A week at Lake Placid in the summer? Unless you're doing a lot of hiking, you'll be bored out of your mind. It is definitely not close to city-life.

Does the whole week must be in one place? Have you been to Boston? Stay there, and you can do cultural stuff, and go to the N. Shore, Cape Cod, Newport (Rhode Island), etc during that week. It's a mild detour to Quebec City (I assume that's where you're going, not Montreal of other parts of Quebec), but the drive up through New Hampshire and/or Maine is also very scenic.