Quebec Part Deux

Did I mention that Quebec city is beautiful?  Picture this day (minus the two kids in tow if you must), taking a horse-drawn carriage through the narrow streets of the old Quebec, meandering through tight corridors where actual window shopping exists (the windows were actually open and had wares in them for display), traversing the walls of La Citadelle, stopping for authentic french crepes, and sipping hot chocolates on a patio.  Who would have thought this could be done with two kids, but the day went great and was by far our best day on the trip.


Even though we were up early, the sleep at the Chateau Frontenac was one of the best ones we had.  The beds and pillows there were like clouds that you could rest your head upon and drift quickly asleep.  Shan was up around 6:30 AM (a first on this trip, we've been typically getting up at 9:00) and thinking about a dip in the pool. She tried to go back to sleep, but found herself dreaming about the pool, so she ended up going alone to the pool and hot-tub.  Shan deserved the time alone, and I needed the additional Z's before heading to the pool myself.  We had promised Liam to take him in the pool in the morning, and he loved it there and didn't want to leave (as usual).  After getting ready, we headed down to the Le Café de la Terrasse for breakfast buffet.  The food was fantastic, as expected, and certainly made up for the horror de cuisine the previous night.  Our attempts to book another night at the grand hotel would have cost us $700, as they only had suites left.  We graciously bid farewell as the price was SIGNIFICANTLY more than our expedia-aided purchase, and we could never spend that much on hotel sleeping...no matter where the location was.

After checking out, we headed straight for the horse-drawn carriages that could be rented.  It was a 40 minute ride, and a first for all of us.  Our driver's name was Denny, his sidekick terrier Winston, and his horse was named Queen.  It was a great chance to see old Quebec without doing all the walking.  Old buildings from another time lined the streets, and could be purchased for mere millions.  Statues of Quebec's hero's and heroine's dotted the landscape...Champlain, and Joan of Ark were the figures likely mentioned on all the tours.

Coming from the hour long tour by horse, we thought it would be time to move our vehicle from its prime parking location.  We pulled our "caravan de cargo" from its safe haven in front of the hotel and found some parking down the hill, adjacent to old Quebec.  I'm thinking that those valet's were tired of seeing that sweet rig there, and tired of trying to navigate around it.  Down below in old Quebec, this is where we started to walk around the old cobblestone streets, and you could just imagine going back in time, me in my top hat and suit or smoking jacket, and Shan wearing a thirty layer dress.  We toured the lower portion of old Quebec where the window shops were, and then hopped on an electric mini-bus that took us back up to the top of old Quebec, more specifically the Citadel (or La Citadelle au francois).  The Citadelle was somewhat of a disappointment.  Not only did we have a two-year old going squirrely (he was tired and fell asleep on the carriage ride), but the Citadelle is an active military base, so the only way you could see most of it was by guided tour.  Shan and I both knew that the tour was out of the question.  I have to wonder though, are the French guarding their city against a naval attack?  I'm not sure if those canons up on the walls could muster anything against today's military might.  All joking aside, the history and purpose of the installation was neat to see, even if was only walking on the tops of the outside ring.

Our "tummies were empty" as Liam likes to say, so we stopped at a authentic crêperie for...what else...crêpes!  I like breakfast crêpes, but who knew that you could put almost anything in a crêpe and charge over $10 for it!  The French knew...that's who!  Shan had a crêpe filled with asparagus and sauce, and I had a veggie-pizza crêpe.  My dish tasted ok (I still couldn't get over the thought of sweet breakfast crêpes) and Shan's...had a lot of asparagus.  My mom's breakfast crêpes with homemade jam were still better in my opinion, and they were free!

Our last stop was a quick walk around the boardwalk of the Chateau Frontenac, one last time for picture taking opportunities.  I think we snapped to good photos of the surroundings.  Liam wasn't interested in any picture taking at this time, so we started to hoof it down the steep streets toward our vehicle.  In the ten minutes that it took to walk down, Liam had fallen asleep on the rough sidewalks and streets and almost slept for another two hours beyond Quebec city on our way out!  Let's just say, he did not have an early night at our hotel in Edmundston that night.  


Our commute out of Quebec was horrid as they only have two large bridges for traffic.  I got the feeling that most people worked on one side of the river and lived on the other side in Levis (not the jean maker, there is a special character on the e).  I also think that having only two bridges is part of the plan of the French to defend their city even further!  Once out of the city, and out of rush hour traffic, the flow smoothed out and we were well on our way to New Brunswick.  Of course, we had to stop for one last "dooble dooble" as I kept telling Shan that's how it would be pronounced in french.


To backtrack a bit, I should mention our wild adventure in Montreal here.  We never did end up stopping in the city, well I should say parking.  Montreal is an absolute nightmare to drive in.  As a westerner, it's your first major city coming up from bilingual Ottawa on the 417, and all of a sudden at the Quebec border all the road signs are in french only.  Now, I know a little french, mostly the counting part learned from Sesame Street...and I could deduce some of the road signs, but let this be a word of warning to other visitors who are not comfortable driving in such a foreign land!  So, you have an hour of practice with some road signs, and there's fun and games with your wife trying to come up with a translation...all of a sudden, you are thrown into Montreal!  Quebecers or Quebecois...not sure what is right here...are ALL crazy drivers!  They go mach whenever they can, they drive right on your bumper (mostly because if you have a spare foot ahead of you, someone will try and squeeze in there), and they are not courteous at all.  Someone in Ottawa told us to avoid the 40 going through Montreal...that there was "construction".  Well, she did not tell us the entire highway was under repair!  If I had to guess, we followed the 40 for about 20 km and it took us an hour to get through...it was bumper to bumper, six lanes wide if you include the on-ramps which you can use as sub-highways by getting off and on again!  Absolute madness.  I used to think that if you could drive in Calgary, you could drive anywhere!  Well, I've now changed my tune to "If you can survive in Montreal, you can drive anywhere!"  We've should have stayed on the 20, which appeared to be a more scenic route.  Also, I'm sure there are nice things to see in Montreal...we certainly did not see them in our little trek, but hope to be back to visit there again someday.