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Thursday, 14 September: Although our rooms did not come with breakfast, I had persuaded the manager to give each of us one free breakfast because he did not have to pay any commission to a travel agent on the reservations I'd made directly. The hotel has a pretty, glassed-in breakfast room facing a roof garden. However, heavy rain detracted from the setting.
Because of the rain, I thought I'd use this day to go to two nearby villages and check the
church records on my Irish ancestors. Don and Lois decided to come along. The others would
brave the rain and try to see the lower town. That's where Quebec was originally founded in
1608, but the settlers later moved to the top of the adjacent hill (Cap Diamant) and built a walled
city for protection from attack by ships on the river. Like much of Old Quebec, most of the lower
town took on its present appearance in the 1970s as entrepreneurs began to appreciate the tourist
potential of North America's only walled city.
My car was parked on the street right in front of our hotel, so I drove Jean, Ozzie, Terry,
and Jane down Rue St. Louis to the top of the funicular. The funicular was running, unlike during
our 1997 visit. Then I drove back to the hotel and picked up Don and Lois.
Our first stop was the village now known as Ste. Catherine de la Jacques Cartier, less than 20 miles from Quebec City. My ancestors lived there, or possibly on a farm nearby, from about 1825 to 1860. The woman in the small house that served as a church rectory was very helpful, and I made some important discoveries. But we also learned that the present church wasn't built until 1910.
We had lunch at a small restaurant in Ste. Catherine, then drove south to
Saint Augustin de Desmaures on the St. Lawrence River. This is where my
ancestors attended church, were married, buried and baptized until 1832 when
the first church was built in Ste. Catherine. St. Augustine, on the other
hand, has had a church since 1694. The present church dates from 1809, so it
was there when my ancestors came to Quebec. The rectory here was much
larger, a very attractive building, but the clerk was much more formal, too.
Although she wouldn't let us examine the index books or any records, she was
helpful and we got the information we were looking for.
We got back to Quebec City after 3:00 p.m., the rain still coming down. The rest of the group had returned well before us after seeing a good part of the lower town. Jean and Ozzie had come back first. Jane, Terry and Casper had come back a little later and had lunch at La Petite Italie before returning to the hotel.
That evening we had an outstanding dinner at Aux Anciens Canadiens, in one
of the city's oldest structures. It was built as a home in 1675 and
converted to a restaurant in 1966. They had an early bird special, a gourmet
four-course meal, with wine, at a fixed price of less than $11 (U.S.). Both
the food and the service were outstanding. The dessert of maple syrup pie
was especially memorable.
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