Throughout their stay, EC Montreal students have many opportunities to enjoy a Taste of Montreal. Every month, EC Montreal offers a free activities programme at the school. We offer a variety of activities that include fitness, teambuilding activities, music, dance and what we call “A taste of Montreal”. We share our local foods and specialties to our students depending on the time of year and what our monthly theme is.
Our students will have a lot to look forward to all year long in terms of getting a taste of Montreal. In February, to celebrate the month of love and indulgence, EC Montreal hosts its annual chocolate festival. We serve our students a variety of local chocolates; including a chocolate fountain!!
In March, we look forward to our Sugar Shack festivities. Sugar Shacks are located on maple farms where maple sap is extracted from the trees and turned into the most delicious maple syrup. We will celebrate this sweet tradition with our students with a month-long activity list that will include pancake day and a visit to a traditional Sugar Shack – known as La Cabane à Sucre for us Quebecers! In addition, we celebrate Brazilian carnival with lots of tropical fruits and Brazilian treats!
April is dedicated to Gastronomy at EC Montreal. Every week, students are introduced to a local flavor or are given a culinary class such as sushi making lessons or cupcake decorating. In addition, we will have a taste of poutine activity and a tea and conversation event.
The month of May as in January, we talk to our students about health and fitness. We will have a healthy lunch day as well as a taste of local Quebec beers.
June is strawberry season in Quebec. We have fields and fields of strawberries and other berries in local farms close to Montreal. Quebec strawberries are smaller, darker and sweeter than strawberries imported from the United States or Mexico. In addition, we will offer our students an ice cream day and a Canada Day picnic!
With the heat and humidity, we experience in July, we will most definitely have a beach day, serving tropical cocktails as well as more ice cream days to keep cool!
August is corn season in Quebec. There are acres and acres of corn fields on local farms close to Montreal. EC Montreal will host a corn roast and corn festival to introduce our students to sweet Quebec corn. The kernels are white and the corn is much sweeter than corn you find elsewhere.
September is apple season in Quebec! Our students can look forward to an apple festival where students to sample the different types of apples that grow in Quebec as well as the many wonderful sweet treats made from them! In addition, in September we celebrate Brazilian Independence Day, Mexican Independence Day and Korean Thanksgiving! We have a lot of different foods to taste from many different cultures!
October is our Haunted Oktoberfest themed month! We will have a wonderful Oktoberfest activity where our German students will speak to the rest of us about their celebrations back home and we will serve German beer, pretzels and sausage. In addition, we will host a fall pancake breakfast, Halloween cupcake decorating and a festive Halloween party to end the month!
November is a soulful month so it is all about comfort food! We will serve Canada’s number one comfort food – Grilled cheese sandwiches as well as soothing hot chocolate.
Of course, December is holiday season! We will have many Christmas treats and holiday parties including gingerbread house making, candy cane martinis and the traditional bouche de noel.
In addition to our free activities programme, students will be invited to attend group dinners, food and beer tours lead by our dynamic activity leader, Danae. She will be organizing the most fabulous outings to celebrate Montreal’s love of food!