We woke up late, hoping to not hearing rain…the skies were
dark, but not raining yet. After a
leisurely breakfast, we realized to could make it to a Park Ranger tour in the
Old City if we walked quickly. We decided
we could do it! It was about a 40 minute
walk at a fast clip, and we arrived just after the tour took off and we quickly
caught up with them. For the next 90
minutes, we were guided by a young Parks Canada ranger through a history of Old
Quebec City, focusing on the fortifications and walls that were built
throughout the years. This was very
interactive, with lots of thought-provoking questions that kept both adults and
children engaged.
As we walked, we also got a great view of the sheer size of the Chateau Frontenac. Our guide gave us a lot of inside
info on the back and forth history of who was in charge of the city and why
different they were built and taken down.
This area was a critical one, where the St. Lawrence River narrowed, and
one that was considered an the key to
what is know Canada. It was first controlled by the Iroquois, then by the
French, then by the British, and then the Americas tried to get it and failed. Lots went on here!
An interesting tidbit was that part of the last building of
walls and fortification came after the American Civil War because they feared
the Americas would come and try to conquer Canada after the war was over. They had no clear idea how depleted to US Army
and people were following that war. The
American attack never happened.
After the tour, we went to lunch (a noontime dinner) at one of
the oldest building in Quebec City. The
restaurant featured typical classic Canadian comfort food. Just like a French-Canadian
grandma would have made. The menu
featured wild game, lots of meat and potatoes, things like pigs’ knuckles,
seafood, lots of desserts with maple syrup.
We considered it our big meal of the day and settled in to with gusto
(skipped the pigs’ knuckles though).
Nice food in a cozy atmosphere.
The light rain had now begun, and Patti wanted to go to a
church sponsored flea market. There were
found friendly encouraging volunteer salespeople who would have happily filled
our car up with “treasures’. We managed
to leave with only a couple pairs of beautiful earrings, plus a designer pillow
from a fancy store. The pillow had decorated
canoe paddles on it (very masculine, by reported of one of the saleswomen).
Although it was raining, we went down the funicular (kind of
like a glass enclosed room that moved down the slope). This saved us walking
the stairs in the rain.
When we got down to the bottom, this was where more of the
really old city was located and has been restored. On a sunny day, this would have been a fabulous
areas to walk around in…in any weather, including this rainy weather, it was
still very interesting. Just wet!
We went into a museum which really talked about the history
of that area as part of Quebec. Lots of cool exhibits, and in the basement they
had an area where Patti got to try on a lot of traditional costumes. She was
surprised that the yoke and the wooden buckets were really heavy even without
the water. And they had costumes in all sizes, always a plus in Patti's book.
The rain had slacked off, so we explored a little more and
found a little place to have a cup of tea and watch people walk on by. Very cozy!
As we returned to the funicular we had the chance to look up a very
French looking street to the Chateau on the bluff above us. It was all so charming!
Then we walked back to our little apartment, thankful that
the rain had nearly stopped. We spent
the evening in, having made dinner in our small kitchen. A great day.
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