Quebec City

10 August Quebec City

We took the ferry from Levis which is a 10 minute ferry ride across the St Lawrence River to Quebec City (QC, not to be confused with the province of Quebec).  We then headed to upper town to the fort of Quebec.  There are three tiers of street stairs and the AAA tourbook says its “170 precipitous steps of the aptly named Breakneck Stairs which have been around since the settlement’s beginning.”  We took a tour of the fort, however the initial fort wasn’t a substantial building until after the British beat the French.  The fort is called the Citadelle, despite being built by the British from 1820-1870.  At QC the St Lawrence River (Seaway) has a bend and dramatically necks down from a wide river to a much narrower defendable choke point.  When Winston Churchill saw QC, he referred to this choke point as the Gibraltar of the West.  Roger and I were both wondering why the people of Quebec still are so staunchly French, since the British beat them and later built the substantial fort to defend Canada from any potential Yankee action.  In fact, the French basically left North America once they were defeated and the remaining French Canadians were left to trap and trade, just like they had been doing since French settlement of Canada, without protection of the French government.  Our guide sort of glossed over the facts and said that the French Canadians were and are a staunchly proud people.  The Citadelle is headquarters to the only French Canadian Regiment in the Canadian Army, the 22^nd Regiment.  This Regiment speaks French and does all its official duties and correspondence in French.  The Commander of the Regiment is always French Canadian.  This whole segregated idea seemed very different to Roger and me.  (The Changing of the Guard Ceremony at 10 was canceled today, due to strong winds.  However two guards were posted at the entrance to the Citadelle.)

After we left the fort we strolled through the park and upper city.  The most architecturally interesting building in old QC is the Fairmont “le Chateau Frontenac” Hotel.  The AAA guidebook recommended strolling through the lobby, which we did because its interior is an example of Canadian Railway Architecture and was the meeting place of Canadian leaders, Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt during World War II.  We eventually wound up at the marina where there was an Art Festival.  To me, it looked like a lot of leather, clothes and purses with local labels slapped on the item for re-sale as “art.”  There were several woodcraft items and jewelry for sale that were local art.  I didn’t see anything I had to have.  Roger sat on a bench while I cruised through the tents.

On the way to the ferry pier, we were passed by well over 100 T-Rex cycles.  Apparently there was a rally at the lot right next to the ferry pier.  We had to wait as they drove by, because the police were giving them right of way just to get them out of the lot.

Roger is busy trying to figure out where we are going tomorrow, as we’re headed north and further east.  We have ferry reservations for 16 August from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Channel-Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland where we will spend a week before returning to the mainland.