Very nice campground but we did have some problems with low line voltage. Our surge protector monitors line voltage and if it gets too low it shuts off power as heat pumps can be damaged if they try to run on too low a voltage. So occasionally the power would be cut off and we would have to wait until the voltage came back up. It was a nuisance but not a big deal.
Friday, Aug 4th - Our campground is on the south side of the river in the town of Levis and Quebec in on the north side. The campground runs a morning and evening shuttle to the Quebec-Levis ferry which takes you right to the docks of old Quebec. It costs all of $3.00 for foot passengers so that is what we used to get into and out of the city. Here is a photo of the ferry.
We then got our first view of Quebec City as shown here.
Tied up to the docks were a pair of Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers that during the winter break up the river ice so that ship traffic can proceed upriver. Here is a close up of on of the icebreakers, the Martha L. Black. During the warm weather they work as buoy tenders.
Also tied up at the docks was this cruise ship, the Holland-America Maasdam. It was here on Friday, gone on Saturday and back on Sunday. It was on a Boston to Montreal 7-day cruise with stops in Bar Harbor, Nova Scotia, PEI, Quebec and Montreal.
Quebec is a major seaport and here is an example with these massive grain silos.
One of the major landmarks in Quebec City is the Château Frontenac, and we got a great view of it as we approached the city. The hotel is named after Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau who lived from 1622 to 1698 and was the Governor-General of New France from 1672 to 1682 and from 1689 to 1698.
This hotel is currently part of the Fairmont hotel chain but it was originally built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad as one of several hotels built to encourage tourism. It was designed by American architect Bruce Price and opened in 1893. It was quite a bit smaller at the time it was built and the central tower that dominates it wasn't added until 1924.
The image everyone has in mind of this hotel includes the green roofs. However, as you can see in this photo the roof of the tower is brown. That is because its copper roofing was recently replaced. Copper roofs start out copper colored, then turn brown and after several years turn green. So we need to come back in about 5 years so we can take a picture with all of the roofs green. Room rates start at about $350 night and go up from there.
The site of Quebec was first discovered by Jacques Cartier who built a fort here in 1535, stayed for the winter and then sailed back to France. He came back in 1541 to establish a permanent settlement but abandoned it in 1542 due to the hostile natives and the severe winter. Quebec was founded on July 3, 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer and diplomat, on the site of an abandoned Iroquoian settlement. It gets its name from the Algonquin word "Kébec" meaning where the river narrows. Champlain served as its administrator until his death in 1635. Quebec was captured by English privateers in 1629 during the Anglo-French War but was given back to the French as part of the peace treaty that ended that war. Quebec was again captured by the British in 1759 and Quebec and all of Canada was ceded to England at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. Quebec is the only fortified walled city in America north of Mexico.
Once we arrived in Quebec our first order of business was to take the Hop On - Hop Off Tour bus around the city so that we could get an overview and see some of the sites. This was one of the double decker open top buses so it was easy to take photos and see the sites.
Quebec is a walled city and still has five of its city gates. However, they don't look anything like they originally did. Local merchants wanted them removed completely as they obstructed traffic. As a compromise the originals were torn down and replaced with the new wide gates you see now. Here are photos of two of the gates. The first is the St. Jean's Gate and the other is the Kent Gate.
City streets are pretty narrow inside the walled old city, as seen here.
And to make driving thru the old section more fun, you have these horse and buggy tours to maneuver around. I asked and it cost $90 for a 2 hour tour.
Lots of restaurants clogging up the sidewalks including this one with the bright red roof that goes by the name Restaurant 1640 which is supposedly when the building dates from.
After the bus tour we grabbed lunch at this restaurant, "Spag&Tini" in the lower city.
Oh, I forgot to talk about the upper and lower city. Most of Quebec sits on top of some cliffs/bluffs that line the river bank but there is also a small area below the cliffs where the city originally started. To get from the lower to the upper city you can drive a rather circuitous route, climb a lot of steps or take the funiculaire, which is what we did. Here is a photo showing the upper and lower cities and the funiculaire connecting them.
Here is a close up showing the two cars that go up and down the hill.
Here is another photo showing the lower city street, the Funicular at the end of the street and the Château Frontenac in the upper city in the background.
Lots of old building in the lower city like these. These were built in the old French style with mansard roofs.
They have done a lot of excavation in the lower city and one of the things they have uncovered is the old Royal Battery that was built to defend the city from the British. It was built in 1691 and lasted until 1759 when the British captured Quebec after pounding it with about 40,000 cannon balls and 10,000 explosive shells. Here is a photo of a recreated gun emplacement.
And here is Pat with her favorite cannon.
Came across a few murals painted on the sides of buildings and this is an example. All of the figures in the windows are historical people from Quebec's past except for the couple smooching on top of the gate.
The oldest church in Quebec is in the lower city and is this church.
It was originally named l'Enfant Jésus and was built in 1687 on top of Champlain's original “l’Abitation”. Its name was changed to Notre Dame des Victoire in 1690 after the French won the Battle of Quebec and then to Notre Dame des Victoires in 1711 after a storm sunk a British fleet that was preparing to attack the city. It was largely destroyed by the British bombardment of 1759 and then restored in 1816. It is a small very plain church but it is the oldest stone church in North America. Here is a photo of the interior.
The sanctuary lamp is original and was given to the church by King Louis XIV.
The ship model hanging in the church is of the ship "Brézé" which brought the Marquis de Tracy, the French Viceroy, and the first of the French troops to Quebec in 1665.
