The Grand Canadian/
American Adventure
Day 12 Quebec City
Quebec City. Despite
our trepidation about not being able to speak French and some of the stories we
had heard about French Canadians, we loved the city and its people. They were very friendly and helpful,
especially after you mangle the first couple of words. I think the trick is to
speak to each other in “Aussstralian mate” before you approach them and they
get the idea it’s useless trying to converse in French Lol.
Quebec is a very “Bohemian city” you get all flavours, I
don’t think I have seen so many tattoos and pierced body parts in any other
city and these are on the areas that can be displayed in public.!!!
Anyway, on the first day we avoided having to drive into an
unfamiliar city, so we got the shuttle bus and met our first friendly
Québécoise, who kindly put us on the right track and gave us some ideas of
things to see in the city. The shuttle travels alongside the St Lawrence River
into the city and gives you a good appreciation of how big the river really is.
A couple of facts on the geography and history of the city:
Quebec City was founded by Samuel de Champlain in the 1600’s and became a
French colony. The older part of the city is divided into two districts; Upper
and Lower town, each divided by a large cliff. The cliff and the promontory
Upper town sits on is the reason for the city’s location. De Champlain realised that with a cliff forming
three sides of the city it could be easily defended, the fourth side facing the
Plains of Abraham could be defended by building a wall and extending the wall
along the cliff tops, thus making Quebec a walled city. It is in fact the only
remaining walled city North of Mexico. Having both the cliff and a wall, the city was
thought to be impregnable.
Getting off the shuttle in Lower town we headed off and
began exploring the cobblestone streets, as you would expect these are very
narrow and choked with tourists, I am told from people that have been there. It
is also very European. The thing that amazed me to see was a large “Hook and
Ladder “ fire engine navigating the same streets, not a lot of leeway! To get
from Lower to Upper town there are a couple of ways to do it; there is the
“Funicular” a kind of cog railway up the cliff, or as the Nightingales chose
there is “shanks pony” and the stairs. Once you get to the top of the cliff you
are greeted by the Chateau Frontenac Hotel.
Photos of this hotel appear on
most tourist brochures for the city and it is easy to see why, it is
impressive. Equally impressive is the view from the boardwalk in front of the
hotel looking out across the river. Having
got our bearings we found the tourist information centre and promptly booked in
for a two hour walking tour of the city. This turned out to be a fantastic way
of seeing the many old buildings and learning about the history.
At the finish of the tour we ended up back in Lower town and
decided to split up. Quebec like Halifax has a Citadel, so Ryan and I headed
off to explore that, while the girls all Citadeled out went to explore the town
some more. Some more history, in the 1700’s the ownership of Canadian colonies
was being fought over by the English and French. The dastardly British under
General James Wolfe lay siege to the city and tried unsuccessfully to take it
twice, but on the third attempt they did something that was not thought
possible and scaled the cliff to the West and fought and defeated the defenders
on the Plains of Abraham and so claimed the city. Now why did I relate this,
well Ryan and I did the same thing, only we used the stairs and by the time we
reached the top we couldn’t have fought a baby and won!
Being Summer, Quebec like a lot of Canadian cities, are
having lots of festivals and concerts and on reaching the Plains of Abraham,
Ryan and I came across one. We got to sit and listen to “Metallica” doing a
sound check for their big gig, not a bad way to sit and catch your breath.
Unfortunately because I took us around the long way and time was getting away
from us we didn’t get to tour the Citadel. It is still a working military
establishment, so you have be on an organised tours to see it and we didn’t
have the time, so instead we walked along the city walls back to the girls.
Late in the afternoon we headed off to the Hilton to meet up
with the Barnards who are on their version of our trip, but going in the
opposite direction. One of the hotels we stopped at along the way mentioned
that they had had a few Aussies go through, funny that; there are a lot of us
on the road at the moment! Dinner was
spent with the Barnards and their lovely extended family – Chris, Deb and
Bryce; then down to the harbour to watch the history of Quebec screened in 3D
on the 100 grain silos that line the dock edge, very impressive. Eleven o’clock
and it was time to get the kids to bed so we headed back to the hotel after another
long and enjoyable day.
