Thursday, June 22, 2017

Plains of Abraham, The Citadelle, Notre Dame

Our first full day in Quebec City, we decided to walk around the city and see all the sights.

But we started out our day with walking downtown and going to one of the many "Creperies" for breakfast.

Our choice for that morning was "Le Petite Coin Breton".   
It was fun because the waitress was dressed in traditional costume and the crepes were fantastic!





Then we headed over to the "Plains of Abraham" which is a huge battlefield turned into a park.

On the way over, we came across a big race.  Curiosity got the best of me, so I asked someone what the race was all about.  The person I asked said, "It is just for good health."  Good for them!



Our first stop was the Plains of Abraham Museum


It was small but informative.  They had some nice reproductions of soldiers' uniforms.



I had to put this guy into the stockade



But relented so he could play some music for the crowd.



It was an extremely hot day and we walked and walked and walked.  The Plains of Abraham is huge, and we didn't even walk around the whole thing.   There were steps leading from the upper city to the lower city  (I believe around 400) and people were using the stairs as exercise...jogging up and down.  We chose not to!  

Finally we made our way over to the Citadelle.  This was originally a fort, but now is the home of the Governor of the Province of Quebec.



They have a Changing of the Guard



This soldier is not happy with his position! 


 We didn't take the tour of the Citadelle, but we did walk all along the wall on the outside of it.  It's shaped almost like a big star if you see it from above.


As we worked our way back toward downtown Old Quebec, we could see the huge edifice of The Hotel Frontenac.   It's the most iconic image in Quebec City.   It was a tad bit out of our price range.


But you could go in and gawk in the lobby!


On our way back, we came upon this alley filled up one side and down the other with artists.   We bought a small painting of the entrance to the Walled City.


And finally we saw the Notre Dame Basilica


As evidenced by all the streets with names starting with "Saint", Quebec City is very Catholic and Notre Dame is very well-known.





My patron saint,  St. Anne



By 5 o'clock in the afternoon we were exhausted and very hot.  So we came back for a nice relaxing swim in the hotel pool.


Then back into the downtown for dinner at another beautiful outdoor cafe.  I have to say all the food in Quebec City was delicious.  It put all our other vacations to shame.

  And of course more ice cream at Chocolato!




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