It was a dark and stormy night when we arrived to our little hotel in Quebec City. Quebec flags flew jubilantly against the sky while travelers tried their best to navigate the small rivers of rain that coursed down the narrow cobblestone streets.
Despite already sacrificing two cheap and one not-so-cheap umbrellas, we braved our way through the Old City.
I'm so glad that we did.
We discovered the designer, sculptor and master leather mask maker, Guy Levesque hard at work in his little shop.
It was as though we stumbled upon the true Geppetto carving, molding, quietly breathing life into the crowd of characters that lined the shelves and tables of the small workroom. Guy Levesque carves each of these head molds himself before applying the leather for the masks. It was quickly apparent that Guy Levesque is renowned for his work..One of his clients is Cirque du Soleil.
We asked if we could try on the masks and the mask-maker kindly said yes. M. picked up a gorgeous red leather mask and when she put it over her face something incredibly powerful happened: My sister became an entirely new person.
It was far beyond silly Halloween costumes. With the tie of a ribbon, M. had been transformed into a character from an old fairytale. It was pure magic.
