September 17, 2018

This morning the temperature felt like 20°C, under a blue sky and a bit of wind. The ship was docked overnight in its berth at the mouth of the St. Charles River where it enters the St. Lawrence River. Last night after 11 p.m., we ventured off the ship to the nearby large Welcome tent to connect to the complimentary Wi-Fi to load four days of blog entries. Most of the 100 or so people in the huge tent were crew. The crew Wi-Fi rate on the ship is still high for some employees. For passengers, if you do not buy a 14-day package which costs US$ 26 per day, the daily cost is US$49.95.

There were two gangways again to leave the ship. Other ships in port today were the Viking Sea with about 930 passengers and the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas on its third day in port after ending a voyage yesterday and taking on new passengers for two nights in Québec City before it leaves. It is our second day in Québec City. There were two groups of 30 for the Old Québec Walking Tour. We gathered in the Celebrity Theater, then exited the ship and sat down in the Welcome tent for ten minutes to await one of the complimentary port shuttle buses to take the two groups to Place Royale in ten minutes. We had walked back to the ship yesterday from Place Royale and it took us less than 20 minutes.

For the first hour the sky was foggy in the distance due to the clash of the warm air and cooler river surface temperature. I activated my GPS unit to track the route of the walk and our own wanderings.

Place Royale has buildings and history from three eras – the French Period from 1608 to 1759, the British Period from 1759 to 1867 and the Canadian Period from 1867 to present. We walked toward the river to the reconstruction of the 1691 French Battery of cannons before going to Place Royale square. Next, we walked through the French section of mdi 1750s houses, before the British arrived. The houses are built of stone with firewalls between each dwelling to protect against fires spreading. A Frenchman in Québec invented a tin roof as fire protection which allowed ice and snow to slide off. This became a common roof style. We passed the active archeological dig of the ruins of the location of the 1896 Le Soliel newspaper.
We stopped at a four-storey mural, Fresque des Québécois, depicting much of the history of Québec City. Genevieve, our guide, explained the significance of the people. Two of the figures were nuns who arrived by ship in 1639. One was an Ursuline nun who founded education for girls and the other was an Augustinian nun who established the first hospital in the settlement. Another figure on the mural was Lord Dufferin, the British Governor General in the late 1800s well-liked by the citizens. He had the boardwalk, Dufferin Terrace, built along the cliffs beside the Canadian Pacific Railway‘s new Château Frontenac hotel and convinced the citizens to keep the historic wall around the old city by just enlarging the narrow openings of the four gates. He thought that the walled city would be a good tourist attraction. Another person was Jacques Cartier who discovered the site and stayed on the St. Charles River during the harsh winter of 1534-35; many of his sailors died of scurvy. He took several members of the local natives who had helped him survive the winter back to France. Cartier returned in 1542 but the natives were not as friendly since the people he had taken to France has all died. He had not found a route to China and returned to France in the spring of 1543. France forgot about Canada until Samuel de Champlain returned in 1608 to found a settlement and fur trading post known as Abitation.

On the pavement in Place Royale square is an outline of where the fur trading post was located, near the stone church, Notre-Dame des Victoires, built between 1688 and 1690. It celebrates the victory over the British commander Phipps from Pennsylvania. It is the oldest stone church in Canada. We walked over a few streets to Rue Petit Champlain, one of the oldest shopping streets in North America, which was redeveloped into the renovated period buildings, many of which are owned by a cooperative of small businesses. Their shops can be identified by the address which has a ½ after the number. There is a monument to Louis Joliet, who lived on the street after he and Marquette “discovered” the Mississippi River in the later part of the 1700s. His former house, since 1879, became the lower entrance to a steam powdered Funiculaire du Vieux-Québec (an angled elevator) that transported people up to the top of the cliffs to the upper part of the Old City. It was electrified in 1907. About ten meters away is the bottom of the stairway to the upper level that were nicknamed the “Breakneck Stairs” because the original staircase was a lot steeper and narrower.

At the top of the Funicular is the Dufferin Terrace and the 600 room, five star Fairmont Château Frontenac hotel which was started in 1892 and expanded in 1924 and 1926. It is close to the Citadelle which was built between 1820 and 1850,

and the views from the boardwalk look down on the lower town, the St. Lawrence River with the Île d’Orléans and across the water the City of Lévis. There is a view of the old Post Office dome and the steeple of on Laval High School and University, originally founded as a seminary in the 1600s. The sky had a strange fog hovering over the distant Laurentian mountains and river. There are many narrow streets leading away from the top and the road to the Citadel and Plains of Abraham.

Under the boardwalk of Dufferin Terrace are the ruins of Fort St. Louis which is a Parks Canada Historic site and can be viewed from portals in the boardwalk and an underground platform. We walked past the Château Frontenac Hotel and the 125 year old original courthouse. We stopped to view the white stucco house with a shiny red metal roof which is the oldest house in the old City built in 1677. It is a restaurant now. The roof is painted red since the colour of the rust proof paint used to be only red.

