I mentioned this yesterday, but outside of Québec City is an island right off the coast in the river, the Île d'Orléans. The island is made up of about five towns that are very tiny and consist mainly of different farms and what we heard referred to as "agro-tourism." It's such a short drive that we went twice - the first time we went around the whole island, the second time we hit up our favorite stops again. In one of the towns, St. Laurent, there was a cute breakfast place with an amazing view - the first time we went there was no one else there and we had the whole place to ourselves - it was probably my favorite part of the whole trip.
One other things we saw there (not pictured) was one of many Econo-museums that exist throughout Québec - the one on the island was a forge. Their purpose is to help preserve trade crafts - essentially one craftsman or a small guild will set up a shop where they can practice and make a living, and also have a portion of it that is a museum explaining their trade open to the public. I really liked this idea because it's hard to find places that teach "trade" crafts as a opposed to "fine" art/crafts.
A few months ago I was talking to cobbler here in Boston about where he learned his trade, and where he thought one could go to learn about shoe making (I've looked for classes before in the general New England area and there is next to nothing) so I thought he might have some ideas. His response was interesting and along the lines of "you young people these days, you are lucky to be able to just pick something up as a hobby because you are interested in it - but me, I've been working at this my whole life and have never made any money. I was taught by my family, and so on and so forth..."
