First off, I have to apologize to the Quebecois for thinking that they would have an attitude about Mom and I speaking English. They were phenornenal, switching over to English as soon as they caught on to the fact that our french vocabulary included all of about ten words (and this didn't take into account Mom's habit of saying the wrong word for any given situation. :-)) Quite honestly, it's clear to me now that the four years of mandatory french I had to take in school was a complete waste of time. The conversations were much too fast, allowing me to only catch on to the occasional word/phrase. By the end of the first day, I was at my wits end trying to figure everything out. Ironically, by the end of the fourth day I began to understand how those who immerse themselves in a language learn so quickly. The simple answer is, you have no choice.
As I've already mentioned, , I struggled with the plane ride again, and the whole propeller outside my window didn't help but that said, the lounge complete with snacks/drinks pre-flight was a nice bonus because it allowed me time to just chill out and really, how nervous can you get looking at this kind of scenery as you cross over to the airport on the ferry?
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/C
Once in Quebec, we got a cab driver that Mom thought couldn't speak english but I knew better. How did I know? Because as he was helping to lift me into the front deat of his van I heard this "You're heavy." LOL Mom never heard it so she just assumed he didn't understand anything we were saying. The unwillingness to speak english worried me, this attitude was exactly what I had been expecting and I didn't want it to set the tone for the rest of the trip. I needn't have worried.
We were lucky enough to be staying at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.One of the best hotels in the area. It was high-end without being snobbish, complete with resident dog, Santol. He was too cute wondering around the front lobby looking for attention from all of the guests. We didn't have time to snap a picture of him because he kept weaving in and out of the crowd.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/C
Hotel lit up against the evening sky--it felt like a beautiful spring night, couldn't have asked for anything better.
Who is this??? I have no idea! LOL
View outside of our hotel room window.
Frontenac Lobby--They were giving tours of the hotel with guides in period costumesJust down the hill...everything was right there...
The park was bustling with activity
The majority of people in Quebec don't celebrate thanksgiving but they love Halloween, there were decorations everywhere.
This display was at the front of a church. Workmen were carefully arranging/finishing the display while letting people take pictures out front.
Of course, in the centre of everything we found a Christmas store! Loved this window and the sound of carols wafting out onto the sidewalk...
And a horse and carriage ride which started right outside our hotel doors...
Restaurant we had a really nice dinner in. Mom had a smoked meat sandwich that was a mile high and I had spagetti and meat sauce flavoured with a hint of cinnamon. I'm still trying to figure out if I liked the spice in my sauce:-)We thought they might be closing as the place was emptying out around 10pm so we asked and he said "No, as long as people are here, we stay open." This seemed to be the prevalent policy in Quebec, no set hours, opening and closing at will, we would see it again after the train ride to Malbaie and it made for an interesting experience :-)
Yes, the train ride...not what we expected and I really think they are going to have to re-vamp it to make it work. The train tracks run through a conservation area, which is home to the highest waterfall in North America. We heard this several times on our journey, but I honestly wasn't that impressed with it. Maybe it's because I live an hour from Niagara Falls and as a whole, I find her much more impressive. Anyway, on to the train pics...
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/C
YES, I'm STANDING! The waterfall is directly behind me, does it impress you? Ehhhhh...:-)
One of my favourite pictures of Mom, it was only the two of us at a four person table, believe me, we alot happier on the ride up then we were on the way back...
That's how close the tracks were to the rocks, we literally curved around the side of a mountain.
The mountain did give it all a bit of that Scotish feel....
I should probably mention that the water in Quebec is the St. Lawerence River. We asked a man on the train if they swam in it because we did see small beach areas along the river as we passed by. He looked at us like we had lost our minds. "It's dirty." he said. "They tell us not to swim in it since so much pollution comes from the Great Lakes." Well, I do in fact swim in two of the great lakes that Quebec calls "polluted." Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Sure, they pull stuff out of there once in awhile but we Ontarians like to live dangerously!
The majority of the train riders spent four hours in the town of Malbaie, then re-boarded the train back to Quebec. I can't imagine doing this. It was a tiny little town with a casino as the big draw. The railway moguls are building a hotel for winter skiing next season, but for now, they are using this town as their "big stop" thanks to the gambling and the hotel we stayed at Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu.
The hotel was nice, but I have to admit, I felt trapped. The resort was on the water, so, without a car there was nowhere to go. Whale-watching (white belugas) was an hour away but the bus didn't leave until the following afternoon, so we didn't get a chance to do it. Definitely next time. Anyway, think "dirty dancing," my first thought when I saw the sprawling lines of the hotel.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/C
Manning the cannons in case of attack...I HAD pics of her actually ON the cannon, but they seem to have disappeared, methinks somebody hit the <delete> button on the camera! (The pitfalls of sharing one camera!)
