QUEBEC CITY

'I'll be a Quebecker-Canadian. I'm from Quebec, and every time I go to a country, I say that. It's my roots, my origins, and it's the most important thing to me.'  Celine Dion

'Vive le Quebec libre!'     Charles de Gaulle

'Je me souviens'          ( 'I remember')..on licence plates of all Quebec cars.

Getting there:

We set off from Tremblant in the pouring rain, headed for our next stop at Quebec City. The original plan  had been to keep to the main highway till past Montreal and then deviate to the more scenic and picturesque King's Highway for the majority of the journey. As the rain turned into a virtual monsoon we decided to rethink, keeping to the faster route, until a stop in a greasy-spoon service station ( 3 vendors of burgers and chips being all that was on offer) made us take the King's Highway. How glad we were that we did as almost straightaway we were in a lovely village and a Cafe sign beckoned.

Had we hit lucky! Delicious coffee and cakes and a beautifully restored Victorian house and cafe full of antiques and memorabilia.

You can see Steve made himself at home.

A quick conversation in French established that they offered B and B so, as we had nowhere booked yet for our night after leaving Quebec, the deal was done on the spot.

Quebec's History:

For centuries the cliff-top site of what is now Quebec City was occupied by the Iriquois village of Stadacona and, although Jacques Cartier visited in the 16th century, permanent European settlement did not begin until 1608 when Samuel de Champlain established a fur-trading post here. The settlement shifted to the cliff top in 1620 when Fort St Louis was built on the present-day site of the Chateau Frontenac. 

Missionaries arrived in 1615 and soon the city and surrounding province were Catholic. A power-struggle ensued between the priests and wealthy fur merchants, resulting in  Louis XIV declaring the entire French colony a royal province in 1663. 

Before the end of the century there was fighting between France and Britain, and work began on the fortifications that ring Vieux-Quebec. In 1759 the 20-minute battle on the Plains of Abraham saw the city fall to the British. Sixteen years later the town saw an unsuccessful American attack after which, for the next century, the city became the centre of a timber-trade and shipbuilding industry. By 1840, however, accessible supplies of timber had run out and the final blow to prosperity came with the appearance of steamships that could travel as far as Montreal.
With the 'Quiet Revolution' of the 1960s and the rise of Quebec nationalism, Quebec City became a symbol of French heritage.

Basse Ville:

The oldest part of the city, renovated in the 1970s, rambles along the St Lawrence river at the foot of Cap Diamant. Lower Town is where our hotel was. It's a charming place with cobbled streets 

and historic houses. You really get the feel of how the city would have looked when it was built.

We stayed in an hotel

 in Rue Saint Paul (the road famed for its antique shops)

 which proved to be perfectly positioned in Basse Ville, just a short distance from the funicular to Haute Ville (housed in the 1683 Maison Louis-Jolliet, built for the retired discoverer of the Mississipi),

though it was hardly necessary to take it (except out of curiosity)

 as the steps up, despite their name of escalier casse-cou (Breakneck stairs), were not a problem.

We'd decided in advance not to have breakfast in the hotel, but to find coffee and croissant. And we found a marvelous boulangerie ( Brasserie et Cie) in Rue St Paul, a few doors from the hotel, which baked on the premises huge offerings.

On the subject of food, if you're staying in Quebec where else to have dinner but a French restaurant (the 'Mistral Gagnant' in Rue St Paul) owned and run by a man from Provence?

Just opposite the restaurant we spotted some strange shapes protruding from what looked like a window.

It turned out to be part of an Installation Art event organised by EXMURO, a non-profit organisation for the promotion of contemporary visual arts in Quebec City. The pictures above are described by them  as '.... entanglements of sensuous, waving cedar fragments (that) sprawl above our heads'.
There were 6 exhibits, of which we saw 3. A little further along Rue St Paul was 'Stock en Transit',

'  .... an impressive number of colourful objects ...that question our tendency towards excessive consumption and hoarding ... especially in the summertime'.
And further along, 'Delirious Frites'

where ' ... the stroller who ventures through finds himself caught in a canal where pool noodles are used to modulate tactile, nearly organic paths that feel sensuous to some and yet troubling to others'.
So now we know!!

At the top of Rue St Paul this interesting statue leads to the Place Royale.

