Road Trip!

The girls and I decided to go on an adventure.  We piled into the mini-van and off we went to the cobblestoned, french speaking, gorgeous Ville de Quebec (Quebec City) for almost a week. In my opinion, this is one of the best cities in Canada. It is steeped in history.  It was founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608.  We spent hours discovering the city and the historical buildings. We were fortunate to stay at the Chateau Frontenac (opened in 1893 - sister hotel of Banff Springs Hotel where many moons ago, right out of University, Douglas and I worked).  I would thoroughly recommend a stay in this gorgeous hotel - the pool, spa and customer service was exceptional!

It was a twelve hour drive there (stopped for 1 hr shopping & 45 mins lunch) & then an 11 hr drive back (quick pull throughs to get gas and check on the tire that kept going flat!)  The drive was gorgeous, didn't even feel like a long drive - all I can say is thank goddess I purchased them each a  DVD movie player before we set off! 

The view from our window of the courtyard below.

We took a ferry ride to Levis - the city across the St. Lawrence. View of the lower city & Chateau Frontenac sitting atop the hill. The girls have been in French Immersion since Junior Kindergarten - so they were able to order the meals in french and translate for me since it is not bilingual in Quebec City like every other province - it is completely french only.  There are some people who speak English a bit, but it was rare to find and all the signs, menus, etc. are in french.

On our first day we had a gorgeous 45 minute horse & buggy ride throughout the city. Well worth $100.00.  When I went to Quebec City as a teen - this was the only real solid memory I had of it. We went up to the Plains of Abraham - where the battle between French and English took place in 1759.

I love the lower city!  We went on a 90 minute Lantern Guided Ghost Tour throughout the entire lower and upper city.  Wow, was that ever a workout!  We were up and down hills and stairs and the girls' little legs kept going!  It ended with a monologue in a darkened Holy Trinity Church with one lone candle to guide all 20 people - apparently the most haunted building in Canada.  We took dozens of pics trying to capture a ghost!  There is one pic that Trinity and Avalon are sure shows a ghost hovering next to Trinity's shoulder.

 

Quite a few murals on buildings in the city - very intricate and gorgeous.

We couldn't leave without seeing Montmorency Falls.  With trepidation, we took a cable car up and walked over the falls on the suspension bridge.  Quebec was quite a bit colder than Ontario, as you can see from the pic!  It was very unfortunate that Douglas couldn't be with us, but we speak daily so he got an earful of our travels and the girls and I have such wonderful memories from our trip!