DAY 7

DAY 7  - Bus tour of Quebec and walking tour of Quartier Petit Quebec 

Quebec, the oldest city in Canada, was founded in July, 1608 by the explorer Samuel de Champlain when he was searching for a place suitable for settlement and found Quebec to be the most convenient and best situated due to its location on the St. Lawrence River.   When Champlain stepped ashore, he marked the beginning of Quebec and Canada.

Until Champlain successfully arrived, explorations to the New World brought disappointment and death for France.   Champlain was the visionary that would change history.  He dreamed not only of adding a great domain to France but of bringing wealth through the fur trade and of spreading the faith.

After several crises and rebellion, the work of building houses and creating a village resumed, but when spring broke in April 1609, only 8 of the 24 men who wintered at Quebec were still alive.   However, Champlain persevered through famines and battles with the natives and is highly admired by Canadians as one of the most influential and forward thinking colonizers in their country’s history.  

The Champlain Monument on Dufferin Terrace honors the man who founded Quebec.  

It’s one of the city’s most recognized statues due to its imposing size and the central location where street performers gather to entertain locals and tourists.    

Our tour included a drive by of several prominent sights including the Battlefields Park, the Citadel and Notre-Dame-de Quebec Basilica. Quebec is a booming city with construction at every turn.  It’s very difficult to get around the city and once again our bus driver, Dave, did an excellent job navigating through the narrow streets of a city that could easily pass for a French village.

Bernard was an exceptional tour guide.   Sunrise Tours always hires the best local guides to provide its guests with a thorough background and entertaining narrative of the area.

 In some pictures you will see constructuon cranes partially blocking the monument or statue.

    

     

                   Notre-Dame-de Quebec Basilica

         

The building above with all the lumber randomly placed was an interesting decorative choice for this posh area.

I loved these gigantic lamp shades put up just for an art exhibit in one of the ritziest shopping districts, but they became so popular that they left them up and just change the shades for special events, like in the second photo it depicts the film festival.   

            

A lovely church for sale for a mere $2 million Canadian Dollars.





The walled area around the Citadel under repair.

An impressive statue of Joan of Arc.

The merchants in Petit Champlain collectively decide on seasonal decorations for the area and they were putting up these colorful umbrellas while we were touring the area.   They were so vibrant and just gave such a festive feel to the area.

A typical outdoor cafe scene very reminiscent of cafes in France.  A lovely was to spend the morning....coffee, croissants and  people watching.

This is the town where the final scenes of the Tom Hanks & Leonardo DiCaprio move “Catch Me if You Can” were filmed.  In the movie, it was depicted as a small town in France where Hanks captures DiCaprio.