Quebec City

We left Sedalia MO early on July 2 and drove as hard and as fast (that being a relative term as we don’t go over 62 mph in the RV) as we could to Hermon, Maine outside of Bangor, arriving late in the day on July 4. The Adventure Caravan trip we signed up for is leaving from there on the 6th and we needed time to prepare ourselves for it as well as trying to meet the other caravaners.

It was a 5 hour drive to Quebec City, Quebec (this is pronounced ‘keh-bec’ with emphasis on ‘bec’, not ‘qweh-bec’ like most Americans say it) including an easy border crossing. We parked in the KOA in Levis (pronounced ‘Lev-es’) with fairly easy access to the city.

Sunday morning we climbed aboard the bus at 8 am for a 10 hour tour. Roger, our guide, is in love with his city and it showed. Jacques Cartier founded the city and Samuel Champlaigne settled the area in the early 1600’s. It is situated on the narrowest point of the St. Laurence River, 700 miles from the Atlantic. With a 48 mile wide mouth the river has a 22 foot tide that forces the river to flow backwards twice a day. The river is over 300 ft deep and 10 miles wide except in Quebc City where it narrows to 3/4 mile wide so lots of ships and barges go on up to Montreal. 96% of the people speak French in Quebec.

We had a nice walking tour of Old Town on the harbor, then the bus took us around through the city gates into the walled part of the city. We had a short stop in the Parc des Champs-de-Bataille (city park) and also called the Plains of Abraham.  The French held the city until the British invaded and climbed the steep cliffs to overtake the French on this battlefield. Then we had lunch at the top of Montmorency Falls which are taller than Niagra Falls but not nearly as grand.

After lunch we drove out to the Shrine of Sainte Anne-de-Beaupre where fishermen were saved from drowning and cured of a bad leg. This was in the late 1700’s. They built a shrine of thanks to Sainte Anne, patron saint of sailors and carved her image in wood then covered it with gold. The chapel was burned down several times through the years but the wooden, gold embossed statue always survived. They started this current church in 1923. It is made completely of stone so it won’t burn and took 47 years to complete.

A brief stop at a fruit stand for strawberries and another stop for ice cream completed this long day!