Even though it was night time, the weather was still a bit warm. It was nice not having to wear a jacket and feel cold.
I was also on the lookout for a few souvenirs to bring back home...
of the food variety! Forget t-shirts, trinkets or other types of junk, I wanted candy and sweets to bring back as gifts for family and friends...
This store caught my eye from the outside only. They had mini Japanese kokeshi and Russian nesting dolls. Not very Quebecois, but still cute.
According to wikipedia's entry on "Old Quebec":
"Old Quebec is a historic neighborhood of Quebec City, the capital of the province of Quebec in Canada. Comprising the Upper Town (French: Haute-Ville) and Lower Town (French: Basse-Ville), the area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site..."
Quebec City was founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain (aka, "The Father of New France"; he was a French Navigator, explorer, cartographer and diplomat to name a few). It is one of the oldest cities in North America. The ramparts surrounding old Quebec are the only remaining fortified walls that exist in the Americas north of Mexico (wow, I didn't know that), which is the city was designated a World Heritage Site.
We didn't have a chance to go to the Upper Town; we stayed strictly in the lower portion, which is also a historic district, located at the foot of Cap Diamant, which is "the official name of the cape and promontory on which Quebec City is located, formed by the confluence of a bend int he St. Lawrence River to the south and east, and the much smaller St.Charles River to the north."
It would have been nice to see the area in the daytime, but our time here was limited.
It was cool seeing cobblestoned streets. We would see more of that in our trip to Montreal in a few days. Yeah, the stones are pretty damn old. More than twice the age of the oldest buildings in the U.S.
Now this is the kind of souvenir I was looking for! I bought some maple candies and maple nougats as well as a few postcards to mail back to the parents.
I know it's hard to see, but the white t-shirt in the back said, "FK NY, I (heart) Quebec". No, I did not buy that!
After perusing the internet trying to find the name of this church, I found that this was the Notre Dame des Victoires
The Notre Dame des Victoires is a small Catholic stone church. Construction was started in 1687 and was finished in 1723!
In 1759, most of the church was destroyedby the British during a battle. The church was completely restored and finished in 1816. It is considered a popular tourist attraction. I'm not sure if it was open when we were there, but there were waves of tour groups that would meet at the steps to congregate for a few minutes before moving on to the next tourist attraction.
One last look at Old Quebec as we walked back to the ferry to Levis...
In the words of N2Deep, it was "Back to the Ho-tel!":
Haha! Gawd, remember this one???
"So just chill...'til the next episode!"
Canada Day 6 can be read in this order:
Quebec City
La Belle Province
Levis, QC, Quebec
Glacerie a l'Europeene/Les Chocolate Favoris
More of Levis, plus the Levis Armoury
Ferry Ride from Levis to Quebec City
Le Cochon Dingue
and of course, this post!
The next day, we would meet up with C's friend NM for breakfast and explore a local park (with a suspension bridge and waterfall!)...
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