I loved Quebec City. As they say, it’s the most European-flavored city in Canada. We started out in Old Quebec where the streets were cobblestone and too narrow for cars. They were lined with shops and restaurants with a church in the center.
And towering over all of this was a castle – Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel.
Our guide, Roger (pronounced Row-Jay) herded us about like a bunch of cats – I would have preferred to wander about and shop.
There were some very detailed murals.
Afterwards we boarded the bus and drove by the Parliament (Quebec City is the capital of the providence of Quebec) and the Plains of Abraham, a large city park on historic battlegrounds of old Quebec City.
We went back to the castle and had the best lunch – creamed summer vegetable soup and salmon over a corn and potato chowder with strawberry shortcake for dessert. Then we wandered a bit uptown. Here uptown and downtown are quite literal – uptown is up on the bank and downtown is down by the St. Lawrence River.
After lunch, we stopped at Centre Catherine-de-Saint-Augustin, a convent where the nuns lived and trained to be nurses in the attached hospital. Since there are only about 2 nuns left, they made a museum to preserve their history.
The thing that stuck with me was that back then, the nuns wore 21 layers of clothing. Wouldn’t that just make you look and feel like the Michelin man? It probably helped in the Canadian winters though – they say it can go down to 40 below.
I found another interesting sign you won’t see many places.
Wow! The murals are so realistic!