Place Royale:

The site of New France's first permanent settlement in 1608, it was originally known as Place du Marche until the bust of Louis XIV was erected here in 1686.

After 1860 it was left to fall into disrepair and only renovated in the 1970s when its stone houses, most of which date from around 1685, were sand-blasted.

Eglise Notre- Dame -des -Victoires:

On the west side of the Place Royale, it was built in 1688 but has been completely restored twice since then with very little of the original remaining.

The fortress-shaped altar alludes to the two French victories over the British navy (in 1690 and 1711) that gave the church its name.

The large model ship suspended in the nave is a gift from early settlers to give thanks for a safe passage.

Rue du Petit-Champlain:

Dating from 1685, it is Quebec's oldest street and North America's oldest shopping area.
French artisans built homes here as early as the 1680s, and Irish dockworkers moved to the area in the 19th century. After a period of decline and neglect, these homes have been transformed into 50 art and speciality shops and restaurants.

Musee de la Civilisation:

We went in here partly because it was recommended in the guide book for having blended-in so well architecturally with the much-older surrounding buildings, but also, we have to admit, because we were soaked and needed some time indoors! There's an 'interesting' mix of exhibits, the largest by far concentrating on the history of Quebec. Many of the exhibits we found very user-friendly and informative but unfortunately, after about 1945 the 'history' gets lost in a patchy coverage with a markedly nationalist tone. 

Upstairs there's a gallery devoted to Greek and Roman mythology, and downstairs a hands-on area on geology. 

Perhaps the mistake lies in its title: a museum of 'civilisation' has a lot to cover and is a hostage -to-fortune!

Haute-Ville:

The ten-square kilometres of Haute-Ville, encircled by the city walls,

form the Quebec City of the tourist brochures.

Place d'Armes:

This main square, with benches around a central fountain, is Haute Ville's centre of gravity. Champlain established his first fort here in 1620, on the site now occupied by the Chateau Frontenac.

Chateau Frontenac:

Haute-Ville is dominated by this steep green copper-roofed landmark, a luxury hotel built by the Canadian Pacific Railway on the heights overlooking the St Lawrence River. In the 19th century American architect Bruce Price designed the hotel as a French-style chateau on a huge scale (it now has over 600 rooms) with dozens of turrets, towers and a high copper roof studded with rows of dormer windows. Building continued for almost a century after the first section of the hotel was opened in 1893 (its distinctive main tower was only added in the 1920s), with a final part completed in 1983.

Terrasse Dufferin:

Fronting the chateau, this wide clifftop boardwalk provides a spectacular view over Basse -Ville.

At the north end of the Terrasse, near the funicular station, is this statue of Champlain.

Parc Montmorency:

Tucked between the upper and lower parts of the old city, this land was granted by Champlain to Canada's first agricultural settler, Louis Hebert,

and was later the meeting place of the city's first legislature in 1694.

The evening we visited it was beautifully lit by solar lights, giving the area a magical feel.

Musee du Fort:

On the north-east corner of Place d'Armes, this museum's sole exhibit is a 37-square-metre model of Quebec city c. 1750.

Basilica Notre-Dame-de-Quebec:

This cathedral is the principal seat of the Catholic archbishop of Quebec, whose diocese once stretched from here to Mexico. Fire destroyed the first 2 churches built on this site before 1640, and the first cathedral built here was torn down by the British in 1759. The fourth version  was burned to the ground in 1922 and had to be rebuilt in the original style. The crypt, which is not open to the public, is said to house over 900 bodies including, allegedly, that of Champlain.

 Price Building:

You would think you were in New York when standing outside this 18-floor skyscraper, built in 1930-31. Intended as the new headquarters of the prosperous Price Brothers Limited, the building provoked controversy as it replaced two historic buildings and was criticised as being out of proportion in a mixed commercial and residential area where few buildings exceeded 4 or 5 floors. 

Hotel de Ville:

This imposing building was erected in 1833 and is still the city's town hall.

The small park surrounding the building was home to a stunning Halloween display!

Rue du Tresor:

This tiny alley, closed to cars, is something of a Quebecois institution. Originally the place where French settlers paid their taxes to the Royal Treasury, nowadays it is an artists' market.