Quebec City

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Hi, All --

Quebec City is an amazing place -- historic, picturesque, charming, beautiful, fascinating, full of life, a city of Old Europe in North America and very, very French. Wikipedia calls it "the cradle of French civilization in North America."

This fall we stayed in the same campground as we did in the fall of 2005, located in the little town of Levis right on the St. Lawrence looking across at Quebec City. Both days we took the ferry from Levis to QC and back, $12 round trip for senior citizens.

This is a very old city by New World standards. Samuel de Champlain first established a fur-trading post on the St. Lawrence River in the location that became QC in 1608. In its 400 year history, QC has almost always been the capital of something, and, since 1867, Quebec City has been the capital of the Province of Quebec.

While we were in Quebec City, we had a lovely Italian lunch one day and lunch the second day in a restaurant that specializes in rabbit (lapin). And we walked and walked . . . and walked. We walked from the ferry to the very top of the city, Battlefields Park (also known as the Plains of Abraham). I figured this was around 986 steps. (Elevation 575 feet, 7" per average step.) That's a whole lot of steps. We could have eaten a couple of rabbits and still been hungry when we got to the top. Three hundred ten of the steps are actual steps; the rest of the climbing was going up one street after another as the streets went up and up and up. And what a view from the top!

The shops are amazing, showcasing beautiful, creative, delicious things, things you really, really wish you could buy. And so many shops with such a variety of goods! For you who are window shoppers, you could spend many happy days here just perusing all these delightful shops.

During our first visit several years ago, we toured several historic buildings. This year we mostly soaked in the deliciousness of the city.

A few nuggets:


• QC is the only fortified city in North America north of Mexico. The fortifications are located at the very top of QC at the Citadelle, adjacent to Battlefields Park.
• Historic Quebec (the Old City) was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.
• Over a half million people live in Quebec City proper.
• 1.5%!o(MISSING)f the people are primarily English speaking; 94.6%!p(MISSING)rimarily French speaking; 65%!s(MISSING)peak only French.


If you've been to France, particularly Paris, and enjoyed yourself, I have no doubt that you would thoroughly enjoy Quebec City. And you don't need to cross an ocean to see it.

For those of you who are new to this blog: You can double click on any of the photos to see the larger version and then move back and forth by clicking on the arrows on the upper right or upper left of the photo.

Next blog: Canadian side of Niagara Falls

Take care,

Paula & Bob

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Photos

Chateau Frontenac
This is what one sees most clearly from the other side of the river (Levis). It's huge and sits just a little above the river.

harpest
I'm almost sure he was in this same spot in '05.

a view from the steps
This was from part way up the steps to Auxillary Park.

shining copper roof
Does anyone know what building this is?

church steeples in Levis
This is the little town of Levis where we stayed. I can count eight church steeples in this photo. That's a lot of churches for a little town.