Today we will visit the exquisite Notre-Dame Basilica and explore Montreal through a guided tour.
It was good to start today off with a plateful of fruit. After a lighter breakfast than I have been having, we were taken on a city tour of Montreal. My impressions of Montreal have softened since the tour. Once we had driven for an hour or so through the old and French part of the city, we were taken over the 501 foot high “mountain”, to the English side of the mountain: lush green parklands with the leaves changing a little towards brighter reds and yellows. Although the French has much history and lots of eating places, I still enjoy the wide open parklands that a city has.
Artwork in the parkNewly cobbled street Student accommodation at the UniversityUsed for the Olympic Games in 1976
The city is having its 350 year birthday celebrations and Canada is having their 150 years as a country, celebrations this year. And outside the city hall are some interesting garden artworks depicting those celebrations.
After the city bus tour and a short lunch break, what more common site to visit is the city’s Notre-Dame. Construction took place between 1824 and 1829 in Gothic Revival style. The organ has 7000 pipes and looks very impressive. Each Sunday, a concert is performed by the choir and organ.
Lunch-time again and we chose a street-side spanish restaurant with entertainment on the sidewalk across from the restaurant. A very talented South American pan-piper band just finished as we were entering the restaurant precinct and then another guy, who didn’t pick up many tips from passing traffic at all, entertained us during our meal. He was an intense performer rather than an entertainer. Just as we were leaving, the South American band came back on – what a pity.
Montreal is known for an extensive underground shopping centre. We are happy to build up our steps and eventually found the centre after asking many guides and shopkeepers along the way, just where the entrance is. The centre is really a maze of 20 km of shopping malls so there must be many many shops; not a good place to be for many. Sorry, we didn’t take any photos.
A three wheeled sports car.Electric Bus – notice the re-charging station.The Montreal Conference and Trade Centre.
At 6:30pm, we “crashed” on the bed for a short nap after which we were to go out to the city again to view the “lights” being shone on some of the buildings. However, that didn’t happen and we didn’t wake until 1:30am this morning (Wednesday). We needed the sleep but its a pity to have been awake for the last 3 hours. I just may go back to bed after completing this post.
Today we will stroll through the cobblestone streets of Quebec City, North America’s only walled city, of a tour of the old town.. We will learn how maple syrup is made and dine on Quebecois fare at a local Sugar Shack. Tonight we will enjoy a two night stay at the Le Westin Montreal.
After an early start (walked 6,000 steps before 6:00am) and breakfast, we boarded our coach and after all the “legal” requirements, like telling us where all the fire safety equipment is and how to break a window if needed, we were joined by a city guide for 2 hours of touring the city sites “officially”. This is handy to complete the pieces of the questions raised in our minds during the last 3 days of walking around the interesting city of Quebec.
We heard a little about the occupations of both the British and the French and the wars that ensued over time. The Plains of Abraham, where much of Quebec has been built, were explained to us: these are named after a person with the same name as that of a biblical character but not related in any way. Last impressions of Quebec? – a very comfortable city to live in with lovely parklands and clean ancient buildings where cafes and restaurants abound.
Last view of the Fairmont – QuebecCable car leading up to our hotel – if you don’t want to walk.
We headed out onto the freeway towards Montreal, our destination for the day. School is back in now and so there are many motor homers heading to various advantage spots to enjoy the ‘changing of the leaves’, which is a major activity to do in this area at this time of the year. You’ve heard the saying “watching grass grow”, well here there is a saying “watching leaves fall”. The highway is wide with two lane carriageways and a wide expanse between the two.
Our morning comfort stop was at a location where Tommycod Ice Fishing is a must do during the cold, icy winter. Shacks, or little houses are moved out onto the iced-up river when only men, it seems, then drill a hole in the ice and fish for tommycod for days at a time. Once the river freezes during the early part of February, there becomes a fishing village of over 500 fishing cabins with rows of guys inside, fishing. Who knows how many people are involved but it has become a large festival during the season. If not involved with fishing, there is plenty of other activities to enjoy like skating, sledding, snowshoeing and hiking.
Interesting ‘lolly-pop’ personThis lake is covered with fishing shacks in season.Cathedral nearby the fishing shack village
On from the fishing shack village, we needed lunch and become guests of Chez Dany at the Maple Sugar Shack. Maple Syrup is an important part of the culture and work-life of the area as it gets a mention frequently. I recall learning how rubber is harvested in Asia and learnt today that maple syrup is harvested a similar way, but with lots more automation. Apart from the draining system being similar to here, instead of having a collecting vial at each tree, a pluming system has been created and all the sap runs into larger collection points. Harvesting can only take place during a certain temperature range. From here, the sap is boiled to purify the syrup, before it is ‘farmed’ and bottled for export to many countries around the world. We were served a ‘community’ lunch including beans, would you believe, while being entertained with a local fiddler playing music of the region. There were also wooden spoons we could join in or dance to the music.
On from maple syrup town, we cruise into Montreal.
The city of Montreal is on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is IleBizard. It has a distinct four-season continental climate with warm to hot summers and cold snowy winters.
