Quebec 2017...Day Two

Wednesday, August 2

After a decent night's sleep, woke up around 8:00 and were out of the hotel by 9:30.  Walked a couple of blocks to the Le Petit Chateau Creperie for breakfast.  We sat outside and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast.  Bill had an apple and cheese crepe and I had raspberry.

We took a leisurely walk through town, enjoying the many different pieces of art that adorn the city.  Unfortunately, I didn't make notes of the titles...

I think the one below is called "The Muses". 

We really liked the look of this building, located across the street and we later learned it's a hotel.

This fountain is located inside a round -a-bout on one of the main roads just outside the old city.

You literally have to cross traffic to get to it.

This is one of the gates through which you can enter the old city.

Our next stop was the Joan of Arc gardens, one of our favorite places.

We enjoyed great weather while visiting this time; however, it has almost always rained on our previous visits.

Joan of Arc statue

Base of the statue...2017

Base of the statue...2007

This year we discovered the Martello Towers, one of which is located right across the street from the gardens.  How did we not see it before?!

Look how thick the walls are!

There were originally four, but only three remain.  

"The Martello towers were constructed by the British to form a first line of defence within the ensemble of Québec’s fortifications by preventing an attacker from drawing close enough to the walls to lay siege. Functional, and massively strong for their time, these towers were essentially elevated gun platforms."  You can find more information here.

It was very warm today, temps in the mid 80's, so we walked through the Plains of Abraham to the snack bar at the top of the Governor's Walkway where we got bottled water and ice cream cones, which we ate very quickly at a picnic table in the shade.

We walked down the steps of the walkway to the terrace, where we just sat in the shade and watched the river traffic.

Along the Governor's Walkway

Dufferin Terrace and the Chateau Frontenac

We visited the excavation below the terrace, which is part of the Parks Canada system and since Canada is celebrating its 150th birthday, there was no charge for admission.  From there to the shopping/restaurant area called La Petit Champlain.  There were people EVERYWHERE, much busier than any of our other visits.

internet photo

internet photo

Although I didn't take these photos, it looked pretty much just like this.  We could hardly move and we didn't spend much time there.  There used to be an awesome chocolate shop where I got the best ever chocolate covered cherries, filled with cherry liquor.  They were expensive but super good and Bill actually bought me a small box for my birthday several years ago.  To Die For...but it's no longer there.

After escaping the crowd, we ran across another La Maison Smith so enjoyed iced coffees and chocolate croissants for "lunch".

This was located in a large courtyard, surrounded by some very old architecture.

I love the window boxes.

We walked back to the boardwalk, watched the street performers for a few minutes, then walked to the gazebo at the end of the boardwalk where we watched the river for awhile.  We find it very relaxing.  We had dinner reservations at our favorite restaurant, Portofino at 6:00 so more walking, past the splash pad where we watched the kids playing because we had a little time to kill.

Dinner was excellent, as always.  I ordered my favorite ravioli and Bill had spaghetti carbonara.  

We got back to our room about 7:30 and were pooped, both totaling more than 20,000 steps on our fit bits, nearly 9 miles!  We climbed out our fire escape window and sat on our own little deck area for awhile, giving our feet some rest.

We were nicely settled in our pajamas, watching something on TV when we discovered a fantastic fireworks display down by the river, which we could see from our room by looking between the buildings across the street.  We didn't know anything about it in advance and had no idea how long it would last, so we just watched from where we were.  If we had known about it, or known it would last for a good 30 minutes, we would have gotten dressed and walked the block down to the river.  We learned later that it occurred every Wednesday and Saturday all year, celebrating the 150th birthday and something to do with the lottery.  

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)