Québec Day 2 (19 July 2018)
What a delightful day today has been! We drove from the RV Park to the ferry, which took about 10 minutes. Once we bought our round trip tickets across the St Lawrence river, we walked right on to the ferry! It takes about 12 minutes to cross the river, with amazing views the whole time!
As soon as we walked off the ferry, it felt like we were almost in France. The streets were small, walkable, and adorable. The city was first founded in 1608, and in the lower town, a native explained to me I’d know which buildings were built by the French. They all have small, almost rectangular rocks, which came from the river. The streets were darling and easily walkable!
Look at this art display! Talk about making a statement.
We walked over to the Place Royale, and enjoyed the sunshine and cool temperatures for a few minutes. There has been several churches on this spot, but this one was built in 1688.
We then figured out where a good ice cream shop was, and meandered until we found it. I had blueberry ice cream that had real blueberries in it. It was delicious!
We found this delightful little park and ate our ice cream while a musician played the harp for us! Chris said this place feels like Disneyland, but it’s all real. It is an amazing place to visit.
We knew we needed to get to the Upper Town, and decided to take the ‘Breakneck steps.’ There are 59 of them, which will bring you to an uphill road, and to top it off, you get to climb (it seemed like) 417 more steps to make it up to the main area in front of the Château Frontenac.
We changed some US dollars into Canadian dollars. It’s so shiny with pretty colors! The coins were pretty too.
We were able to walk around a bit, and visit the Cathédral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec. I love the architecture in churches. They had a crypt there, but you have to be on a guided tour to go, so we decided to branch out on our own.
On our way back towards the boardwalk, we stopped for some slushies as we walked through the artist section.
We decided to see some street performers. There were a wide variety of them, which was delightful! We stopped to watch a juggling act for a bit. Chris was chosen to help out twice, much to his chagrin.
We made it over to the boardwalk area, and were able to enjoy a leisurely stroll. Talk about the perfect werather with blue skies to boot!
We decided to sneak in a quick peak into the lobby. See, it’s actually a hotel, but they still call it a château. I am pretty certain I wouldn’t be able to afford it, but it had the same kind of inviting feeling like when someone offers you hot chovolate when you’re cold.
We started our decent down to the ferry, by way of the Vieux Port. We happened upon the coolest roof top garden space too!
We had great timing with the ferry on our return trip too. Two minutes after we got on the boat, it was on its way back to the other side.
We knew we needed to stop at the grocery store, so I was able to see all kinds of interesting products! Who knew all kinds of meat would be canned?!? I asked a few people were the enchilada sauce was, but I guess that’s not a thing they eat here. The spruce beer really does taste like how a Christmas tree smells.
The accent still makes me smile. I’ve been asked several times where I am from and how I learned French. I could easily see myself living in Vieux-Québec! It really is a delightful town, with a lot of history. Tomorrow we are going to dive more into it, and I’m excited to learn it!
As soon as we walked off the ferry, it felt like we were almost in France. The streets were small, walkable, and adorable. The city was first founded in 1608, and in the lower town, a native explained to me I’d know which buildings were built by the French. They all have small, almost rectangular rocks, which came from the river. The streets were darling and easily walkable!
Look at this art display! Talk about making a statement.
We walked over to the Place Royale, and enjoyed the sunshine and cool temperatures for a few minutes. There has been several churches on this spot, but this one was built in 1688.
We then figured out where a good ice cream shop was, and meandered until we found it. I had blueberry ice cream that had real blueberries in it. It was delicious!
We found this delightful little park and ate our ice cream while a musician played the harp for us! Chris said this place feels like Disneyland, but it’s all real. It is an amazing place to visit.
We knew we needed to get to the Upper Town, and decided to take the ‘Breakneck steps.’ There are 59 of them, which will bring you to an uphill road, and to top it off, you get to climb (it seemed like) 417 more steps to make it up to the main area in front of the Château Frontenac.
In fact, half way up the second set of steps, there was a guy playing the musical spoons in front of a store, and he taught us how to play them too! Both Wendy and I bought a set. 😊. After our reprieve, we continued the hike up, and it was worth it!
We changed some US dollars into Canadian dollars. It’s so shiny with pretty colors! The coins were pretty too.
We were able to walk around a bit, and visit the Cathédral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec. I love the architecture in churches. They had a crypt there, but you have to be on a guided tour to go, so we decided to branch out on our own.
On our way back towards the boardwalk, we stopped for some slushies as we walked through the artist section.
We decided to see some street performers. There were a wide variety of them, which was delightful! We stopped to watch a juggling act for a bit. Chris was chosen to help out twice, much to his chagrin.
We made it over to the boardwalk area, and were able to enjoy a leisurely stroll. Talk about the perfect werather with blue skies to boot!
We decided to sneak in a quick peak into the lobby. See, it’s actually a hotel, but they still call it a château. I am pretty certain I wouldn’t be able to afford it, but it had the same kind of inviting feeling like when someone offers you hot chovolate when you’re cold.
We started our decent down to the ferry, by way of the Vieux Port. We happened upon the coolest roof top garden space too!
We had great timing with the ferry on our return trip too. Two minutes after we got on the boat, it was on its way back to the other side.
We knew we needed to stop at the grocery store, so I was able to see all kinds of interesting products! Who knew all kinds of meat would be canned?!? I asked a few people were the enchilada sauce was, but I guess that’s not a thing they eat here. The spruce beer really does taste like how a Christmas tree smells.
The accent still makes me smile. I’ve been asked several times where I am from and how I learned French. I could easily see myself living in Vieux-Québec! It really is a delightful town, with a lot of history. Tomorrow we are going to dive more into it, and I’m excited to learn it!
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