Enjoying the outdoor whirlpool on a beautiful night...
Not bad for taking this ourselves...
A touch of Halloween, complete with black cat...can you see him? I called him Buddy...:-(
We stuffed our faces with a cheese covered plate of nachos after this so, all in all not a bad way to spend an evening. but I can't deny that I was anxious to get back to Quebec as I was anxious to explore the lower city (the part at the bottom of the funicular) So, after a hearty breakfast, (think buffet with the freshest fruit imaginable) we made our way back over to the train station. "Station" is a generous word. The whole town was like being in the twilight zone.
The travel show (how we won the trip) had tried to sell it as a "niagara on the lake" type of town, i have to tell you as someone who's been to niagara on the lake many times, NOT EVEN CLOSE. Nothing was open (we couldn't even find a can of pop to buy, Mom finally ended up running across the street to a group of kids to ask them if anything was open because we had already wandered up the street to find the "corner store" (and I use the term loosely) closed. The guys were baffled as to why they weren't open and quickly offered a pop out of their own fridge for free. Very kind of them, but I have to tell you, the whole thing was bizarre. I just can't imagine people gambling in this place for four hours then hopping back on the train to Quebec. I always find casinos to be such sad places. People mindlessly pulling down levers as they sacrifice their change to metal machines, I just don't see the entertainment value, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, we wandered around for a bit but there truly wasn't much to see so here's a cool pic of the train pulling in to take us back to Quebec. The guy was yelling in French for Mom to get of the tracks, her answer "I wasn't even that close...." LOL
Honestly, the ride back was pretty boring. It got dark quickly and I was restless. So, some pretty sunset pics but little else and honestly? for $250 per person, you'd think they could give a person a Coke for free or god forbid, a glass of wine with dinner. Instead, we got warm water and I got stuck dining off the kids' menu and getting a crappy piece of lasagna. Mom's fish was dry/overcooked and the food in general was underwhelming given the "fancy" menu and high price tag. No doubt they will re-vamp it in the future for broader appeal and have the good sense to include drinks.
Okay, back to Quebec! What a great day we had! (Yes, some of the "back in Quebec" pics are shown earlier in the album. because I felt they showcased the area so well from our earlier time there. We had more time on the last day of the trip so we backtracked and took pics of stuff we missed, so it's still pics that are representitive of the area!
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/C
A ship docked right in front of our hotel, which made the area a lot busier...
Using the funicular to get to lower Quebec. There are stairs, but they weren't doable with the chair...
Had to enter here to get down...again this boardwalk was stepd from our hotel, we truly were at the centre of everything
Ha Ha us in the elevator...look at all of us crammed in like sardines!
These are the stairs we could have gone down instead....Mom's good, but let's not be ridiculous.
This is what you walk right into as soon as you come out of the cable car. It was like stepping back in time to a small European city. Both of us were awe struck. I don't know what I expected but I never would have guessed that Quebec was anything like this. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we were in fact, still in Canada.
Such pretty fall decorations--the old man that took this pic had to shoo a lady out of the pic..she was all ready to join us as our third! Too funny!
A mural on the dide of one of the shops. It's clear this is a very "artistic" area. Everything was just so well decorated and beutiful.
Once we came back up from the lower half on the city, we decided to walk a couple of blocks towards the downtown. Honestly, we were half looking for a Tim Horton's and figured our chances were better where most of the people seemed to be. We didn't find Timmy's, but we did find a busy market! It had a bit of that Toronto St. Lawrence market feel. Tons of maple syrup bottles and lots of bags of orange cranberries. I've never had them before so I sampled a few and really enjoyed them. We even found a few strawberries which are rare this late in the season.
Back on the bordwalk just outside our hotel. While we enjoyed a coffee, we watched his guy who was a pretty impressive one man band. He controlled the drum on his back with the pedal around hid foot..not bad!
One last walk around the perimeter of the city. You can see the walls that surround Quebec in the background. A big thanks to the man that turned me backwards and pulled me down a very steep side street so we could get down to where the action was! It was rigght up there with the Royal Mile in Edinburgh kind of steep. When we told him all the places we had been in a day, he couldn't believe it replying "someone is getting their exercise!" and it wasn't me!
Thanks so much Mom for another successful trip and all you do to make it happen! I know lugging everything around is never easy so thanks so much for thinking it's worth it. As you can see, more great pics for the travel album! And special thanks to :"The Source" for having memory cards on sale because early on in the trip we discovered that we had the small memory card in the camera and would have been able to take all of twenty pictures!
And most importantly, thanks (merci) to Quebec for being such a warm, welcoming host. Save me a spot on that whale-watching boat and a riverside view suite at the Frontenac! :-)
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