We woke up to dry dull skies and set off to Levis over the bridge.

There wasn’t much to see or do there so we followed the road high above the river bank almost to level with the waterfall

We then caught the ferry over the river to Quebec and continued up to the next bridge crossing over to Ile d’Orleans.

At the chocolate makers we bought a snack lunch and sat outside. It was getting cooler and beginning to rain.

The rain has now set in so we came back to the hotel early. It’s good to have a lazy day

We may go out later if the rain stops. So not much of a blog but it is what it is and we can’t change the weather.

Baie-du-Sainte-Paul. (An hour and a half drive from Quebec City)

Touring Charlevoix area. It was impacted by a huge meteorite fall 350 million years ago. The scenery is forested hills and deep valleys.

Baie-du-saint-Paul is a very quaint artists town with cute shops and restaurants. 

We called at a restaurant 

The …. Le saint pub and vince had a melt in the mouth steak and I tried Poutine for the first time. 

Did I like it ? Yes I did!

It’s cheese curds from the local area with beer gravy and sweet potato chips. The gravy was a bit salty but I also had the local cider with it and water. 

It was bizarre I wanted to order mine completely in French which I did perfectly with help from the menu 👌

But everything I said, the waitress translated into English after I said my French version. Did she want to practise her English? Or was my French poor pronunciation ? 🤣🤣

 There were loads of beautiful art shops and clothes shops as well as places to eat. This is a tourists skiing area in the winter.

The rain started and thunder rolling in the far valleys. It was cooler. We headed back to Quebec passing through a storm and then blue skies once more.

It is sunny and warm again here.

I hope you get a feel of Baie du Saint Paul from my photos xx

A full on day in Quebec City

Parking this morning by the river, we decided to go to our now favourite coffee shop and indulge in crepes! We drank lots of water and coffee and poured the maple syrup over our 3 crepes. They are delicious. I still haven’t tried the Canadian puteen yet, though I’ll try to before I leave Canada.

We wandered around the streets below the funicular and then up to the top. It was very hot and we kept in the shade listening to the buskers up there. 

We saw a beautiful mural covering a side of a building. It depicts the history to present day of Old Quebec. 

We wanted to see ….

“The scene of great battles and Canada’s first national historic park, the site includes the Plains of Abraham and Des Braves Park.”

So ….Next we attacked the wooden steps leading up to the park and plains of Abraham. It was quite a climb and the path lead all along the cliffside up and sometimes annoyingly down then up again eventually to the citadel. 

The views were stunning and there were First Nation coils and statues next to a well placed bandstand. 

The funny thing was that after a long rest we could not find a way down to the grassy bank below us and could only walk completely around the top of the citadel defences until we were able to descend safely. There were no signs to help find our way or even a map!

Back in the old city it was a bit cooler as the sky was cloud covered now but still a warm wind.

We had a long drink of tea and iced water at a Starbucks that is part of the hotel and pretended we were residents there. 

On returning down the funicular to the car it was only 4pm. 

We decided to to go to the top of the huge falls Montmorency falls we visited 2 days ago

The park at the top was lovely there was a different view of the top of the falls and you could walk across them on a wired wooden path but no way would we do that. It was sooo windy up there too.

So what a full on day 

We still have 3 more days here I’m pleased because I’m really enjoying Quebec 

More of a lazy day visiting Ile d’Orleans and over Quebec City ferry to Levis and the other waterfall  near Quebec in chaudieres park 

This morning we headed to St Anne area of Quebec City and crossed the bridge near the falls to the island 

Ile d’Orleans. We spent a time driving round the small island . It is very full of farms and produces and sells cider wine and vegetables and fruit. We eventually stopped at the chocolatier. We bought a ham salad croissant and a drink and ate it outside in the shade. We could have stayed there all day it was so relaxing. Grandad ate a vanilla ice cream and I had a small bar of their milk and caramel chocolate. It was hot even in the shade so we both had to eat them before they melted.

Crossing over the bridge once again we headed for the docks as we wanted to go on the ferry this time over the st Lawrence river Old Quebec to Levis.

There is a small park over there next to a weir and a waterfall. Chaudieres Park

I took pics from the top but grandad walked down all the steps to see it from below. 

I saw a marmot again the third one so far this holiday…..and I managed to photograph it.

I sat under the trees in the shade waiting for grandad and I wrote this blog.

