The Norris Fifth-Wheel in the Park near Québec. Our Park is on the other side of the St Laurence River from Québec.
We drove to the ferry in Lévis, parked the car and walked on the Québec-Lévis ferry. The ferry dropped us off at the bottom of the hill below the Citadel of Québec so we walked through the lower city and then rode the funicular up to the old city.
The Citadel and Château Frontenac from the ferry. The Château Frontenac makes such a statement from the river below.
The Funicular, also from the ferry
From the top of the funicular, we walked around the city ‘Inside the Walls’. We saw the Citadel, the Château Frontenac , a porcelain doll factory, many old residences, several churches, and several museums.
Some of the canons and the Château Frontenac from inside the walls.
Rich waiting for me during our walk.
The view of the lower city from the Citadel.
It was a very very hot humid day, Rich and I were soaking wet all day. I am a west coast bigot. Today I was reminded about why. While I love east coast cities and villages, I find the summer and winter weather not worth it. At night we experienced a major thunder and lightning storm. In the fifth wheel lightning comes in through all the vents and windows and thunder & rain sounds everywhere.
7/18 We had such a hard day yesterday we decided to take an easy day. Rich let me sleep in and we did a little shopping and laundry.
7/19 Today we decided to drive along the Cote Du Sud (South Hill). That was the name of the driving tour we took. Actually we drove along the Saint Laurence River toward the Atlantic. We drove through several Villages.
This is a collage of photos from Saint Michel de Bellechasse (pop 1665) where we stopped to have lunch.
It’s funny, Village has such a different picture for me that does small town. I think it has to do with life and age. A Village is old and yet alive with people maintaining the buildings and landscape. A small town in my mind is either new (suburban with new tract homes) or old and dead or dying. I’m sure I am insulting someone, and I apologize for that. Our tour ended up at the Museum of the Migration. This was a museum devoted to the migration of the Greater Snow Geese. It was very interesting. It was located in Montmagny, as this is one of the places the birds (close to 1 million) rest (in the spring or fall) on their flight between the Carolinas and Artic Canada.
River Falls in Montmagny.
7/20 Today we drove to Montreal. It was not a very long drive. We have WIFI again. Tonight we experienced another thunder and lightning rainstorm. They seem to have a lot of them here, but maybe we are just lucky.
7/21 Today we took the double-decker bus tour of Montreal. (This was the same setup as we used in Savannah and Barcelona {where I got lost with no money, ID, or food}. This time I was carrying ID, money, snacks, and insulin. Maybe I can learn new tricks. Unfortunately, with all the things I remembered, I forgot extra batteries for the camera. Of course, that meant that the batteries would need to be replaced today. As a result I did not get many pictures.) Rich and I met training to be VISTA volunteers in New York City in 1966. VISTA had a training center at Columbia School of Social Work. After training I was sent to East Orange, New Jersey and Rich was sent to Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. We were married in East Orange in April 1967. For our honeymoon we drove to Key West, Florida. In August, after our year of service to VISTA was over we drove back to Northern California. On our way, among a great many other places, we stopped in Quebec and Montreal (to see the 1967 World’s Fair). The double-decker took us all around Montreal including the site of the World’s Fair.
There was not much that seemed the same but both of us recognized ‘Habitat 1967’ (pictured to the left) as a place we had visited in 1967. At that time it was the housing of the future. Cement boxes (rooms) linked together to make apartments.
Montreal and Québec are very different. Montreal seems to be very cosmopolitan. One of our tour guides said that with the 4 universities (2 French and 2 English) located in Montreal and the great number of tourists, 85-90% of all the people on the streets of downtown Montreal are foreigners. He wanted us to take the metro to St Denis street in the Plateau area to meet ‘real’ Montreal natives. Another difference in my view between Montreal and Québec is the view of the city from the river. Québec has The Citadel and Château Frontenac while Montreal has 2 islands and the many structures from the Worlds Fair and the Olympics. It might be the difference between a guided bus tour and a walking tour but Montreal seems to me to be a much larger city. One of our nephews attended McGill University in Montreal. Our bus tour took us through much of this English speaking University. Justin, what does McGill use the millionaire homes for? We kept seeing them all around the traditional university buildings.
Another interesting thing we saw in Montreal was the Underground City. We did a small amount of walking there after the bus tour. This is a photo from the Underground looking up at street level between 2 buildings. Kinda cool. That night we experienced another thunder and lightning rainstorm.
7/22 Today it was raining when we got up so we stayed home and had a stay-inside day. We pretty much read and watched movies all day.
7/23 Today was another lazy day. We did a little shopping at Costco and grocery store. It’s ironic to me that Canada which has thoroughly searched our fifth-wheel for guns at every border, sells a Gun Safe at Costco. Today we packed up the fifth-wheel. Tomorrow we leave Montreal for Ottawa.
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