St Jean Baptiste Day in Quèbec

This stop was a treat. Our first stay of two nights allowed us to sleep in this morning. After a leisurely morning (except for Connie who made sandwiches for lunch), we left for old Quèbec at about 1130. Zach drove into town guided by the GPS lady.

We parked the Tundra in a spot designed for a smart car and headed off to explore old Quèbec. Once again, Zach was our tour guide having visited the city 8 years ago (in the winter). Connie and I did our very best to keep up – not easy to do with this tall guy with the exceptionally long stride. Below is a photo of me trying to keep up with Zach and Connie trying to keep up with me.

Before leaving on this trip, I decided to try intermittent fasting. This means I don’t eat anything except water (and coffee) after 8pm and before noon the following day. This meant I was hungry shortly after we arrived, so I began looking for a place to find something to eat. This perturbed Zach, who wasn’t holding back on what he thought of my dumb fasting idea. ‘Why on earth didn’t you eat something before we left?’. There was a Starbucks in the Chateau Frontenac so I ducked in there and told Connie and Zach to keep going and I’d catch up. How on earth I thought this would be possible is beyond me but I was a man on a mission – to fill my growling stomach.

As an aside, I’d heard that Quèbec wasn’t always friendly to English speaking tourists but I found quite the opposite. Every one was friendly and happy to converse with me in English.

After grabbing my everything bagel and coffee, I reconnected with Zach and Connie and we headed toward the Citadel de Quèbec. Unfortunately we were unable to visit the prisoners as there were renovations underway. As we made our way past the Citadel, we looked over the Plains of Abraham, where there was a large stage set up for the St Jean Baptiste celebration.

For the next few hours, we visited many tourist sites in old Quèbec and made our way back down to the truck for lunch. There is lots to see in this city and I took several hundred photos. Here are a few samples.

At one point we ran into three parks Canada employees dressed in age appropriate garb who were about to put on a show. Connie thought she was taking a video of them but when we returned to the campsite she discovered she was actually taking photos of random people’s rear ends and feet. I on the other hand did manage to get a video and a photo.

After returning to the truck we collected our sandwiches and headed down to sit by the water to enjoy our lunch. As we were sitting three scooters drove by. The first was ridden by a somewhat large woman sporting a few tattoos on her bare arms, while her stereo blasted out a rock n roll song. Everything was in order except that she really needed to be driving a Harley rather than an electric 3 wheeled scooter.

After finishing lunch we headed out to explore the rest of the downtown on the waterfront. We visited a Catholic Church where I removed my hat upon entering the door. Zach neglected to do so and received a lengthy talking to in French by a local. Connie wore hers (in front of me here) but it is acceptable for a lady to have her head covered in church.

I attempted to purchase a beaver tail (never had one) but the line up was too long and the poor young fella (with more nose rings than I’ve ever seen) at the till had screwed up the bill of the people in front of me so badly that he was urgently calling for help. I decided this was the subtle message to indicate that I didn’t really need a beaver tail all that badly, so we moved on.

On the way back, we ran into a little establishment where I discovered that I am a long lost patron saint.

Perhaps something I should consider in my retirement?

We returned to the Tundra and decided to top up the tank at $1.15 per litre. As the price of fuel is so low, it might explain why the roads are in such poor condition in this province.

Upon returning to to the campsite, we celebrated the rest of St Jean Baptiste day with a steak dinner and my own private label.

We are making it an early night tonight as we head out tomorrow for Moncton New Brunswick – an 7.5 hour drive.