Québec City is not a football team, to rival Halifax Wanderers but the capital of the province of Québec, no surprises there eh?! Staying at a campsite on the opposite side of the St Lawrence river we were able to easily cross from Lévis on the ferry, as it’s one of the narrowest stretches of the river… bit like Canada’s Gibraltar but without the agro! A tourist spot, we shouldn’t have been surprised by the number of tour groups, and living near Bath for so long, the number of ‘end of term’ school groups either.
Immediately, as we’d seen already on our Québec journey, it’s very French, and why not?! The French fought hard and even tried to gain independence in 1970’s so Scotland isn’t the only one, nor the Catalan’s and Basque’s regions in Spain. From the port we headed initially for the lower part of the Old Town in what was to become a day of steps. Place Royale was full of non-locals, so the square was immaculate. To be honest, all of the Old Town was, and pretty gentrified. Buildings, reminiscent of French style with their sloping roofs were so smart they looked new. Québec City mural had been painted on the side of one and for some reason, a fella was sticking tin foil to another. Such a variety of styles already and real mix of new and old, especially at the Hotel de Ville. Being the area that it was, it was abound with cafes and ‘gift shops’ (to use the term lightly) The ‘Bank of Montreal’ must have had some issues as it’s now “Cool as a Moose” 😊
Getting back to history as we like to do, Artillery Park is the part of the city where the French, British and Canadian military presence has been since 1712. The buildings there really show how this part of life was a core integral part to the original development of Québec City itself. Talking of tradition, the old prison is now a library (Morrin College) and the close-by Maison de la Literature was once a Methodist Church of 1848. Outside, a Baroque style “Vanitas” sculpture, designed to remind humans of their mortality and the precariousness of everything eg contemporary objects, tv, mirror and trophy alongside traditional symbols, skull, candlestick and fruit. Interesting!
We meandered our way to Notre Dame Basilica de Québec, dating back to 1647, an opulent building that has been rebuilt a few times but is home to a spectacular 3D fixture at the altar. Very French in feel with muted colour paintings and wall art to offset the gold.
At Dufferin Terrace is the statue to Samuel de Champlain, explorer and founding father to Québec in 1608, after exploring Acadia 1604-1607. Lord Dufferin, of terrace fame, was British Governor and seemingly, all round good guy, who, in 1874 wanting to preserve Québec heritage, extended the terrace creating a lovely 430m promenade atop the cliff face. After that he commissioned the Funicular to link the two parts of town and in 1884, a wooden slide which is still there and used in winter. It very much looks, and is, original! He also commissioned the Champlain monument in 1898. Fair play we think, a British leader who did the right thing by history.
I mentioned steps earlier, there’s the horizontal ones (paces) and the vertical ones otherwise known as stairs…. The Governors Promenade has a lot of stairs/steps… 310 in fact. Commemoratively built in 1958 to reflect 350 years founding, they join the Dufferin Terrace to the Plains of Abraham and yes, we walked them, up. I couldn’t help notice that the runners were tending to be heading the opposite direction, not that I’m one to brag about fitness! Anyhow, after a rest at the top and a catch of the view as well as breath, we wandered back through the plains where they were setting up for an almighty music festival, with a line up to challenge Glastonbury, to the Québec Parliament Building. What a building! Built in the style of The Louvre it’s home to the Québec National Assembly (and I don’t mean a room of school kids sitting crossed legged before the headteacher) Completed in 1886, just outside the Old Walls it is spectacular, it’s frontage adorned with 26 statues of significant people through the ages and it’s good to see First Nation recognised here.
Having walked our socks off the first day we decided to do it again… however we headed further out of the Old Town for a look around. Enthusiastically (not!) climbing the multiple sets of steps up from the port again, we went into Le Chateau Frontenac. It’s the iconic, overwhelmingly dominant building of the Québec City skyline. To be fair, it is the archetypal, grand, turn of the century hotel that suits tour groups and Starbucks lovers (the only one in town thankfully!) We saw plenty of folks with the paper cups, why not try something different, we thinks! When in Rome etc, oops Québec…😊 Anyhow, some quaint Royal Mail post boxes, an ostentatious bar and designer shops, what more could you need? It was the place Roosevelt and Churchill planned war tactics though, not sure if that was in the bar or not! The first UN agency was also established there in 1945, though knowing the UN, they probably couldn’t decide which room to use.
Out in the suburbs we headed to the ‘arts district’ of Montcalm. On the walk we came across a great variety of architecture, everything was different and the designs, really interesting. Cartier Street is it’s hub, an eclectic feel and no doubt a buzz in the evening, when their 34 giant hanging lightshades must cast a lovely hue over the street scene. Walking through Fauberg (we learned Fauberg means a poorer district outside the walls of a defended city, makes sense now with Fauberg Marigney in N’orlins) it actually felt quite San Francisco’esq as many of the roads off the main, were steep down to the water, with flat streets crossing. A surprise find was a church converted to a modern library, Biblioteque Clair-Martin (famous Canadian writer) and a gold Jesus to rival Rio’s!
Ending up back at one of the entranceways to the Old Town we headed to the streets behind the tourist melee and found Harry Potters house, no. 9½, and high above the docks we could look down on the old apartment blocks, small outdoor terraces and stairwells. Very reminiscent of A Streetcar Named Desire, which shouldn’t be a surprise really given the New Orleans Frenchness isn’t that dissimilar to parts of Québec City.
Wandering back to the port as the sun started to go down, we thought Mary Poppins might have been in town. Lovely old street, more bars… why not?! We sat reminiscing about sore feet but more so about how much we’d enjoyed Québec City. Lots to see and do, gorgeous and varied architecture and somewhere clearly very proud of it’s heritage. We won’t be heading to that many cities we don’t expect (don’t quote me on that!) but this has been a real treat. We didn’t know what to expect but we loved it. People were great, friendly everywhere, even if O level French didn’t go that far. We took meeting new people to a whole new level though, meeting Steve and Maggie at the campsite. No word of a lie, Canadian Steve’s cousin lives about 5 doors away from Nicks M&D! Nick’s dad and he are now setting up a Canada Travel Group in Redditch 😊
PS… Jigsaw is fine! No, she still hasn’t caught a chipmunk or a squirrel but they do tease her somewhat rotten!
The Curious Adventures of the Cat in the Camper Van 