September 23, 2007
Sunday
Breakfast in our lobby every day was pastries, cereals, hard boiled eggs, cretons and cheddar doux. Cretons are small patties of pork paté. A day that begins with paté is going to be a good day.
François from Tour DuPont picked us up in the lobby to begin our City Tour. He told us that Quebec’s population is 700,000 and 95% are white, Catholic and speak French. One-third work for the government. They have a saying in Quebec–"I am Canadien, tax me. I am Québécois, tax me again."
They have snow from mid-November until the end of April. Pleasure boats moored in the yacht harbor must be taken from the water and parked on land each autumn. The St Lawrence river level fluctuates daily with the tide, from 12-22 feet even though Quebec is 400 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
Samuel de Champlain was attracted to Quebec because it is the first place where the river narrows to less than one mile in width. Kebec is a native word meaning "narrows."
September 13, 1759, British General James Wolfe tired of lobbing cannon balls from Isle Royal into the city of Quebec and sneaked his forces up river where they landed on the 250-acre farm that belonged to Sir Abraham Martin, a Scot who married a Québécoise. The Marquis de Montcalm panicked when he saw the troops outside the walls of the Citadelle and sortied forth to attack. The Brits were regular Army with repeating firearms and the French were militia with single-shot rifles. Within 20 minutes, the issue was settled, though both generals lay dying on the battlefield. Thus is rendered the fate of nations.
After the city tour, we boarded a boat, the Louis Jolliet, named after someone who lived a long time ago, and cruised downriver to catch a sight of Isle Royal and Montmorency Fall, taller than Niagara but not as wide.
After disembarkation, we walked up Break-Neck stairs yet again and wandered about until we lit at Café Terrasse La Nouvelle for lunch. Gail had French onion soup and I had caribou stew. Our server sang a song about Rudolph as she served the stew.
We watched a street performer sing and play afterward at the UNESCO monument. He spoke in French and sang in English and shuffled in a circle with a drum on his back, a bell on his belt, a harmonica hanging before his face, all connected by cords attached to his feet and playing in rhythm to his shuffling gait. Then he asked for contributions from "rich Americans" but he asked in French so we ignored his plea and walked away.
We signed up for the 4:00 tour of Chateau Frontenac. The hotel was built in 1893 to accommodate railway traffic.
At the end of the19th Century, British Columbia asked to join the Dominion of Canada but the country required a trans-continental railway to make that practical. CPR built the railway but the cars of the time did not provide sleeping accommodations. The solution was to build hotels along the way for passengers to spend the nights during their travel across the country. The first was at Banff and the second was in Quebec.
The hotel was built originally with 170 rooms and has expanded over the years to 618.
In August of 1943, 2,000 guest reservations were cancelled without explanation. The reason was a meeting among Prime Ministers Mackenzie King, Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt in the Salon Rose to plan Operation Overlord.
After one of the meetings, a housekeeper picked up a folder that had been left lying on the table. It was a complete plan of the Normandy invasion. He turned the folder over to his supervisor and was given around-the-clock security until the operation was safely launched.
We toured one room, the Alfred Hitchcock Suite, named for the English film director who came here in 1952 to film I Confess. It is a two-level room with a circular staircase in the center and a secret passage out the back.
Monday
The old city of Quebec is built on a hill. Today we explored parts we had previously not seen. We walked across the hill to the Tourist Bureau where they had no information on the mural in
Basse-Ville. The Musée du Fort was not operating its video presentation so we did not enter.
We walked down the hill toward the Fire Department (les pompiers) and shopped amongst the shops along the way. The fire fighters traded patches with us and went back to eating their lunch.
We walked around the base of the hill to Ville-Basse, up Break-Neck Stairs and back to the Frontenac for beers and snacks. Another late lunch at Aux Anciens Canadiens and back to the hotel to prepare for departure.
Sunday
Breakfast in our lobby every day was pastries, cereals, hard boiled eggs, cretons and cheddar doux. Cretons are small patties of pork paté. A day that begins with paté is going to be a good day.
François from Tour DuPont picked us up in the lobby to begin our City Tour. He told us that Quebec’s population is 700,000 and 95% are white, Catholic and speak French. One-third work for the government. They have a saying in Quebec–"I am Canadien, tax me. I am Québécois, tax me again."
They have snow from mid-November until the end of April. Pleasure boats moored in the yacht harbor must be taken from the water and parked on land each autumn. The St Lawrence river level fluctuates daily with the tide, from 12-22 feet even though Quebec is 400 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
Samuel de Champlain was attracted to Quebec because it is the first place where the river narrows to less than one mile in width. Kebec is a native word meaning "narrows."
September 13, 1759, British General James Wolfe tired of lobbing cannon balls from Isle Royal into the city of Quebec and sneaked his forces up river where they landed on the 250-acre farm that belonged to Sir Abraham Martin, a Scot who married a Québécoise. The Marquis de Montcalm panicked when he saw the troops outside the walls of the Citadelle and sortied forth to attack. The Brits were regular Army with repeating firearms and the French were militia with single-shot rifles. Within 20 minutes, the issue was settled, though both generals lay dying on the battlefield. Thus is rendered the fate of nations.
After the city tour, we boarded a boat, the Louis Jolliet, named after someone who lived a long time ago, and cruised downriver to catch a sight of Isle Royal and Montmorency Fall, taller than Niagara but not as wide.After disembarkation, we walked up Break-Neck stairs yet again and wandered about until we lit at Café Terrasse La Nouvelle for lunch. Gail had French onion soup and I had caribou stew. Our server sang a song about Rudolph as she served the stew.
We watched a street performer sing and play afterward at the UNESCO monument. He spoke in French and sang in English and shuffled in a circle with a drum on his back, a bell on his belt, a harmonica hanging before his face, all connected by cords attached to his feet and playing in rhythm to his shuffling gait. Then he asked for contributions from "rich Americans" but he asked in French so we ignored his plea and walked away.
We signed up for the 4:00 tour of Chateau Frontenac. The hotel was built in 1893 to accommodate railway traffic.
At the end of the19th Century, British Columbia asked to join the Dominion of Canada but the country required a trans-continental railway to make that practical. CPR built the railway but the cars of the time did not provide sleeping accommodations. The solution was to build hotels along the way for passengers to spend the nights during their travel across the country. The first was at Banff and the second was in Quebec.
The hotel was built originally with 170 rooms and has expanded over the years to 618.
In August of 1943, 2,000 guest reservations were cancelled without explanation. The reason was a meeting among Prime Ministers Mackenzie King, Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt in the Salon Rose to plan Operation Overlord.
After one of the meetings, a housekeeper picked up a folder that had been left lying on the table. It was a complete plan of the Normandy invasion. He turned the folder over to his supervisor and was given around-the-clock security until the operation was safely launched.
We toured one room, the Alfred Hitchcock Suite, named for the English film director who came here in 1952 to film I Confess. It is a two-level room with a circular staircase in the center and a secret passage out the back.
Monday
The old city of Quebec is built on a hill. Today we explored parts we had previously not seen. We walked across the hill to the Tourist Bureau where they had no information on the mural in
Basse-Ville. The Musée du Fort was not operating its video presentation so we did not enter.We walked down the hill toward the Fire Department (les pompiers) and shopped amongst the shops along the way. The fire fighters traded patches with us and went back to eating their lunch.
We walked around the base of the hill to Ville-Basse, up Break-Neck Stairs and back to the Frontenac for beers and snacks. Another late lunch at Aux Anciens Canadiens and back to the hotel to prepare for departure.
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