Advertisement
Published: July 10th 2022
This morning we’ve arranged to do a tour of the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. We meet our guide, Thomas, who tells us that he’s a French travelling salesman, and that he’s 112 years old. We’re perhaps struggling a bit with that last bit, but at least he’s dressed the part.
We’re told that the Chateau is named after Louis de Buade de Frontenac who was a much loved Governor General of New France in the late seventeenth century. It was originally built by the Canadian Pacific Railways as part of the company’s grand railways hotel program which includes such other icons as the Banff Springs Hotel, Chateau Lake Louise and the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton Lakes National Park. The logic was that if they built a railway, the passengers were more likely to travel if they had somewhere to stay when they got there, and didn’t have to sleep in the snow where they might get eaten by bears (although, as I was reminded the other day, most bears are asleep when it’s snowing…..they take their hazards one at a time here in Canada). The Chateau was opened in 1893. It wasn’t that big originally, but has been
expanded three times, the last of them in 1993. It’s certainly a very imposing structure. Its tower is just a tad under 80 metres high, and the whole structure sits on a cliff that’s already some 50 metres above the river bank. We’re told that it’s the most photographed hotel on the planet, at more than 6,000 shots per day. Thomas says they know this because that’s the number of photos uploaded to social media on average every day. He doesn’t tell us anything about the poor bastard who has to count them; that’s surely taking tedious to a whole new level.
As I heard up at the Citadelle a couple of days ago, one of the Chateau’s major claims to fame is as the site, together with the Citadelle, of the two Quebec Conferences between the Canadians, Roosevelt and Churchill in 1943 and 1944. These were apparently organised in complete secrecy. The guests were all told to get out and find somewhere else to stay at a moment's notice - “had to be rehoused” is the term Thomas uses. I wonder how that went down. The locals knew something was afoot, they just had no idea what. The
Quebec Parliament building
Not quite sure why the US flag is flying…rumour mill then took over. Everyone became convinced that Quebec was about to get a visit from the Pope, so the number of confessions per day at the local churches went through the roof. I hope they weren’t too disappointed when it turned out instead to be just a couple of foreign politicians. It seems they had to wait a while to finally get to see their Pope; he did eventually turn up here, but not until 1984.
We’re shown into the room where decisions were made about the D-day Normandy landings… well it might have been this room; it was somewhere around here anyway. Apparently no one’s too sure because no pictures were ever taken, as they didn’t want any records kept in case they fell into enemy hands. The Secret Service set things up so that the building could be evacuated in 15 seconds if something went wrong. Thomas tells us that they reckoned that if a ship full of ballistic missiles sailed up the River, it would take the would-be assassins 45 seconds to get them all set-up, so they reasoned that they had a full 30 seconds up their sleeves to get everyone out (I’m
not exactly sure how you could know this, but they’re the Secret Service and I’m not, so I guess they must have worked it out somehow). Perhaps unsurprisingly the press was a bit curious about why their distinguished visitors were here. They thought they might get a bit more out of the ladies, but when asked, Mrs Roosevelt and Mrs Churchill responded that the Canadians were nice and they liked the weather.
We take an effortless stroll up the 318 steps past the Citadelle and into the park known as the Plains of Abraham. Well it should have been an effortless stroll after yesterday’s monster 487 step effort, but maybe we still need a few more days’ training. I assumed the park was named after the biblical figure, but wrong again. Abraham Martin was a Scottish fisherman who moved here in 1635; I hope he spoke some French. The Plains are the site of the apparently famous 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham (what else). It might have been famous but it was also apparently quite short - all over in half an hour. The British defeated the French, which allowed them to take control of Quebec, and
then the whole of Canada the following year. We wander through the very attractive Joan of Arc Garden which features a statue of the great lady on horseback as its centrepiece.
We go into Subway to get some lunch. I ask the young man behind the counter “parlez vous anglais?”, which I hope means “do you speak English?”, and he says that he does. When he finishes making the order I want to thank him in French, but instead I blurt out “gracias” (which after six years of trying to learn Spanish I really hope means “thank you”). He rolls his eyes at me, more in pity than anything else I think…..
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.028s; cc: 11; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0397s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Potayto Potahto?
Just caught up on all your posts - what a fun adventure you guys are having; and escaping our horrible winter too! I just laughed out loud at your 'gracias' gaff, because my 'hablo un poco de espanol' has got very confused with my 'parlo poco italiano' on many occasions when travelling... Oh well, at least we try :)