Quebec City

---

Slept late in Montreal, we loved the Hotel Denis and the very comfortable bed. Started to pour rain about 30 minutes out of town and it continued all the way to Quebec City. We are staying at the Maison Historique James Thompson B&B and it is right in Old Quebec so we parked the car and went about on foot for the rest of the day and evening. We tried to use my notes from guidebooks and Internet searches to see both Upper and Lower Old Towns, but decided it was a lot more fun just wandering around taking in the beauty and history wherever we were.

It was raining the first hour after we left the B&B so we spent most of that time in and out of shops and also eating a great lunch at a coffee shop in Upper Old Quebec. I had quiche lorraine, of course. During this rainstorm a sudden gust of wind lifted a large umbrella from its stand at a sidewalk cafe about 25 feet in front of us and it flew right into Joe. Quick reflexes saved him and he caught that sucker in mid-air and then quickly collapsed it as the manager of the cafe came running after it. She was very grateful and concerned that Joe might have been hurt. I thought she should have at least given him a free dessert for saving her umbrella and for him not complaining about it flying into him. Shortly after that wild incident, the rain stopped which made everything a lot more fun.

I had read that some people in Quebec City get annoyed when tourists speak English to them. We found this to not be true, everyone in this city has been very friendly and helpful. There weren't a lot of tourists today, the Labour Day weekend is over and the weather was damp so maybe the shopkeepers and cafe owners are happy we are here at all.

Our photos today consist of buildings and more buildings, but they are pretty buildings!

---

Photos

Chateau Frontenac
Literature says this is the most photographed hotel in the world. You think so?

Maison Historique James Thompson
This is our B&B in Old Quebec, lots of history here. That's our white Ford Fusion rental car in front.

Maison Historique James Thompson
Our room is very large and comfortable.

UNESCO
Old Quebec City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We try to see as many of these special places as we can.

Lower Old Quebec
...and the St. Lawrence Seaway

Du Petit Champlain
Supposedly the narrowest street in North America.

Funiculaire
We didn't use this, walked up and down.

Lower Old Quebec
The lower part is older than the upper.

Place Royale
Area where Champlain built the first house in Quebec City in 1608.

Place Royale
I think there should be a statue of Champlain here instead of Louis XIV.

Comments

[judy mosset]

I ge.t more inspired with every entry. Love the Quebec City pix

[Karen and Jim Jones]

Hi
Tres charmant! I want to go there!

[Lois Settles]

LOVED theh pictures.
It has not changed a bit since we were there 12 years ago! Such a lovely "European" place. When we were there we sat at an outdoor cafe next to a family from Georgia. They were trying hard to speak French to the waitress. She was having trouble understanding the French with a Southern Drawl. The waitress finally said, plainly, "I speak English!" We enjoyed the military maneuvers on the grounds of the fort.

[Jane Bender]

Wow, just like I remember. Beautiful pictures and we are loving going on the trip with you. So glad Joe caught the umbrella!!! You two should become travel agents or publish trips to take with all the places to stay, eat and visit. Thanks for the blog. J&D

[Jane Bender]

Poutine
I am watching Cooking Channel and they are doing this Quebec food dish called Poutine. It looks like the ingredients would kill you if you ate it all the time but you should try it----probably at a bar type restaurant or a food truck. Thought you might be able to fine it there. J&D

[J J]

Poutine
If you go back and look at my entry for Ottawa, you will see that we tried it there. It really is delicious but very filling and we couldn't see eating a very big portion. It's just french fries, gravy and cheese curds. I'd heard about it for years so wondered what the big deal was.

[Marcy]

We found Quebecers really hate English and had bad experiences there
When we were in Québec city recently we found that a lot of french refuse to speak English. We know some French and spole to them in French and they pretended not to understand. They play a lot of head games which a form of abuse. We found them to be extremely abusive people and the province seems on the verge of civil war. We believe there a group of French who are targetting the English tourist areas in Québec city. On rue St Jean some demented guy had a bunch of wasps in a jar and when we walked by he opened the jar and of course, the wasps were very aggressive and stung one of us. The guy looked at us and said it was the wasp's way of giving a Quebecois greeting to the English. Another experience we had was when we went for lunch at a hamburger place on rue St Jean and when we opened a bottle of ketchup the ketchup exploded all over us. It sounds like they have a lot of deranged characters walking the Streets there and we advise not going there. It sounds like the use the political situation as an excuse to go around verbally and physically attacking English people.

[J J]

Quebec City
Wow, when was this visit? We found just the opposite in visiting Old Quebec City. We spoke English (after saying "Bon jour" to everyone and all the shopkeepers were extremely friendly and spoke English back to us. Do you really think the exploding ketchup bottle was intentional? I've had that happen to me before and that's just the way ketchup is sometimes. I do have to say that we did find it a little odd that there is so little English signage in Quebec when there is both English and French in the other provinces.