilica of 1964 beside the small 1720 stone church whose statue is the shrine's, with gardens on the St. Lawrence, a rosary bridge and the August 15 feast that brings thousands; Vaughan's Catholic families make it the reason for the stop, and the chauffeur drops at the sanctuary's gate.

The route, and the halfway logic

Autoroute 40 runs from Montreal's north along the St. Lawrence's north shore to Quebec City, and Trois-Rivières is at its exact middle — an hour and a half from each — which is why a Vaughan family's two-day Quebec City drive makes it the second day's lunch, or the first night if the family stopped at Kingston rather than Montreal: the 401 and Autoroute 40 from Kingston to Trois-Rivières is four and a half hours, and the second day to Quebec is an hour and a half. The routing estimate's eight and a quarter is the no-toll, no-stop version from Vaughan.

Which vehicle

A Sprinter for a family or the racing group; an SUV for a family of four; a Premium Sedan for a couple on the Quebec City drive with the old town's lunch as the stop. Boosters are $25 each.

What the chauffeur replaces

On the Quebec drive, the halfway stop that a tired driver skips; for the Grand Prix group, the drive home on Monday after a weekend of racing and the city's bars; for the pilgrim family, eight hours of highway to a shrine. The Sprinter's daily hire for the race weekend divides eight ways into a figure two cars do not beat; the stop on the Quebec drive is inside the week's fare.

Seasons

August for the Grand Prix and the sanctuary's feast; summer for the old town's terraces and the port's promenade; October for the north shore's colour on Autoroute 40, when the Quebec drive is at its best; winter for the halfway night on a road that the chauffeur drives on winter tires. The Festivoix music festival in early July fills the old town's squares.

Pairing it

Trois-Rivières pairs with Quebec City as the halfway stop, with Montreal as the first night, with the Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec loop as its third day's lunch, and with Montreal's Grand Prix for a racing summer.

The halfway night, in order

A family of five from Woodbridge on the Quebec City drive with a Kingston first night: day two from Kingston's hotel at 8:30, the 401 to the border at 10:30, Autoroute 40 across Montreal's north at 12:15 and the north shore's farmland, Trois-Rivières by 1:45; the drop at the rue des Ursulines, lunch on the rue des Forges, the Ursulines' museum and the terrace over the river until 3:30, Boréalis's rooftop and the children's route until 5:15, the old town's hotel by the port for the night, dinner. Day three: the Old Prison's tour at ten, the Cap-de-la-Madeleine sanctuary's gardens at 11:30 across the river, and Autoroute 40's last ninety minutes to Quebec City's walls by two. It is the two-day drive that the Quebec City post describes, with the Sprinter at the tables the whole way.

The Grand Prix weekend, in order

Eight friends from Thornhill in an Executive Sprinter: Friday at 8 a.m., the 407 and 401, Kingston's coffee, Montreal's north shore, Trois-Rivières by 4:30; the hotel on the boulevard des Forges, the old town's dinner. Saturday: the circuit's gates at nine for the qualifying and the sports-car races, the paddock, the grandstand's afternoon, the old town's bars. Sunday: the NASCAR Pinty's race, the podium at four, dinner on the port. Monday: the drive home with a Montreal lunch, Thornhill by six. Three days of daily hire plus the drives, one number in the booking engine, split eight ways, with the race's site selling the grandstand seats in the spring.

The Saint-Maurice and the Mauricie

North of the city the Saint-Maurice River runs up into the Mauricie's forest — Shawinigan's Cité de l'énergie with its tower and its power-station museum forty minutes north, and La Mauricie National Park's canoe lakes an hour beyond — and a family with a Trois-Rivières night and a spare afternoon books the Cité de l'énergie's tower for the view; the city's tourism site covers the region's day trips.

Pickup notes

The 407 east and the 401 from every Vaughan community, Autoroute 40 across Montreal's north; a Woodbridge or Kleinburg pickup joins the 407 at Weston Road, a Thornhill one at Bathurst. Give us the Quebec drive's nights and the stop's length, or the race weekend's hotel and tickets, the seats and the loads; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

The old town's Festivoix and the summer

Festivoix in late June and early July fills the old town's squares and the port with ten days of music — the reason a Vaughan couple's Quebec City drive stops for a night in that week — and the summer's terraces on the rue des Forges, the port's promenade at dusk and the Musée POP's Quebec popular culture beside the prison fill the rest; the city's tourism site has the festival's dates.

Costs, plainly

The halfway stop is inside a Quebec City week's daily hire and costs nothing extra; the halfway night adds a hotel and a day; the Grand Prix weekend's daily hire for eight divides into a per-person figure two cars and two drivers do not beat, and the booking engine shows it before the tickets are bought.

The Ursulines and the city's founding

The Ursuline nuns arrived in 1697 to found the city's first hospital and school, and their monastery on the rue des Ursulines — the chapel with its dome, the cloister's museum of the order's three centuries, the garden — is the old town's anchor and the hour that grandparents in a Vaughan family ask for; the rue des Ursulines itself, with its stone houses from the 1700s and the Manoir de Tonnancour, is the street the city puts on its postcards. Trois-Rivières was the colony's third city after Quebec and Montreal and the ironworks at the Forges du Saint-Maurice, ten minutes north and now a Parks Canada site, were the country's first industrial enterprise — an afternoon for a family whose children are studying New France. The chauffeur drops at the monastery's door and the old town's lots are the vehicle's.

Pickup and the Quebec logic, restated

A family that stops at Trois-Rivières has usually stopped at Kingston the night before, because the Kingston-to-Trois-Rivières day is four and a half hours and the Trois-Rivières-to-Quebec morning is ninety minutes — the two-day drive's most balanced shape, and the one the chauffeur suggests to a family with children under ten; the Montreal-night version makes the second day three hours with the old town as its lunch. Either is inside the Quebec City week's daily hire and the confirmation the evening before restates the day's stops.

Booking it

Book the stop inside a Quebec City daily hire, or a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the Grand Prix weekend with the hotel and the nights; tell us the seats, the loads and the race tickets, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Quebec drive