Last days in Quebec City

We continued our exploration of Quebec City the rest of the weekend.  We mostly just kept walking around the Lower Town over and over.  Not sure what we were doing but I likened our vacation to the movie Groundhog Day. 

Friday morning we took our walk down to Lower Town, stopping at Notre Dame Cathedral along the way. 

 

Next we went to a really cute Paris style café (with the seats facing out for people watching) in the Lower Town for some croissants, fresh squeezed OJ, and coffee.  It was yummy. 

 

After our quick breakfast, we went on a little self-guided walking tour of the Lower Town.   These are called the Breakneck Stairs.  There are SO many stairs and hills in Quebec City.

 

 

Mark found a not-so-secret passage:

 

We took another walk down Rue due Petit Champlain, allegedly the oldest street in North America.  We found this restaurant that only serves rabbit.  It's sort of strange that they decorate with cute pictures of little bunnies. 

We discovered that many of the roofs have ladders on them for easy snow removal and fire safety. 

 

We visited yet another Notre Dame --- Notre-Dame-de-Victoires Church.  

We saw some more New France festival street performers. 

And we had way too big and too long of a lunch at the Café du Monde (not that Café du Monde) at the Old Port.  This place was very nice but maybe a little too fancy for what we needed at that point.  Mark ordered a pint of beer and ended up with this giant beer!

 

Bellies stuffed, we all went back to the hotel to rest.  We had to get some good relaxing in before walking BACK to the Lower Town for our ghost tour.  In hindsight, maybe we should have stayed at a hotel in the Lower Town.  Well, it was good exercise, anyway. 

 

We had dinner at a bistro type place in the Lower Town.  I guess I was distracted once my Dad and Marlene got to Quebec City because I stopped taking pictures of the restaurants and I don't remember what they were called! 

 

Sorry for the blurry picture, but I loved coming across this couple dancing with the accordion player while we waited for our tour.   

There are a couple of ghost tour companies in Quebec City.  We chose Ghost Tours of Quebec.  Here is our guide, Michael.  He was a great storyteller but a VERY fast walker.  It was a little tough to keep up with him with all the stairs and hills!

Twilight view of the Chanteau Frontenac:

Here's a little bit of the original wharf:

Our tour concluded in darkness at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.  We went inside with only the light of Michael's lantern.  After sharing his last ghost story, he said we could turn on our flash and take pictures if we wanted to and maybe we would capture a spirit or two.  Anyone see anything in my pic? 

We found another street performer on our walk back to the hotel after the tour.

Saturday we began our day with croissants, OJ, and coffee again at a cafe called Paillard near our hotel. This place has sandwiches, a bakery, gelato - it's like high end fast food. It looked like a chain but I'm not sure. 

After our quick breakfast, we went back to the Lower Town, of course. During our ghost tour, we learned that this wavy line in the street represents where the shoreline was in the year 1600. There are also lines for 1700, 1800, and 1900. 

It's amazing how far the St. Lawrence has receded over the years. This is the view down the street from the 1600 line. 

We went to the Musee de la Civilisation and learned all about the history of Quebec. They had some interesting videos. I said to Mark after that we probably could have just stayed home and watched a documentary. But...we probably would have just watched some Gordon Ramsay show instead so it's good we went to the museum. 

Saturday was very hot and very packed with people. Someone told us it was the busiest day of the year in Quebec. Many were in costume for the New France Festival. 

We took the funicular again to get back up to the Upper Town. Too hot for hills...

After a dip in the pool and some rest, we stopped at Pub St. Alexandre. There was a duo playing the French blues. 

We found this cool dog and his drummer friend. 

And the Super Moon!

We waited a long time to have dinner at an Italian restaurant but it was a good meal. We then headed over to the terrace by the Chateau Frontenac to watch the fireworks. I took a couple more bad pictures. 

This guy videotaped the whole thirty minute firework presentation. Didn't his arm get tired?  Will anyone actually ever watch it?

After the fireworks, Dad and Marlene headed back to the hotel and Mark and I went BACK TO THE LOWER TOWN to a little wine bar called Pape-George. This place was great. We really enjoyed the musician but we didn't catch his name. There was a crazy dancing man who also provided some entertainment. 

Mark tried to time leaving the wine bar before the funicular stopped running but it didn't work out!  We liked this building we saw near Notre Dame Cathedral on our HILLY walk back to the hotel. 

On Sunday, I had a good breakfast with my Dad and Marlene at the hotel before we all said our goodbyes. I hope to return to Quebec again someday. It's a beautiful city.