Canada 2006
Québec, 4 – 6 Oct 06
Québec City is the only place we have ordered take-away pizza with escargot (snails)! It is also the only walled city north of Mexico.
Jacques Cartier arrived in 1535 but it wasn't until Samuel de Champlain's arrival in 1608 to establish a fur trading post that European settlement prospered. The site is obvious since the wide Gulf of St. Lawrence narrows to the St. Lawrence River and the cliffs provided natural defence.
Stone fortifications were built in 1720 but they weren't enough to keep out the British whose troops scaled the cliff just west of town and taking the defenders by surprise, captured the town in 20 minutes. The Treaty of Paris formalized the arrangement in 1763.
However, the walls came in handy when the Americans attacked in 1775. The Canadian War Museum site notes that although the British had lost control of everything outside the city walls, the Americans were "unable to harm, or even seriously inconvenience" those inside. Time was against the Americans as winter's grip tightened and even if they could hold out till spring, the Royal Navy would be able to bring reinforcements. In a desperate move, 300 troops led by Richard Montgomery attacked the Lower Town at 4am on December 31st, 1775 through heavy snow and ice but they were ambushed. Montgomery was killed and his men fled.
Meanwhile, Benedict Arnold, later to become famous as a traitor, led 600 men into battle a little to the north in blinding snow. Arnold was wounded early and though many of his men got lost in the narrow streets, some pressed forward. Again, the defenders were ready and soon the Americans were forced to surrender with between 60 to 100 killed or wounded and 426 taken prisoner. Only 5 British/Canadian men were killed.
Eventually peace brought prosperity and the city became a center of shipbuilding, wheat and lumber trading.
The National Assembly of Quebec meets in this room. We took the public tour but I missed the information that the upper house was abolished in 1968 making the Quebec legislature unicameral
The other end of the same room. Nice clock.
I think there were four other nations represented as having made a significant contribution to the development of Quebec.
The Montmorency River plunges 83m/272ft just before it reaches the St. Lawrence River. It had been raining heavily the day before so I suspect the water volume was somewhat higher than normal. Every guidebook notes it is higher than Niagara Falls but the comparison is not particularly relevant since the characteristic that makes Niagara unique is the sheer volume of water. Nevertheless, this was impressive and quite loud up close.
Not recommended for those afraid of heights.
The St. Lawrence River is in the background., Quebec is around the corner to the right.
It was about to get uncomfortably wet because of the spray. Wearing glasses becomes problematic since they get covered too and it is hard to see where you are going.
To get back to the car park, you can walk back up hill or pay Can$6 to take the cable car. There is a steep, rough, poorly-marked trail that avoids the spray and we took that along with a couple from northern Ontario. They were the only people to say "eh?", supposedly a quintessential Canadian phrase.
... and look, a flash of a woman's ankle!
The eastern side of the park was a battleground in 1759 as the British attempted to seize Quebec from the French. The battle was indecisive after a sudden rainstorm wet the gunpowder making firearms useless so both sides withdrew. The real battle came later at the Plains of Abraham just outside the city.
Limited fall colors.
Parks Canada has an office on the ground floor of the building with 2 staff members but no tourists except us to assist. It was delightful to speak to one of them and get some brochures, including a tour of lighthouses along the Gulf of St. Lawrence which looked like something we might do.
After the forgotten Viking landings and brief settlement in Newfoundland in 1000 AD, the next European to reach North America was John Cabot who landed in 1497, also in Newfoundland, just 5 years after Columbus reached the Caribbean. In 1525, Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first to sail up what is now the United States east coast but he headed for home and only sailed past the bottom of what is now Nova Scotia. It was not until 1534, that Frenchman Jacques Cartier explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence on his first voyage hoping, like Columbus, to find a quick route to Asia. He didn't find one but he did meet the Iroquois indians and captured two of them to take back to France!
Cartier returned the following year, returning the indians to their tribe. Leaving his 2 larger ships anchored at what is now Quebec where the water narrows, he took a smaller boat as far as what is now Montreal. By the time he returned, it was too late to return to France so they made preparations on shore as best they could for the winter. Ice 1.8m/6ft thick formed around the ships, there was 1.2m/4ft of snow on shore and scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency broke out among the crew killing many.
On a third voyage in 1541, the aim was to create a permanent settlement but the Iroquois killed many of the settlers, there were no easy riches of gold or silver to be found so they returned the following year. It was not to be until 1608 with Champlain's arrival that a permanent colony would be established.
Unfortunately, no paintings or sketches of Champlain survived if any were made, so all statues, including this one, are pure guess work.
Or perhaps they are just selling to American tourists.
At least it looks traditional. On closer inspection, I wondered it was actually modern.
To quote from the AAA guidebook, "These stairs have existed since the beginning of the settlement; due to the steep grade, an order was issued in 1698 forbade residents from transporting their livestock on the stairway".
The plaque apparently says that the house to the right was owned by Louis Jolliet, who with Jacques Marquette, were the first Europeans to explore the Mississippi River. Although Canada is in theory bilingual and Quebec receives a huge number of international visitors, many signs were in French only.
I thought the architect had achieved something remarkable with the back of this building. The soft yellow paint with black ironwork and bright window boxes makes this look quite attractive. It could be so dull.
Even though it is in French, it is obvious what it means.
No, the real reason is so that I can share with you the axiom that, "Tell a man that there are 600 million trillion stars in the universe and he will believe you; tell him that there is wet paint on the door and he will have to touch to make sure"!
Note the sign at right indicating the shop sells camera film. How 20th century.
I realize now what a dreary photograph this is because you can't see the spectacular drop to the right down to the river. However, I include it here to remind us that the cold wind was only part of the reason why the expansive boardwalk is empty. Just up ahead is the worst street musician I have ever heard—his guitar playing was quite good but his singing was terrible!
We saw a lot of red roofs on our trip but this house is particularly smart.
I believe this might be St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, , completed 1810.
Lan had a sore foot so we elected to take a trip out of town in the car to see lighthouses along the St. Lawrence using a brochure we had picked up the day before. We didn't realize till we were well out of town just how far away the lighthouses were and that it was not going to be practical to visit them. Nevertheless, we had a fun day out as you'll see...