In 2016 the city had a population of 1,704,694. Montreal’s metropolitan had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,942,044 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. French is the city’s official language and is the language spoken at home by 49.8% of the population of the city, followed by English at 22.8% and 18.3% other languages (in the 2016 census, not including multi-language responses). In the larger Montreal Census Metropolitan Area, 65.8% of the population speaks French at home, compared to 15.3% who speak English. The agglomeration Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada with over 59% of the population able to speak both English and French. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, after Paris.
The ride into town didn’t send signals to me that this city had anything special to give to me. Yes, they had the Olympics here in 1976 and various World Trade Fair types of exhibitions, but so far, I just haven’t been ‘grabbed’. We are staying at the Westin in downtown and after a short walk, we came to the wharf area which is badly in need of a tidy-up. However, we did find a zip-line and a ropes course that could entertain us tomorrow. Beyond that point, there is a fun park, roller coaster park and a stadium.
Tomorrow, we check out the City of Montreal, “officially”, then take a visit to the Notre Dame.
We have a Freechoice today to explore this charming city of Quebec.
The crossing over of the dateline confused me and I overlooked the fact that I have ‘doubled’ up on days. To correct this oversight, this post covers both Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th.
Saturday the 16th
Our early morning 10,000 steps today took us to some very attractive parklands around the quaint Quebec City. I am fast becoming a lover of this town. Everything seems organised, clean and functional. The people have all been friendly and helpful with lots of great smiles. Perhaps things are different when the heavy snows come after autumn. We found wide boulevards with large garden plots between the carriageways. The water trucks “sweep” the streets before too much traffic gets in the way of the work required to make the city clean and inviting to the many tourists that come here during the warmer months.
Beautiful streetscapeCFA and bush fire crews – this is a fire hydrant – can be seen for kilometres.The telephone booths are scattered around the town.a rather old PontiacLe Concord HotelA black squirrel People were using these stairs for morning gym work.The Celebrity Summit.
After another great breakfast, we took to the sunroof to enjoy the sunshine during morning nap time, and before viewing another busker down on the street. Most of the afternoon was spent waiting for the last two travellers to arrive in from Nashville and catching up on their 2 weeks in the Las Vegas, New Orleans, Nashville with a week on a Mississippi River Cruise. (We had originally wanted to include this for our group tour but the connections from Nashville to Quebec City was so difficult at the time that we had to abandon the great music tour and river cruise.) Sid and Sharon were willing to put up with the longish time wait between the tours, checking our various concerts in Nashville – how boring – NOT.
Sunday September 17.
On the first morning’s walk, I had noticed a motor home parked, most probably for the night, next to our 5 star hotel. When I posted it on the Motorhomes Australia Facebook page, someone came back to me and said they were in Quebec City too and had noticed that same motor home and had also noticed an area close to town that seemed to be a free camp spot for motor homes. After breakfast, I did a quick dash over to see for myself just what facilities were there. There would have been parking for a couple of hundred motor homes with a “pay as you park” machine facility. Come on Australia. Get with it for motor homers.
Marina close to downtown QuebecAn unusual sculptor I noticed on my walk.“Free Camping” for motor homes
Included in Scenic Tours are “Scenic Free Choice” days, and today’s event was a helicopter flight over this beautiful city. This was the first time in a helicopter for some, but you could hardly notice their nerves affecting the plan. Standing around waiting for a helicopter flight is very common place, but none of that today. Our 30 minute transfer took us to the main city airport to a Helicopter Museum and training school and quickly into the preflight room and onto the ‘chopers’. Fortunately, our pilots were teachers rather than students and we were in safe hands.
We had noticed helicopters flying over the city on Saturday and now it was ‘us’ that were the joy riders. The tour is called Fall Colors of Canada and the USA. Evidence of Fall, or autumn, was starting to show as we flew over the residential area to where our hotel and the city and return, but there’s still a long way to go for the complete changeover from summer to winter. In a month’s time, we shall return to see this city again before our long journey home.
This will be the countryside in a few weeks.
Our afternoon was ‘free to roam’. Firstly, we felt like a light lunch of fruit salad and a drink. We found a crepier with live entertainment and enjoyed a strawberry, blueberry, and banana crepe. The hot chocolate was rather different too.
For the rest of the afternoon, we walked and walked to take photos of this very welcoming city before our ‘welcome’ dinner in the evening where we learned the ‘ways’ of the tour director for the next four weeks. Karen has been doing Tour Director work for around 20 plus years.
This spider would look great with Lyn and I on it.Guess what this is? A chocolate pizza.Sunday – a closed street for tourists to roam freely.I call this “Lo with her friends”Our welcome dinner table.Dessert – very hard to say “NO” too.
Tomorrow our first tour day commences at 7:00am with bags ready early for our journey to Montreal with a tour of a maple syrup factory along the way.
Our journey begins with a two night Special Stay at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.
The fable goes, “Some 40,000 years ago, nomadic groups from the north of Asia crossed over the Bering Strait and settled down in the greener lands they discovered in North America. Hunter-gatherers, they even ventured ever further eastwards in pursuit of mammoth and bison, their preferred prey.”
