After Montmorency Falls, we headed to our Bed and Breakfast, which was about 20 minutes outside of Quebec City. It was love at first sight, as the house was beautifully situated on Lake Charles, had its own boat dock (and fire pit and picnic tables) and the proprietors were super nice:
 |
| Gite du'Art |
 |
| Our room |
We made it an early night because we committed ourselves to the 8am breakfast slot (Pierre likes to host breakfast in 2 shifts so he has enough time to talk to everyone, but we decided 9:30 was a little late to get going). We were a little concerned when breakfast appeared, as we did not know how the kids would react to Eggs Benedict, but they loved it!:
After breakfast, we headed into the old part of Quebec City (and found the specific parking lot that Pierre had directed us to). It was pouring rain when we arrived, so we decided to duck into the Quebec Parliament building, which was right across the street from the lot. It turned out to be a lot more interesting than expected:
 |
| Pretending to give a voter engagement speech |
 |
| Abby wanted in on that action, too |
 |
| The sign of England -- we found these lions all through Quebec |
 |
| Along with the shamrocks for Ireland (and thistle for Scotland) |
 |
| Stained glass window depicting Champlain's "discovery" of Quebec |
 |
| Parliament chamber |
By the time we headed out of the building, the rain had slowed (and quickly stopped) and we walked towards the old city:
 |
| Benji outside of the part of the Parliament building I could fit in the frame. It was huge! |
 |
| Fountain across the street from Parliament |
 |
| Entering old town through the old city fortifications |
 |
| Out first stop was the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, which had beautiful stained glass |
 |
| Dufferin Terrance |
 |
| Under Dufferin Terrace is a cool archeological site maintained by the city. It has the ruins of the old governor's mansions that were built on this site |
 |
| Original window looking out on the river |
 |
| Back out on the streets |
 |
| This statue usually has street performers - there was a guy juggling while we took this picture |
 |
| We took the breakneck stairs down to the lower city after lunch |
 |
| Cool art installation |
 |
| Inside Notre Dame des Victoires. The story they told us was that during the siege of Quebec the women came to pray here (2 different times) and that after both the first and second invasions were repulsed, they renamed the church to honor the victories |
 |
| This bust is always here, but the globe around it (turning it into a snow globe) was a limited time installation |
 |
| Mural of the Quebecois |
After thoroughly exploring the lower town, we took the funicular back to the upper town, where we crossed Dufferin Terrace one more time to get to the Plains of Abraham (and eventually back to our car):
 |
| The funicular |
 |
| Upper level of the terrace |
 |
| You don't often see army tanks rolling through cobblestones (they were on a military exercise) |
 |
| View from the Plains of Abraham |
 |
| The Plains of Abraham (where the English finally defeated the French for control of Quebec) were only partially open because of reconstruction work, but we got a good idea of them from what we could see |
 |
| Another view from the plains, with the Chateau du Frontenac in the background |
 |
| Guards in front of the Citadel |
 |
| Gate back out to the regular city |
We stopped by the Grand Marche on the way home to pick up more local bread, cheese and fruit for a picnic supper. These vendors had far less English than at Jean Talon in Montreal, but we managed. After a delightful supper, we decided to take the kayaks (well, one kayak and one canoe) out on the lake to enjoy the sunset:
We had one last morning in Quebec, which was also Abby's birthday. We brought her one present to open at the table, which also alerted Pierre and Linda to the fact that it was her birthday:
 |
| Obligatory shot with birthday bear (Abby chose to sleep in the closet with the foam mattress, so this was "her" space) |
No comments:
Post a Comment