The Demise of Carla Bruni...

Driving back to Montreal, autumn colours out the window and Backstreet boys on full blast, I can’t help feeling sad that the perfect weekend is coming to an end.

This weekend is thanksgiving in Canada and with an extra day off for the holiday it’s the perfect excuse to escape Montreal for a few days. Twenty-four of us (all on exchange, of course) rented out a chalet, complete with kayaks and a jacuzzi, by the side of Lac Cayamant for the holiday, and it could not have been more amazing. The area was absolutely beautiful and we were lucky enough to have near-perfect weather- 25degrees in Canada, mid-October, not too shabby! The night we arrived we headed straight out to the bonfire and sat under the stars, chatting and singing until the early hours of the morning. The stars themselves were amazing, and, since we were so far from any light pollution, we could see the Milky Way and shooting stars so clearly.

The next morning we committed to getting up early to see the sunrise over the lake and, as skeptical as I was at 6:30am about leaving my bed, we jumped into a pedalo and headed to the middle of the lake. After a near-sinking experience we made it through the fog and waited… and waited. The mist was lying low over the water and as the sun started to creep up from behind the hills the light was truly spectacular- the whole lake was glowing orange!

Later in the day we went for a hike just down the road to the top of a local viewing tower and the fall colours were fantastic. We crunched our way through the woods and climbed to the top of the tower, which gave us a complete panorama of the area. The thing that always surprises me about Canada is the scale of everything- the landscape is just so immense with forests and lakes as far as the eye can see.

The Sunday for us was the day we celebrated thanksgiving and was almost entirely spent cooking… preparing dinner for twenty-four people really is a mammoth task! Ruth (another girl from Edinburgh) and I somehow found ourselves in charge of the preparations and after a brief moment of panic upon realizing that the turkey (nicknamed Carla Bruni) was still frozen, everything went surprisingly smoothly! We prepared vast quantities of potatoes, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, squash and other seasonal vegetables with our army of choppers whilst Carla was in the oven. By 3pm the smell that wafted from our chalet across the lake was amazing (even if I do say so myself!), and we took a brief break to take a swim and pop into the Jacuzzi- a hard life I know, but someone has to do it. We put our own British twist of the dinner and made pigs in blanket which seems to be a complete novelty to the rest of

Europe! Until this day I will never know how everything went so smoothly, but at 7pm we all sat down at the makeshift table and ate. The wine flowed and the food seemed endless so it was smiles all round. It really felt like Christmas and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have found my little Canadian family so far from home. English, French, German and Dutch could be heard around the table, which is just amazing to listen to. 

We even took on the challenge of preparing a real North American specialty- pumpkin pie! And so, just as everyone declared that they could eat no more, we brought out the pie and ice cream.  The whole meal was such a success and for as long as I live, cooking thanksgiving dinner for twenty-four in a chalet in the middle of nowhere will be one of my biggest achievements!