There were lots of tourists in the streets of the lower city, as you can see in this photo.
That finished our first day in Quebec and so we caught the ferry back across the river. On the way back Pat got to meet a reborn Samuel de Champlain.
Saturday, August 5th - This morning we headed back across the river to Quebec. It was a rainy morning and so we hooked up with a tour of the ruins of the original castle that occupied the top of the cliff. Today if you visit the upper city, you can walk along the Dufferin Terrace which is a boardwalk that goes along the edge of the cliff in front of the Château Frontenac. The terrace wasa built because the land along the edge of the cliff is not level and slopes up toward the Château. As it turns out you can go under the terrace and there you will find the remains of the original Quebec castle. It is called a castle as it was the residence of the King's representative. When the castle was first built it was for the French representative, after 1763 it was the English representative.
All that's left of the castle is the basement and the first thing we came across in the basement was this ice storage pit. Back in the day, they would cut chunks of river ice, haul it up the cliff and deposit it in this pit. You can still see the boards at the bottom and channels cut in the sides to allow the melt water to drain off. On top of this pit was a storage room where they kept anything that needed refrigeration. In the foreground you can see a large glass bottle that someone has tediously pieced back together. It would have originally been used to store wine or other liquids.
Here you can see some of the original walls of the castle. the support post in the photo is for the terrace boardwalk which is just above us.
Here you see one of the cooking fireplaces. This one was originally built by the French but then modified by the British for their use.
This building was right across the street from the Château Frontenac. It's the office of the Ministére des Finances.
And here we are in the lobby of the Château Frontenac.
From the Château Frontenac we walked up the hill so we could get a better look at the fortifications and one of the gates. This is the St. Louis Gate.
Just the other side of the gate was this neat fountain. It was located in the Les jardins du Parlement and just in front of the Place de l'Assemblée-Nationale.
On the city side of the gate was a park with this monument to Canadian soldiers who had died in the Boer Wars in South Africa.
From here we walked back down Rue Saint Louis and grabbed lunch at a small restaurant, l'omelet, that obviously specialized in omelets. Pat had an omelet but I went for the liver and onions. All was good. Further down the road we passed this colorful restaurant that specializes in Canadian cuisine. The building itself is one of the original residences in the upper city and dates from 1675 and is the oldest surviving house.
On one of the side streets we came across this monument dedicated to the Ursuline Sisters who were the first Catholic nuns to work in North America. They arrived in Quebec in 1639 with the mission to care for the sick and needy and to educate girls. They founded the first and now oldest school for girls in 1650.
This small building which dates from the early days of the Ursulines in now part of their museum.
Right next to the Ursuline compound was the old Jesuit chapel. While the Ursulines taught French and native girls, the Jesuits taught the boys. Here is a photo of the back of the Jesuit chapel. It dates from 1818.
Our next stop was to see the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. This site was originally occupied by the trading house of the Company of 100 Associates. This company had the royal charter for colonization and trade in North America. When the church in the lower city burned down in 1640 it served as the Quebec church until 1657 and then was taken over by the Jesuits. When the British took over the city they built this church completing it is 1804. Here is a photo, unfortunately, there was a wedding going on so we were not able to see the interior.
We then headed back to the Dufferin Terrace and along the way came across this monument which was built in 1915 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of missionaries in Quebec.
We then walked along the Dufferin Terrace towards the Citadel and took serveral photos of interesting sites along the way. First there was the U.S. Consulate. It is the red brick building with the green roof.
We then had this very nice view of the Château Frontenac from the side.
At this point it began to rain fairly hard so we called it a day and headed back to the lower city. Took the Funiculaire and here is the view you get as you are headed down.
We then caught the ferry back to Levis and our campground.
Sunday, August 6th - This morning we took the ferry back into the city so we could go to Mass at the cathedral. When we got to the Funicular to get up to the upper city, it was shut down for maintenance so we had to climb a lot of steps. Out in front of the church there was this monument to Cardinal Elzear-Alexandre Taschereau who was the Archbishop of Quebec from 1871 until his death in 1898. He was the first Canadian cardinal, helped found Laval University in 1852 and served as its second Rector from 1860-66 and 1869-71.
And here is the Basilica Cathedral of Notre Dame de Quebec.
It was has been located on this site sine 1647 but has had to be rebuilt several times due to fire and the British bombardment of 1659. Most recently in 1922 it was gutted by fire set by the Canadian branch of the Ku Klux Klan.
Here are photos of the interior, the main altar and the top of the baldachin above the altar.
Here is one of side altars.
The rear of the church and the organ pipes.
And the pulpit.
We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the Museum of Francophone America which tells the story of French speaking people all across North America. It is housed in the Seminary of Quebec which was founded by Saint François de Laval in 1663. Laval is considered to be the Father of the Canadian Catholic Church and was the first bishop of New France. Here is a photo of the entrance to the museum.
To get to the museum you have to pass thru the original chapel of the seminary. Here are photos of the altar and the rear of the chapel.
Interesting museum with lots of exhibits tracing the history and contributions of the French speakers over the years. Wasn't much to take photos of but I did take this one of a native beaded pouch.
After the museum we headed back to the ferry and our campground. As we were pulling into the dock at Levis I did take photos of a couple of interesting houses and the steps you have to take down from the top ot get to the parks along the river.
Tomorrow we leave Quebec and head to Montreal.
Joe and I love Quebec City. We honeymooned there and stayed at the Chateau Frontenac. Returned to this wonderful city many times, including last September to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Merci!
ReplyDelete