We only had a short drive on Tuesday when we left Trois Rivieres, so we started our day back at the coffee shop, Le Cafeier, just around the corner from our excellent hotel. The shop was sunny and warm, with delicious coffee and pastries!
I wanted some more breakfast, maybe eggs and cheese or something more substantial, so I walked across the street from our hotel and ordered what turned out to be a blueberry tart. Oh well! It was yummy and nice to sit in the sun with locals. That’s our hotel in the background!
We took a long road to Quebec City, avoiding Montreal which we love but had already been to several times. This trip was all about Quebec City! The sun was out and it was dry and cool. The road followed the Saint Lawrence Seaway nearly the entire route.
The map took us through several small towns in between beautiful farmland. We stopped at a very small general store and had a salmon and cream cheese sandwich, sitting outside at a picnic table with the Seaway in the distance.
I have always wanted to go to Quebec City–I just knew it was going to be amazing! The incredible building featured at the top is the Chateau Fontenac, a 610-room hotel and built in 1892. It towers over the port and historic Old Quebec City. It is an old city, founded in the 1600’s and now has a population of around 500,000.
The weather was glorious, 64 degrees, sunny and dry. We walked block after block of Old Quebec, which is full of yummy restaurants and nice shops, definitely playing tourists! There was way more English spoken here, which made it easier, although it would have been helpful to have English on this sign, warning you of snow falling from the rooftops!
We hiked up to the fort which is so high you can see very far, with a park that runs endlessly along the water. We circled around into the business area and saw the parliament building, with beautiful gardens.
The city has the only fortified walls north of Mexico.
We walked down to the port in the morning, watching the ferry take cars and people across the Seaway. A cargo ship started blasting its horn when a sailboat was in its path! The local marina was filled with pretty boats and lots of industry.
A cruise ship was loading up with guests, near a statue dedicated to people from Quebec City who died in WWII. I thought about how many places I had seen WWII monuments. The massive monument in Washington DC of course. In Japan, Mike and Katie spent time in Hiroshima, where they acknowledge WWII with a peace memorial. In France, where entire cities were destroyed. In Italy, where the Resistance fought against Communism. And in Germany, where so many young people also lost their lives. I had never really thought about Canada’s role in the war, yet here it was.
Our hotel offered a continental breakfast in their beautiful room right on the street. In the morning, we relaxed and enjoyed the delicious coffee and beautiful view of the area. My nephew Nathan said it looked like Uncle Mike was having breakfast with the President!
You can see the beautiful park outside the window, and the towering hotel just beyond.
We ventured out on a brisk morning walk near the historic district first. We found a wonderful coffee shop where locals were holding Zoom meetings and visiting with friends.
There were cute shops, banks, even a working radio station with someone broadcasting! We did a double-take when we realized these adorable dogs in the window were real! As if on cue, when we walked in the store they both silently walked over to greet us, tails wagging. It absolutely made me want to shop there!
Whenever we travel, Mike always finds the local music stores–you never know when a new guitar might end up in our car! We were really enjoying “Old Quebec,” but we always like to see where the locals live and work. A friend of Mike’s had told us about a pizza place and a brewery to try, so on Day 2 we mapped out a long walk to visit all these places.
At lunchtime we found the little pizza place. I was very excited that they had individual small pizzas with unique toppings! Mine included pistachios and lemon pesto, with burrata cheese in the middle.
We got to the music store around 2 pm. Quebec City is full of steep hills and stairways that were giving my calves a workout! This was 92 steps:
We had been excited to see the real parts of Quebec City and planned to spend hours, but gradually we started seeing graffiti and many homeless people. Just outside the door of the big, well-stocked music store were people milling about. Soon we saw some beautiful, old, European-style churches, but quickly it was apparent they were vacant and people were living in the courtyards. There was an uncomfortable feeling of despair. Many of the people were our age, or maybe 10 years younger but looked our age. I really wanted to investigate further, but two people began arguing and Mike insisted we move on.
By the time we got to La Korrigane brewery, Mike was unwilling to sit outside despite the beautiful weather. Inside was cozy enough, though few people were there at 4 pm. I was eager to speak to the bartender–she was about 25 years old. When Mike stepped away I told her that friends of our had told us to come to her brewery. She seemed surprised, and in good English confirmed I meant our friends told us to come to her brewery “precisely!?” Yes, I affirmed. Mike came back and heard us chatting about the area and openly told her it seemed a little “sketchy.” She said yes, it was sketchy and seemed to like that description. I asked her how she got to work. She used to take the bus, but a guy started yelling at her, so now her boyfriend drops her off or she walks or takes her bike. Honestly, I could not imagine living there.
The area did not improve as we started trying to find a better route back. It seemed like a middle class neighborhood, but had a sullen, gloomy feeling that did not make you want to be out and about.
I felt a sense of hopelessness and confusion–if Canada is this bad, what will happen to the rest of us. That evening we hiked up to the nearby fort again, where other tourists relaxed on the fireant-free grass, which you can see in the featured photo. The wind was cold and I thought about how homeless people in Quebec City manage in the winter. They cannot make their way to Florida to warm up–and this was in June and in the 40’s overnight.
But the next morning dawned bright and sunny and cool. There was a funicular (cable car that takes people down steep slopes, like we used in Naples, Italy), but it cost $5 each way for each of us, so we hiked down steep stairs and streets and earned our dessert to see the area by the port. You can see here how far down we had to go! You can also see the smaller ships that go out for dinner cruises or take you across the Seaway to the city of Levis.
The entire area by the port area is made up of darling shops, boutiques, restaurants. We had dinner outdoors this time, in our safe-feeling area. It was then I noticed we had not seen any police or military anywhere in Canada at all–very different from USA, Europe, Mexico, even Japan.
The prices were high in Canada, which really surprised us. We had thought we would go next to Halifax, or even farther to St. Johns, but the prices were shockingly high! Two nights in Halifax, for instance, would be well over $600 after a very long car ride. Now that camping was not happening, we started seriously researching areas that were smaller, less touristy, and therefore maybe less expensive. At the same time, we became a little concerned that these places would not be nice, or worse, they might be a little sketchy. We still had more time, so now where would we go?
My heart hurt just a bit because despite our experience the day before, I was enamored with Quebec City, but would I come back here again? I did not know.
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