There may be more than one place, in this big and startling world, to nuzzle ostriches, snap alpaca selfies and scritch curly-horned sheep while simultaneously skating mile after mile of ice trails through the woods. The only one I know is Domaine Enchanteur (domaineenchanteur.com/en; CA$18-25; free for ages 4 and under), the delightful and mildly psychedelic ice maze in rural Québec that doubles as a petting zoo and working apiary.
Open-air animal enclosures dot Domaine Enchanteur’s nine miles of Zamboni-smoothed ice trails, which corkscrew through ranks of pines, and a skate-up ice shack sells freshly poured sugar on snow. A small bottle of honey is included in the entrance fee — something to do with its agritourism designation. During a mid-January visit to the trails, I skated past a pack of teens in faded Montréal Canadiens hockey jerseys doing tricks while slurping their maple taffy. And I thought, rather hyperbolically but not for the first time, This may be the greatest place on Earth.
Located in the small community of Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, the skating trails are about three hours and 20 minutes north of Burlington, in the Mauricie region that runs northwest from the St. Lawrence River between Québec City and Montréal. (See sidebar on page 32 for highlights of nearby city Trois-Rivières.) Entrepreneurial local Jean-Pierre Binette opened them to the public in 1997, after a few years spent bootstrapping methods to create and maintain the natural ice. He’d bought the land in 1973 with plans to create a pine plantation. The land was poorly suited to commercial tree cultivation, but many pines remain, some decked with DIY cutouts of Disney characters (Tinkerbell, Captain Hook) or the colorful lights installed in 2020 for night skating. Today, the operation is overseen by Jean-Pierre’s 36-year-old son, Marc-Antoine Binette.
“We were the first skating path in Québec, and people come from all over to visit: French, Germans, Japanese, everyone,” the younger Binette told me, adding that his own three small children love to visit the animals and help around the farm. “I hope someday that they might want to carry it on, but who knows?”
Ice skating has long been a specialty in Québec; Canada’s first commercial rink opened in Montréal in 1850. Skating trails such as those at Domaine Enchanteur are a more recent innovation that combines the reliability of rinks — whose shallow ice can be maintained far more easily than lakes or other open water — with a pleasurable sense of forward momentum, of going somewhere. In contrast with a glide through the forest, even the biggest rinks seem like hamster wheels. And in the years since Domaine Enchanteur opened, skating trails have popped up around the province, from far-flung forests to urban tracks in Montréal’s downtown core.
“The reason I love ice skating trails is the freedom … It’s just refreshing, it’s fun, because you’re not stuck in a circle,” Montréal skating instructor Jean-Philippe Eyelom said. Last season, he made the two-hour drive from Montréal to Domaine Enchanteur six times and said it’s his favorite place to skate. “You would think it gets crowded, but it’s so big. There are so many ways to go that you lose people, so it’s just you, the nature and the sound of your skates.” (If you’re seeking solitude, Domaine Enchanteur recommends coming before 11 a.m. or after 5 p.m.; weekend days can be packed.)
In the video tutorials he creates for his Instagram and TikTok accounts, @rollerbearding, Eyelom moves over ice with a wit and fluidity I tend to associate with simply “being Canadian.” Yet he insists it can be taught, adding that ice skating is having a moment right now in Québec and beyond. While he teaches both inline skating and ice skating, he says the ice skating classes he offers at indoor Montréal skating rink Atrium Le 1000 (514-395-0555; CA$55 per person for 45-minute private lessons or CA$35 per person for private groups of three or more) generate far more interest. “Ice skating is way bigger,” he said. “A lot more people are just wanting to try.”
In addition to Domaine Enchanteur, Eyelom also recommends the nearly four miles of forest ice skating trails at Lac-des-Loups (patinageenforet.com; CA$12.18-15.66) in the Outaouais region of southwest Québec, though those are nearly five hours from Burlington. With lights for night skating, there is more than a mile of ice skating trails through the woodsy Parc John-H.-Molson (450-227-0000, ext. 4000; free) in downtown Saint-Sauveur, a tourist hub in the Laurentian Mountains northwest of Montréal.
Not all the skating trails are such a haul for Vermonters to reach. In the town of Magog, perched at Lake Memphremagog’s northern outlet, the 1.7-mile skating trail Le Sentier Glacé (ville.magog.qc.ca; free) loops through a waterfront park wedged between the lake and its tributary, the Rivière aux Cerises. Last winter, I spent an afternoon gliding around the maintained skating path with friends, pausing to warm up at one of the park’s trailside heated cabins.
Among Montréal’s nearly endless options for skaters, two trails stand out. Since 2022, the festival Montréal en Lumière (February 27 to March 9; montrealenlumiere.com; free; skating loop closed March 3 to 4) has featured a first-of-its-kind elevated skating loop that soars for 1,000 feet through the Place des Festivals, with sound-and-light elements that lend the after-dark scene a disco feel. And on Montréal river island Île Sainte-Hélène, the quarter-mile Parc Jean-Drapeau Sentier des Patineurs (parcjeandrapeau.com; free) winds through trees just across the water from the city’s historic waterfront. Lending extra drama, the southern end of the skating trail curves around the towering sculpture “Trois Disques I,” whose dance-like forms were created in unpolished stainless steel by American sculptor Alexander Calder for the city’s Expo 67.
