More French than France

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Geo: 46.8266, -71.3024

What a delight to have a bright sunny day with a cloudless sky. That is what greeted us when we docked in Quebec City. As we are a relatively small ship we docked in the Old Port and therefore could walk off the ship and straight into the old town. What a beautiful city Quebec is. It looks more French than Paris! In the old quarter we wandered through narrow streets lined with gorgeous shops and restaurants. We could have spent a fortune on the beautiful glass ware that is characteristic of this area. In the Place Royale there is a beautiful little church, the Eglise Notre Dame des Victoire,which is worth a visit. Bulit in 1688, it is the oldest stone church in North America. From the old town we took the Funicular up to the Chateau Frontenac, a huge castle built in 1893 in the French style. There is a board walk called the Dufferin Terrace from which there are great views of the St.Lawrence River. Buskers and musicians are plentiful along this walkway and the whole feel of the place is very European. We headed up through the streets some of which are filled with artists and their paintings Here there is another church worth a quick visit, the Basilique-Cathedrale Notre Dame de Quebec, which has an impressive gilded altarpiece. After all this walking it was time for a beer before walking further back to the Citadelle. I was looking forward to ordering "deux bireres" but rather like the Parisians they look at you as if they don't understand and reply in English so don't bother! You can walk around the old city walls and overlook a huge park called the Plains of Abraham, where the British defeated the French in 1759. Naturally we had to walk on this hallowed ground!

From the top of Cap Diament you have splendid views of the River and can take the boardwalk back down to the Dufferin Terrace where we started from. The boardwalk is a popular place for the locals to jog along so watch out for breathless joggers racing past you. Instead of taking the funicular down to the old town we took the Casse-Cou (the Breakneck staircase), which is not as bad as it sounds. There are some impressive old cannon lining the Ramparts above the port in front of the University. We could probably have got back to the ship this way but it looked a long way so we returned towards the old town and walked down the winding road, coming across a building with an impressive Trompe d'yeux painting on the side.

Our whole experience of this city was very positive. It was certainly the most beautiful we had visited and we would like very much to return to stay for a few days so would highly recommend it.

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Comments

[paul]

Yep - it's a beautiful city and, as you say, more French than France. You did know that the Chateau Frontenac is an hotel - yes? Hope your have/had a great time in Montreal - especially Vieux Montreal