Quebec

If you could order weather, today would be a day you would order--75 degrees and blue sky as far as the eye could see.  Perfect for our two hour drive to Quebec following the St. Lawrence river.  The river valley was wide and lush with farms fields like a patch-work of varied shades of green and amber dappled with silos and church steeples.

We started our visit here with a stop at Battlefield Park where the British defeated the French in 1759, the beginning of the end of New France in North America.  Quebec is filled with outdoor restaurants and cafes and we were more hungry than interested in more Canadian history so we joined the rest of Quebec and found a place to eat and enjoy the sunshine.  We could get fat in Quebec.  Last night at dinner and today at lunch a dessert was included in the price.  We figured we had paid for the food, so we might as well eat it!

We checked into our hotel, The Clarendon, which is one of the oldest hotels in the old walled city of Quebec and very charming. No more dorm rooms for us.  I am looking forward to 400 count sheets and plush towels!!

We walked the old city starting with a visit to Notre Dame Basilica, as beautiful as any cathedral in Europe.  Old Quebec is a charming place which makes you think you are in Paris.

Diane

It was a great ralaxing day for both Diane and I. Quebec in a truly beautiful city, and the French language gives it the European aura. The weather was perfect, and we now know where all the tourists are.

We had debated whether to either start or end our trip with two major North American cities/ We had just returned from Hong Kong and several large Chinese cities, and were yearning for something different. Now after almost 2 and 1/2 weeks in more rural areas, we are excited to be back to the wonderful richness and diversity of an urban area. Quebec is the place.

We are learning much more about French Canadian history. Its interesting to note that even though the British Army, with some help from their American colonists defeated the French back in the 1700s at the famous Battle of the Plains of Abraham here in Quebec, today French is the predominant (and official) language of Quebec. Although the British won, they let the Catholic Church stay on as a predominant social and governmental structure, and the French Canadian Catholic kids muliplied much faster than their English Protestant contemporaries. So-today in Quebec, we have many more Catholics than Protestants, and the Catholic church controlled the schools, the social services, and many other things until as late 1970. One of the ironies of faith, politics, and warfare.

So much for today's history lesson.

Joe