Crucially, both Montréal skating trails are refrigerated, which means their ice outperforms the natural stuff when winter temps fluctuate. “The trail can open earlier in the season and stay open longer,” explained Audrey Beaumont, a communications consultant at Parc Jean-Drapeau. To build it, a team freezes several layers of water on a temperature-controlled substructure, then sprays and smooths to keep the surface glideable.
Earlier this winter, days after a melt that sapped Montréal’s snowpack, I skated the Sentier des Patineurs under a sky of low clouds, circling views of the Old Port’s silvered roofs and historic domes. The French lyrics of Québécois and Acadian country music twanged from speakers along the trail. The ice was smooth and the trail quiet, ideal for the beginning skaters tottering on rental skates (CA$10.50-14.95) from a nearby pavilion.
Some were leaning on triangular supports (CA$5.49-8.99) designed to keep novices from sprawling across the ice. Eyelom suggests total newbies start at a rink, where the surface tends to be more consistent. Nervous skaters can find their balance by gripping the dasher boards at the edge of the ice. On some winter weekends this year, he’ll hold court at the Jean-Drapeau skating trail, offering tips to anyone who skates up (free drop-in clinics 2:30-4:30 p.m. on January 25 and 26; February 1, 2, 8 and 9; and March 1, 2, 8 and 9).
When I reached Eyelom by phone to talk about ice skating, however, he was visiting Las Vegas. I looked up the city’s forecast — 50s, sun, blue sky scrubbed of clouds, a perfect winter day in the desert. I was freezing in my car in Trois-Rivières, on my way to Domaine Enchanteur, phone clumsy between mittened hands.
“How is the weather there?” Eyelom said. I described the crisp, clear day, conditions ideal for outdoor ice. My pocket was heavy and cold, filled with quarters to buy animal feed. After I hung up, I planned to drive 20 minutes north for an afternoon skate.
“Oh, wow,” he said, “I’m jealous.”
En Route: Trois-Rivières
“How did you end up here?” asked Claude Beaudoin, organist at Trois-Rivières’ soaring, green-spired, 19th-century Cathédrale de l’Assomption (diocese-trois-rivieres.org), which I’d visited to see its celebrated collection of Italian stained-glass windows. “I’m guessing there are no signs in Vermont that read: ‘This way to Trois-Rivières.'”
It’s true that on previous visits to Domaine Enchanteur, which is located just outside the city of 139,000 people, I’d swung through its swath of uninspiring outskirts and beelined for the skating trails. I was bypassing all the good stuff. The second-oldest French-speaking settlement in North America is a congenial St. Lawrence River port whose compact downtown retains a handful of beautiful 18th-century buildings, survivors of a fire that swept through the center in 1908.
The 1723 Manoir de Tonnancour now houses the modern art gallery Galerie d’Art du Parc (galeriedartduparc.qc.ca; free), while a 1715 former hospital is the Musée des Ursulines (musee-ursulines.qc.ca; CA$9-13, free for ages 12 and under), dedicated to the history of the Ursuline Sisters, whose order arrived in the city in 1697.
The nearby 1822 prison that operated through 1986 can be visited on 1.5-hour guided tours for visitors ages 8 and older via Musée POP (museepop.ca; museum, CA$11-18; prison tours, CA$14-22; free for ages 4 and under), whose own exhibits focus on Québécois culture. In summer, there’s one English-language guided tour of the prison each day; in the winter, call 24 hours in advance to check availability. The museum has somewhat inconsistent English signage.
Speaking of language, Trois-Rivières has a reputation as one of the province’s most Francophone cities, but considerate English speakers will do just fine. Make even the smallest effort in French, and “Trifluviens will bend over backwards to reply in English,” replied one local when I queried the city’s subreddit about language norms.
Practice your “bonjour” at the cozily wood-clad brewery-restaurant Le temps d’unE pinte (letempsdunepinte.ca), where I savored a delicate trout tartare with salad (CA$24) alongside the brewery’s light, bright tropical IPA Long Nose (CA$7.50). Blistered pies sized generously for one come with classic Italian toppings (CA$11-28) at Pizzeria Napolitaine No 900 (no900.com).
Before leaving town, I stopped for a smoked salmon bagel (CA$13.95) at Le Renard Café + Buvette (lebuck.ca). Decorated with a tongue-in-cheek country style, the café is the easygoing little sibling of Le Buck, an upscale gastropub in a low-ceilinged, wood-planked 1757 heritage building that specializes in rustic French dishes such as duck breast with foie gras (CA$42) and steak frites (CA$38).
Having looked for a spot within walking distance of the riverfront, restaurants, bars and the historic area, I stayed in the 28-room Hôtel Oui GO! (hotelouigo.com; from CA$174) that occupies the landmark 1910 Balcer Building, built just after the 1908 fire. A few hefty mementos testify to its decades as a bank, such as the old vault door that hides the hotel’s housekeeping closets.
To learn more about visiting Trois-Rivières, visit tourismetroisrivieres.com/en. Find info on the surrounding Lanaudière-Mauricie regions at quebecauthentique.com/en.
This article is part of a travel series on Québec. The province’s destination marketing organization, Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec, under the Bonjour Québec brand, is a financial underwriter of the project but has no influence over story selection or content. Find the complete series plus travel tips at sevendaysvt.com/quebec.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Happy Trails | From forest mazes to urban tracks, Québec’s ice skating trails are a highlight of winter”
This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2025.
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