Exploring Old Quebec

also Chaudiere Chute

Staying in cities is very different from our usual travel. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Montreal (the previous post) and Old Quebec, despite some rain. Lots of walking and good eating, plus a museum and a waterfalls.

July 15, Saturday

Old Quebec is divided into lower and upper areas, which are connected by stairs or by a funicular. The streets are very narrow and made of cobblestone, lined with shops and small cafes with outdoor seating.

The very large Hotel Frontenac dominates the upper area. When we were there, buskers were performing in front of the hotel, along the St. Lawrence River.

Because we parked Big Blue at our hotel (a Travelodge), we took a taxi to Quebec, arriving around 12:30. We were hungry, so we went straight to an outdoor café attached to the Hotel Frontenac, called the Petite Chateau. It was a lovely setting under umbrellas and we enjoyed crepes and salad. Afterward we walked the city. At one of the Notre Dame churches, we saw an homage to Francois de Laval, who founded the Catholic Church in Quebec in 1675. (If you like religious history, QC is a good choice.)

It was a sunny day and we walked for hours. You can follow a promenade along the St. Lawrence and climb to the citadel. There’s an area called “The Plains of Abraham” which is park-like. From there we walked back down to the lower area, and stopped at a riverside café for a beverage. It was cool in the breeze but hot anywhere else.

Eventually, around 7:00 in the evening, we caught a ferry across the St. Lawrence river to Levis, which is only a 12 minute ride. The wait was only minutes. We decided to go because we saw a Ferris Wheel on the other side of the river, and had the urge to ride it.

The Ferris Wheel was a carnival style, the kind that gets broken down and moved, so it wasn’t nearly as tall as the one we rode in Montreal, but much more scary. Then we caught the ferry back around 8:00. If we stayed a bit longer we might have seen the sun go down over the river. As it was, the sky was full of color.

Back at the lower area, we opted to ride the funicular up the hill, just to try it. Again, a very short wait and a quick ride.

We walked along the promenade again, past the Citadel, and into the “Festival of Summer Quebec” which is the largest festival of the summer, a gift to the citizens of the area because they can get a wristband for a whole week very cheap. Because we were tourist and hadn’t planned ahead, we were unable to get tickets.

Some of the events were free, so we stopped to listen to a band called “Les Hay Babes.” To me they sounded like a French version of the Indigo Girls. A crowd was listening and a few people danced.

The festival was very large. Cops were standing around in bright yellow vests, conspicuous but friendly. I noticed that people were using trash receptacles and sorting their garbage. You don’t see that everywhere.

Along a row of displays, folks were lined up to play corn hole, the bean bag game. They were in among some high-tech gadget displays, an incongruous mix that made me smile.

It had been a long day with lots of walking, so we found a taxi stand and went back to our hotel around 10:00.

The cab driver was from Rwanda and had been in this country for five years. He has a wife and two kids. All the drivers have been such fun to talk with and we learn so much about the area. Doug asks them good questions.

July 16, Sunday

We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant — I enjoyed an omelet and good coffee. I also requested a glass of water. The server asked me if I wanted it “in glass?” Since Doug wasn’t at the table, I thought maybe she was asking how many glasses. So I said Two glasses please. She asked again “in glass?" And I repeated my response. And she said, “But I am asking if you would like it en glass.”

Then I realized she was using the word for ice, GLACE, en glacé. It made me laugh. She was so patient!

I have a hard time with French pronunciation because I studied Spanish in high school. The accents work differently. Many words have similar roots in the Romance languages, French/Spanish, and that helps when I can see the words spelled out. But in conversation I am pretty hopeless.

Today was a rainy day so we opted for a museum. Doug bought tickets online for the Museum of Civilization, timed for 2:00. We took a taxi to the museum, and spent a little more than an hour there, on two exhibits — one on gender, and one on indigenous peoples.

We had umbrellas, and the rain wasn’t heavy, so after the museum we walked through the lower part of Old Quebec again. We visited another Notre Dame that had been closed the previous day. I have to say that there is an abundance of Notre Dames in Quebec. In this particular Notre Dame, there was a ship hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the sanctuary.

Then we climbed up to the Hotel Frontenac and went to the bar, where we spent a long time! We had a lovely view of the river, and it was fun to enjoy the luxury of a comfortable bar and delicious drinks. We chatted with the bartender, Felix, and also ordered some food. (Doug got another smoked meat sandwich, which was not equal to similar items in Montreal.)

We went back to the music festival and walked a lot more as the darkness fell. We stopped to listen to some reggae. After a while we stopped in an outdoor cafe on the main drag of the festival, intending to get a dessert. The place was very crowded and we were seated upstairs. There were no crepes on the menu so we shared a cheese and nut plate, and had glasses of Prosecco. The other patrons were two larger groups who were having fun, so that made it festive.

The headliner that night was Green Day and I had hopes of somehow getting in, but no luck. Tickets were completely gone. We went around to the back of the stage and watched the throngs. A few folks were sitting in the grass and I imagine the sound would travel back there. But it was rainy and everything was drenched and the concert didn’t start for another hour, so we grabbed a taxi back to our hotel.

July 17, Monday — Chaudiere Chute (near QC)

On our final day we headed out to see the falls named Chaudiere Chute, which are just across the St. Lawrence River in Levis. The falls were very high and turbulent, and there were lovely wooded walking paths on both sides.

There’s a suspension bridge for viewing the falls. It’s a very long bridge, and has quite a bit of give. When we were on it, an elderly man was jumping up and down, to make the bridge sway. He was tall and skinny, and wearing a funny hat.

His behavior was annoying because the motion made me sick to my stomach and we had to get off the bridge, and couldn’t look at the falls. A few minutes later, I saw the same man sitting on a park bench, talking intently to a teenage girl, who was very unhappy-looking. Which is proof that you don’t need to speak a language to know when someone’s being a jackass.

We walked quite a bit, a nice change of pace from cobblestones.

Then we had to find cell service for some important phone calls. That involved driving a lot of hilly streets!

After the calls we had a surprisingly good meal in Levis, before heading back to the hotel for our last night of luxury.

We’ve heard about an interesting historical site called Grosse Ile, where we hope to head next.