And so our tour begins.
Wood and water, trees and lakes intricately mingle: Quebec brings to mind the wide, untamed spaces of an American promised land. You can’t escape from the thought that you may be the first person to tread somewhere in this empty, lonely landscape.
Quebec is said to be the most beautiful city in North America. Quebec is very much a French city and takes pride in its “old France” architecture. Built on a human scale, its stone houses recollecting those of Saint-Malo in Brittany, the city with its cobbled streets, winding flights of steps, ramparts and the extravagant silhouette of Chateau Frontenac has become the leading tourist destination in La Belle Province.
A motorhome taking an advantage of the “Free Camp” for a night.The much used fortress walls at night.The elevated board-walk.
Our day begins “real early” Quebec time; lots of waking moments, and hours, waiting for day break to peak over the horizon. At 5:30am we decided to take on the elevated boardwalk along the shore of the St Lawrence River, and up the couple of hundred steps towards the Citadel of Quebec. Known also as La Citadelle it is an active military installation and official residence of both the Canadian monarch of the day, and the Governor General of Canada. It is located on top of Cap Diamond, adjoining the Plains of Abraham. The citadel is the oldest military building in Canada, and forms part of the fortifications of Quebec City, which is one of only two cities in North America still surrounded by fortifications, the other being Campeche, Mexico. There were a few other ‘exercise freaks’ up at that time but walking in the early morning air in shorts and tee-shirts, was quite a change from the coldness of the Yarra Valley.
Looking out over the St Lawrence RiverInteresting contrast – industry so close to the capital of a countryEarly blood-red sunrise
From our walk, we became the first breakfast hunters on our return and had a great view for the meal looking out over the St Lawrence River. Many of you know, we have had a ‘lifestyle change’ recently, but this morning was a “pig-out” time at breakfast. One hour 45 minutes later we exited after 4 or 5 courses from the elaborate “Scenic” breakfast bar.
Main Entrance to our hotelFirst time to eat egg for 5 months. (not too bad)
The jet lag came upon us and a morning nap was the next destination before sitting out in the 23 degrees sunshine for another couple of hours before our days shopping look-around of the tourist spot nearby. The ms Rotterdam was berthed close by and wandering tourists were all over the cobble stoned streets of this old town. The souvenir shops were very busy selling handcrafts, stickers (patches – my travelling vest is worth a lot of money if you add the patches and the airfares and travelling expenses together), cards, and well ‘Made in China’ clothing. We found a very busy Christmas Shop with very new, to us, hangings and christmasy stuff and lights to buy.
Not sure this is advertising a phone speed.Manicans painted for an art show. Great body painting LOL!The statue just outside our hotel.Canons ready to defend us.Cobble stoned shopping precinctChristmas shopping – anytime.Leather handcraftsStreet art – not graffiti
Just outside our magnificently located hotel, is a small grandstand area used by travelling buskers. The show we watched was performed by a humours Mexican who did some excellent tricks using a large ‘hole-hoop’ and a pole.
We met up with a couple from our group to spend the time of the evening meal together and then off to bed to try to get some more sleep.
Tomorrow, we meet up with our Scenic Tour Director and enjoy the first Welcome Dinner of the tour.
It’s a long haul to Quebec from Melbourne; 4 flights with 28 hours in the air and about 6 hours in departure lounges. It kinda gets you into a “I need some sleep” mode, but you plod along the passageways anyway. To start our journey this time, we had a meetup at our place to do the airport transfer the day before our departure. This arrangement helps each other get to know who is who in the group over dinner at the Park Royal, just across from the Tullamarine terminal.
Our flight to Brisbane departed at 6:00am and we had met in the hotel lounge at 3:45am to do the walk across to the departure lounge. Late leaving Melbourne at 6:25, due to “computer problems”, wasn’t the best way to introduce us to the long trip to Quebec, via Brisbane, Vancouver and Toronto.
The staff on Air Canada were very friendly, chatty, and went out of their way to help make our trip enjoyable and “short”. Many in our group made their trip even shorter by doing things together, no matter how obvious that was. Just finding the right dozing rythm can be difficult at times.
Take a long look at this Departure Board
The sign board at Toronto Airport information desk was interesting. To crone the neck too much can do damage of the highest order if not holding on to something steady whilst doing so.
Rather than scheduling a jet service from Toronto to Quebec thrice daily, Air Canada have gone for the “more frequency” solution and having 10 return flights in a Bombadier, a much smaller prop-jet type of aircraft with single aisle and tiny seats. It may be a good idea for struggling airlines but that “struggling” thingo has been transferred to the paying passengers. We had to resort to finding room under the seat in front for our hand luggage with knees up around their ears. The overhead lockers are very tiny.
Aircraft discomfort was made up for with our transfer to our hotel being a plush Mercedes passenger van. Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec is quite an imposing building and luxurious. It is in the old French part of the town and very busy during the day. We have a very large room so if you turn up, there is plenty of room to sleep on the floor.
Check out this site tomorrow to hear about the interesting shopping precinct just near our hotel.
