Vive le Quebec!!

Quebec City…
C’est une belle ville, n’est pas? Ca ville est tres interessante et marveilleux (best guess at spelling) et elle a beaucoup de personnes qui est tres capable de faire les actions acrobatique et humereux. Ca c’est le fini de mes attempts a ecrire en Francais. Pathetique!
Okay, once more with feeling! Quebec City – a wonderful city with so much to see and do and experience and soak in. I had been in its environs in the distant past (highschool) but unfortunately my normally excellent memory for travel failed me at that time. Perhaps it was frozen in slow absorbent gear at that point since it most likely was very cold at the time since we were there with the purpose of attempting to ski at Mt. Ste. Anne – me with very little success since I ended up lost and on a very difficult slope which unfathomably was positioned directly next to the beginner slope with none too clear marking of the trails (Hmm, a conspiracy by the local hospitals to create some much needed revenue from setting broken legs and fixing concussions? We will never know – but the interesting little factoid for today is that Ontarians and all other Canadians need health insurance coverage for traveling to Quebec. Did you know that? I sure didn’t and was kinda surprised by that info – My Quebec does not include Canada apparently).
Wow, that was a large digression from the main topic – What do I say about the trip? We left early on Monday morning to drive the 9 hour drive to Quebec City, the capital of la belle province de Quebec. We made excellent time, in part due to good weather and traffic conditions and in part due to my superior map reading and navigational skills. Perhaps I could start my own little guide company. Hmm, if I’m ever bored of nursing…
Memories of the trip will just come out in blurbs and blobs in no random or particular order:
- Mom snorting the entire song of Happy Birthday!
- reading Princess Bride, complete with different voices and accents, in the car and leaving poor Westley in the torture chamber!
- loving our B + B located just outside the walls of the city, complete with cool views from the toilet, a wonderful hostess, good beds, a cute couple from Washington at our breakfast table, croissants, old windows and crooked wooden floors.
- wandering around the old city a lot – we sure walked a very lot. Good ting we had good shoes. Here’s to no blisters!!
- visiting the Citadel and driving around the walls twice before we found out how to get out of there – could have been endless entertainment – driving around in circles – would be a good cheap outing since it doesn’t cost anything to get into the fort – only a wonderful salute from the dapperly dressed guard. “So kids, how did you like that guard?” “But Dad, we’ve passed him four times already and I’m sick of waving to him!”
- taking a horse and caleche ride around the city with Francois and Beauty (you figure out who is the horse and who is the driver!)
- eating crepes and croissants and curried chicken sandwiches and gelato by the gallon
- trying to buy a painting on the artist’s street without getting knocked over by the prices
- nearly getting run over and smushed by a horse who was a little thirsty
- getting to see minke and fin whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals on the St. Lawrence – do you all realize how big that river is??
- watching the abundance of wonderfully flexible and distortable street performers who juggled fires, rode infinitely tiny bicycles, balanced each other on impossible angles, and generally kept us quite entertained until the time came for the tips – then we just said “look both ways before you cross the street” and left – just kidding of course, we tipped the ones we really were amazed by and there were quite a few!
- marveling at the European feel of the city and loving it and wanting to move there – I have no idea what I would do there, just wander around and gawp at the walls and windows and feel old
- driving through wonderful little villages along the river coast line, yelling at Dad to slow down around hair pin turns and marveling at stomach-dropping views
- sitting in sidewalk cafes after debating endlessly about where to eat and then thoroughly enjoying our food – fettucine alfredo, salads, soups, steaks and lots of other yummy things
I loved spending time with Dad and Mom and Lauren, just relaxing( well, walking a lot but still out of the daily grind and routine) and experiencing new things together and making memories.
Vive le Quebec trip of 2006!
Bon nuit et je t’aime!