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Saturday, September 13: I went out before breakfast and found a room at L'Ermitage, a nice hotel right around the corner from the B&B. There was even a place to park the car (for a fee). Back at the B&B, Mr. Benjamin served us a nice breakfast at 8:30: croissants, yogurt, juice, and coffee. An Australian woman ate with us. That was the first we knew anyone else was staying at the B&B. There was also another couple waiting to eat after we finished. The Australian woman had been there two days before us and was very displeased. She said that day's breakfast was the first decent one Mr. Benjamin had served. When we told Mr. Benjamin that we were leaving, he was pleasant and said that was no problem. We thought perhaps he was used to it. I got the car from City Hall and it took only a few minutes to move into L'Ermitage. The room rate here did not include breakfast. In consideration of Jane's knees, we took a ground floor room instead of one with a view on the third floor. After unpacking, we started walking the upper town. It was a very overcast day. Our first stop was the neo-Gothic Sanctuary of Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur (1910), just down the street from the hotel. From there we took a look at the St. Louis Gate and the Parliament building across the street before heading for the star-shaped Citadel on Cap Diamont overlooking the river. The sun came out before we started the guided tour there. Despite its massive fortifications, the Citadel never saw a battle. It was built from 1820 to 1850 to protect Quebec against the Americans, who had attacked Canada during the War of 1812. By the time it was finished, it was obsolete.
After the tour, we walked around the walls, into the upper town, down some very quaint little streets, and came out the Terrasse Dufferin, a gigantic boardwalk overlooking the river. There were several "artists" performing for tips. The fire eater or, more accurately, a human flame thrower, was very good.
We continued
into the Place d'Arms and came to the rue du Tresor where dozens of artists display their work along the sidewalk. We were
looking for a place to eat that would not require us to have a three or four course meal for lunch.
Finally, past City Hall we found Le Traiteur, a sidewalk cafe with an ala carte menu. Jane had
ham and cheese on a baguette, and I took the quiche Lorraine.
We spent more time going down the quaint streets, passing the Quebec Seminary (1663) and the Basilica Notre Dame de Quebec (1647) on Place d'Armes. We wandered back to the Terrasse Dufferin and watched some of the performers. There was the inevitable mime, as well as various musicians and singers. We sat for a while and listened to a Latin-looking group in front of the Parc des Gouveneurs. We think they may have been from Bolivia because two of them played the type of pan flutes we had seen in northwestern Argentina near the Bolivian border. We got back to the hotel after 4:00 and rested until it was time for 5:00 Mass at the nearby Sanctuary of Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur. Of course, the Mass was in French. Later, on our way to dinner, we finally found the legendary cannonball embedded in a tree on rue St. Dennis during the British siege in 1759. We ate at Le Petite Italie where we had lunch the day before: the ubiquitous cream of vegetable soup, salad, lasagna verde, dessert, and coffee. We walked along rue St. Dennis for a short time. The cars were just pouring in with Saturday night diners. We couldn't believe there was room for them all to park. |
