July 7, 2008

July 7, 2008

A couple miles from our campground is a ferry that takes us across the St Lawrence into Old Quebec. We park the RV and ride across getting a good view of the old city as we approach. Old Quebec is a walled city sitting high on the bluff at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. It was the gateway to the interior of New France (Canada) and the lucrative fur trade. Both France and England coveted it. Charles Dickens called Quebec City the Gibraltar of America. The World Heritage Old Quebec City is towered over by the gigantic Chateau Frontenac, a turn of the century hotel resembling a castle-home of France. It is one of the grand hotels built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad to promote tourism.

I think it is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It is super clean and most of the buildings look straight out of the 1700’s, so much so that some areas looks like a movie set. All the buildings are made of stone, decorated with flowers, and set on narrow cobble stoned streets. Even the local McDonalds is housed in a stone building.

We give ourselves a walking tour of the city, first climbing up the steep stairs from the old port to the city center. We stop for photos in Montmorency Park National Historic Site. This old battlement was once the administrative center of Lower Canada.  From there we walk past Chateau Frontenac and a monument to founder Samuel Champlain to the western city wall. We eat lunch at an outdoor café. The best part about visiting a “French” city is eating awesome French cooking. Unfortunately French entrees are few and far between. Italian is by far the most popular. Go Figure!

West of the city wall along the river is the large Battlefield Park. Known as the “Plains of Abraham” in 1759, it was the site of a decisive battle during the French and Indian War. Intent on taking Quebec, the English under Wolfe spent most of the summer fruitlessly attacking the city from the east. Finally in September, they sailed upstream past the Quebec City cannon and later, during the night, came back, scaled the cliff to assemble on the Plains. Instead of staying behind protection, the French under Montcalm came out to do battle. The French were routed and the city surrendered a few days later. With this defeat England took New France (Canada).
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In 1820 a large citadel was built into the wall to better protect Quebec City from attack by…. the USA!! And with good reason, we tried to take Quebec (unsuccessfully) during both the Revolution and the War of 1812! We watched a changing of the guard. On the walk back to the ferry, we window-shopped along the cute and historic Rue du Petit-Champlain.