After breakfast at the motel and a quick ‘merci’ to the breakfast attendant, it was time to brave the journey to Old Quebec where we had an appointment to meet our guide, Annabelle, at a hotel with a convenient parking garage. The first challenge was to reconcile the instruction from our GPS, Lia (short for Liahona), and the street signs. Roger was tasked with safely driving us while my role as navigator and co-driver, meant watching the street signs ahead and directing the driver. The highway signs were directing us to “sortie” to the “ouest” and if the traffic slowed so there was no ‘circulation fluide’ or if there was a ‘risque de collision’ we had best be prepared for a quick ‘arret’.
After a couple of inadvertent trips around the block, we found the parking garage and made our way to the lobby of the hotel where we were to meet Annabelle. Knowing we had a 2 hour walking tour ahead of us, we made a quick stop at the doors marked ‘femme’ and ‘homme’.
A few minutes later, Annabelle breezed in the door and greeted us enthusiastically. She was definitely a proud Québecoise. She took us first to the parliament building of Quebec.
The exterior of the building featured numerous statues of famous French-Canadian historical figures and explorers. “Sadly”, she told us, “they ran out of money to finish the building so were forced to go to the queen and beg for funds to complete the place. Begging for anything from the hated English was like a dagger to the heart, but it had to be done. The queen agreed to provide the necessary funds…with stipulations, namely, that the English royal crown be placed atop the building. Quel dommage. Nonetheless, they had to swallow their pride and agree. Once the funds were given and the building completed, great care was taken to place a very large Quebec flag atop the royal crown.
Annabelle was a fountain of information about the history of Quebec, dwelling often on the hated ‘Conquest’ of the French by the British. It was clear that the Conquest was ever present in the minds of every citizen of Quebec, even though it happened in 1759. Today their license plates say, ‘je me souviens:— I remember. There is no doubt in my mind what it is they are busy remembering.
The narrow streets were full of tourists from the cruise ships that docked on the nearby St. Lawrence River.
It was clear from some remarks she made, that Annabelle’s family was very traditional Catholic, but that she herself was not religious. At some point she caught herself making a negative remark about her religious roots and then worried that we might be offended by her remarks, so she asked, “are you religious people?” We answered that we are religious but not of her family’s faith and that we were not offended.
“Oh…then you must be Protestant,” she said.
“No, we are not that either.”
“Well what religion are you then?”
“We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints…sometimes called Mormons.”
We were dressed for a cool, rainy day walking around the city, in jeans, sweaters, hooded jackets, and sneakers. Puzzled she asked, “but you are not dressed in long dresses and old-fashioned clothing!” I think she had us confused with someone else!
As we got to know each other we discovered that her father is the same age as Roger…yet thinking of her father she said, “You both seem so young…your faces just glow!” So we gave her a nice tip. Au revoir, Annabelle
After our walking tour, we had a short time to wait before our afternoon bus tour, so we stopped at Le Chic Shack for a quick dish of poutine. Since it appeared to be rather a yuppie restaurant, it served yuppie poutine.
Shortly after lunch we were on the road to see the countryside around Quebec City. First we stopped at Montmorency Falls, where we spent just an hour, which was fine with me since some idiot had the idea of building a narrow walkway across the top of the falls as well as a rickety stairway that climbed up to that walkway. I was glad not to have time to climb it because I would have had to turn down the ‘opportunity’.
We then visited the Ile d'Orleans which is in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. The island used to grow much of the food for the city, and even now grows lots of strawberries. It also grows VERY expensive summer homes. We traveled all the way around the island, stopping to give the bus passengers the chance to buy lots of chocolate at the chocolate shop. Then we went to a copper art place and had a demonstration of how that is done before heading out to Ste Anne basilica to finish up the trip. After returning to Quebec, we ate dinner in the old city before coming home. Fitbit says we walked 5 miles that day.
