Fresh Tracks, our tour company, had booked two tours for us today with the "Vieille Ville de Quebec" company. We saw plenty of interesting places but the standard of the guides and organisation was not up to what we experienced in Halifax.
At 8:30am we were picked up at our hotel by a shuttle bus to take us to the start of our Historic City Tour, but not quite. We were told to wait opposite our hotel but the bus waited for us in the next street and sent a message to the hotel to find out where we were. The bus took us to some of the places we walked to yesterday but we were given historical background by Jean. We had a small bus which was able to squeeze through the narrow roads into the citadel, which, like so many we have seen, never fired a canon in defence. We were too early for the changing of the guard.
We saw the Plains of Abraham where the English defeated the French in 20 minutes but took four months to pummel them with cannons before the subsequent siege was over. There are lovely gardens and expensive houses there now. The tour finished at 11:30am at the Place Royal which is the centre of the old town.
A man was playing classical piano pieces on his keyboard and his favourite was Clair de Lune by Debussy.
A mural contained all of the historical figures and made a good Trompe L'Oeil effect.
We bought ice slushy and sundae for lunch and wandered around the many craft stalls and artists' displays.
At 1pm we joined a larger bus for a Countryside Tour which lasted until 6pm. First we went to the Island of Orleans which is 65 kilometres in coastline measurement. We crossed the longest cantilevered bridge in the world (1907) to reach it and we observed the English and French architectural styles. There were many convertible cars taking advantage of the lovely sunny weather, but the most interesting car we saw was a Mitsubishi iMiev in blue and white colours. Our driver/guide Elaine needed to do commentary in English and French for the mixed audience and she changed from one to the other without taking a breath, so it took sustained concentration to pick whether she was using her first or second language. She did not stop talking while ever she was driving which must be some sort of record. She wore us down in the end.
We stopped for 45 minutes at the famous (in Quebec) Montmorency Waterfall which is 30 metres higher than Niagara at 85 metres, and it was running fast today.
Next we stopped at a copper art gallery and showroom where we saw a brief introduction to the art. There was a major collection of large scenes from the life of Jesus. This typical French creature had pride of place over the work table.
We moved on to Chez Marie where they make bread cooked in an outside fuel oven and sell maple syrup products. We bought a scrumptious sample of bread spread with maple syrup butter. They had a little swing that we were jealous of.
Last stop was the Shrine of Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary. This was a magnificent basilica built in 1923, replacing a series of churches dating back to the 17th century.
The interior was even more impressive and contained an exact replica of La Pieta.
We went to the Petit Cochon Dingue for dinner (Crazy Little Pig).
No comments:
Post a Comment