The Ursuline convent was the next stop. It has occupied the location since 1642 and been expanded, but the order of nuns is less than 12 and the property will go up for sale on September 18. It was here in the 1600s that, in a ten year period, 700 poor or orphaned women were sent to New France by the King. They were known as the King’s Daughters and had their dowry of land provided by the King of France. The women lived at the convent and were instructed in colonial life and married French soldiers. The women looked for men with rough hands and thick legs which meant that they were hard workers. At the end of the ten years the population of the Abitation settlement had tripled.

Not far away was the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity church erected in 1804. It was the first Anglican Church built outside of Britain. Its bell tower is one meter taller than the French cathedral. The stained glass was shipped from Europe in molasses barrels, on ships in the 1860s. The large organ dates from 1885 but on the 200^thanniversary of the church a smaller organ was donated from a source in England. The organ was once owned by an English friend of the composer, Handel, and it is thought that the composer probably played the organ. It is used for smaller congregation services. The guide for the church tour showed us three pronto (alter) cloths. The first was an ornate cloth used for special services like Christmas and Easter. The second and third cloths were cut from Westminster Abbey drapery used in the coronations of King George VI (blue fabric) after the death of Queen Victoria and George III (fragile gold & red fabric) in 1760. There is a lottery in which all Anglican Churches are eligible and the winners receive the cloths for their altars. The English king in 1807 sent a 10 piece silver communion set which is on display under glass. The first Anglican service in Old Québec City was in 1760 when the British returned to claim the city.

In August 1759 the British started the bombardment of Old Québec City, after they were defeated at Montmorency Falls on July 31^st. The British watched for a way to enter the cliffs. A supply delivery to the besieged city was cancelled, but the city had not received word about it, General Wolfe’s 4000 soldiers were able to use the same supply path and the sentries on the walls thought the people were bringing supplies. By dawn on September 12^th, the British were assembled on the Palins of Abraham. The French soldiers led by General Montcalm left the walled city and in less than 20 minutes the battle was won by the British. In April 1760 they fought again in the Battle of St. Croix with the British being defeated. However, the French could not re-enter Québec City. The French were already fighting a war in Europe and sent no reinforcements. In the resulting Treaty of Utrecht in 1763 to pay France’s war debt, it gave up most of French North America to the British.

We continued to the Price Building where there is a modern statue of a log driver. A tribute to the men who moved the logs on the river to the Price company pulp and paper mills. Not far away was the 1802 St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church next door to the old Gaol built in the early 1800s and used between 1808 and 1867, at which time prisoners were transferred to a newer jail on the Plains of Abraham. The Morrin Center was established by a gift from the gaol doctor. The Morrin Society built the English Library and Cultural and Historical Center in the renovated building. Next door is the French Library – Institut Canadien.

One of the final stops was the City Hall gardens with its sister city banners flying from the walls. At the front of the building is the City of Québec flag with a blue background and a golden ship like the one Champlain sailed. We then walked to the former Grand Seminary and Laval University grounds. Most of the university classes have moved to a new campus in the suburbs, but the architecture faculty and the high school still use the buildings. Some parts having been built in the 17^thcentury like the white stucco ones we saw in the courtyard.

Our final stop of the three-hour tour was at the steps of Notre Dame de Québec, the Roman Catholic cathedral and basilica. We were shown the Holy Door (Port Sante) which was presented to the church in 2012 and was open for just a few days. During the Jubilee of Mercy in 2016 the Holy Door was also open to people to absolve them of sins. It has a special significance and will next be opened in 2025 for a short period. The church was burned to the ground in 1922 and church officials decided to rebuild the whole building exactly as it had been using the original 18^thcentury plans. We accumulated 5161 steps on the tour.

Leaving the tour at the basilica, we searched for a restaurant for lunch. We chose the small Casse-Crêpe Breton on rue Saint Jean for a delicious salad and sandwich. After lunch we went in search of the old city gates on the way to the Plains of Abraham. We knew where to find the Porte St. Jean, then walked to the Porte Kent and on to the wall walking along Parc l’Esplanade to the Porte St. Louis that led to the Citadel and the Plains of Abraham. We walked along a sidewalk following the Citadel walls on one side with a great view of the grassy battlefield. The sun was shining, rising the temperature to an unseasonal 29°C, but there was some wind. We walked to cliff above the St. Lawrence River and took in the views before strolling along the Governor’s Promenade that linked to Dufferin Terrace back to the Château Frontenac hotel. We took the staircase beside the funicular down to the Breakneck Stairs to return to the ship by the route that we had taken yesterday afternoon.

As we passed the concert hall there was a short line by the doors, which reminded us that there was a concert by Paul McCartney scheduled in the next few days and he was staying in Québec City. Steps when we returned to the ship 13,426.

We grabbed the computer and went back to the Welcome tent to use the Wi-Fi to upload the GPS unit map showing the wandering that we had done. The ship was already cruising by 5 p.m when we went for dinner in the dining room.

Tonight’s entertainment in the Celebrity Theater is veteran vocalist, Ric Steel. He is funny and he also plays the guitar. Final steps 16,745