Quebec City, August 10, 2023

Thursday we were in Quebec, Canada. Quebec City is the capital of the Province of Quebec. Quebec was founded in 1608 by the French explorer Samuel D. Champlain. As an aside, no one knows where he is buried. In Louise Penny’s book, Bury Your Dead, people are looking for his body. Approximately 800,000 people reside there. We hired a guide from toursbylocals.com again. His name was Steeve and he was excellent. We spent 4 hours with him and learned lots of history. We spent some time on the Plains of Abraham, and learned about the battle(s) for the French territory of Canada/Quebec from 1756-1763. In US history we are taught that this was the French and Indian war. The British general, Wolfe and the French general, Montcalm were both killed. Eventually the British navy, in a battle that lasted 11-18 minutes, was successful in winning the territory of Quebec. Thus, the British became the owners of all of 🇨🇦 Canada and gained control of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Only 13 years later, the US colonies declared war against the British and eventually won the revolution.

Steeve and I had a discussion about the Louise Penny book ‘Bury Your Dead’ which takes place in Quebec City. Because I was a Penny fan, we went by some of the places mentioned in the book. He was most accommodating and dropped us off in Upper town where we spent the afternoon. We had a great lunch and a 1.5 mile hike back to the ship. For some reason, I was exhausted. After dinner, we came back to the room. I fell asleep before 7 and only got up for the fireworks, which were wonderful, when we left the dock. I then fell back asleep until 7 this morning.

View from our balcony. Hotel Frontenac is the tall structure. Frontenac was the governor of Quebec for 40 years. Hotel Frontenac was opened in 1883 as a rail road hotel. In the most photographed structure in the world.

Don’t children just make you smile?

Beautiful murals everywhere. Vieux Quebec is so pretty, it looks like a city Walt Disney would have created. There is an upper and lower city and one can ride the funicular between the two!

Vieux(old) Quebec.

Steeve, our guide.

It wasn’t as crowded as it seems in the photo.

The eyes are an installation to remind us big brother is watching.

The train station. Isn’t it lovely?

A view from the Plains of Abraham. He was a Quebecois farmer. Once it was a battlefield where the French and British waged war. It is now a beautiful park.

We ate lunch at Le Temperel, the next restaurant down. It was fun and the food was delicious.

I told le garcon this was the best seat in the house. His reply was, and I quote, “we can’t hide a F’ing thing from you“. He didn’t say F’ing….he said the full word. We both laughed. All the guys were young and having a normal work day. Very small restaurant. Maybe it seated 25?

BEFORE

Roscoe and I shared this. It was an omelet, potatoes, ham, salad, jam and really hot, buttered bread; all for $19 Canadian. About $13 US. However the 2 glasses of Chardonnay were $20. But it was worth it.

AFTER

It‘s the little things that make me happy. Lavender goat soap for my cabin

shower.

The store where the soap came from. It also had goat milk ice cream, which I thought was very good.

Night view. As we left port. I told Roscoe I would love to come back here for a week when it’s so hot in Florida next summer.

20 minute fireworks display as we left port. I wasn’t able to find out if we were just lucky or if they do this for every cruise ship. Au revoir Quebec. I hope I get to return.