We planned not to go far today as yesterday was a long day. We are so pleased it’s lovely weather and dry

It may rain tomorrow evening

Quebec City to Baie-Sainte-Catherine, ferry,  sand dunes and fjord du Saguenay 

As we have such good weather we decided that we would explore the 

saint Lawrence River going further east and north.

We followed the coastline of the St Lawrence river for many miles. It is so wide and beautiful.

Crossing the road in front of us we saw a marmot about the size of a cat..:

At Baie-sainte-Catherine we stopped to see the watchout point for whales. There are beluga whales out today and I think or I hope I saw one about 4 times or was it a wave? Two girls looking through binoculars seemed to be excited about it.

Here the road runs out and you go on a free car ferry across the fjord. To tadoussac. 

Here we asked at the tourist information centre for maps and where to go for your best views of the area. 

We continued to see the famous sand dunes 

Then returned to Tadoussac and picked up the road above the fjord. (fjord du Saguenay)

There are only a couple of places to see the water in the fjord on the north side as there are steep hills blocking the view from the highway.

We called-at Anse de Roche 

And Sante-Rose-du Nord

After this the huge long fjord becomes a wide river inland to the city of Saguenay

We crossed the bridge at Saguenay and eventually picked up the road highway 175 direct to Quebec City. 2 hours away. This road is dual carriageway all the way and rolling hills very pretty and easy to drive. There were warnings of moose all along here. Fortunately we didn’t have one run out in front of the car!

A long day but we saw so much more of eastern Quebec and the st. Lawrence river going north. I hope you like my photos x

Parc de la Chute-Montmorency Quebec

Went to old Quebec first thing this morning and had crepes bacon fruit and purée and maple syrup mmmmm

We visited the Notre Dame old Quebec. And went up and down the funicular. 

This afternoon we drove to close by Montmorency falls and got some stunning photos. The noise of the water was thundering. You can do a zip wire across, a gondola  ride up, and also a foot bridge high over the falls. We chickened out!

We walked below (and will drive to the top another day.)

Grandad met a couple who had just had to leave Barrie Toronto ( where we stayed) as the black flies are now out and they were being eaten to death. …..we were so lucky weren’t we!

We got caught in the rush hour traffic on the way back and it took ages but at least we know now to avoid 3.30pm onwards for travelling.

Old Quebec City

What a lovely day we have had today. 

We had breakfast and headed to Quebec City itself. 

The car park we found was right near the boat trips on the river and close to the funicular up to the old city. 

We enquired about a trip along the St Laurence river and they sailed at 11.30am 

It was 10.15 am so we wandered through the nearby beautiful French styled streets and went into a cafe for coffee. It was too tempting in there and we ordered crepes with maple syrup and fruits. So yummy we really enjoyed them and the free mango strawberry blueberry smoothie we were given with our coffee and water. 

In no time it was time to board the boat. The river although so far inland is tidal and flows very fast with small whirlpools. The river was calm and pleasant to travel on. The guide was giving very interesting facts and history of Quebec and the importance of the Lawrence in travelling right into Canada connecting with the Great Lakes.

We were onboard for an hour and a half and sat on top deck the whole time. 

It was not too cold and we were able to get great views of old Quebec up on the hill.

We saw the huge waterfall the Montmorency Falls. It is higher than the Niagara Falls and impressive too. We will visit it soon.

Back on the quay we paid $5 to go up the funicular. 

At the top it  was so quaint and picturesque. We wandered around the streets and had a lovely time in this very French old city. We went in the catholic cathedral so beautiful and also in the Anglican cathedral.

The Anglican cathedral is the first one to be built outside Britain and was funded by George 3rd. He gave the silver plates and communion pieces and crosses. The windows were very beautiful. 

Outside was a statue of a poor traveller who when you sat next to him you realised he was an angel.

We had a huge ice cream that was dipped in dark chocolate. (Sadly it upset my stomach and although I enjoyed it at the time I regretted it later!)

We got back to the car and travelled to the falls but the car park shut at 6pm and it was a bit risky parking so we will go tomorrow probably.

I hope you like my photos. You will notice the weather changed during the day and we are now promised warm sunny weather this week.

Travelling Ottawa to Quebec

We had a good run all the way with only a few hold ups. 

It rained most of the day but light rain mostly and very heavy dark low clouds all the time. 

As we approached Quebec City there were loads of cranes and roads blocked off and diversions, work going on everywhere.

Our sat nav got us a bit lost and we ended up at the aquarium…. And a very angry car park attendant.

We were not far from the hotel and found it safely. 

The hotel seems brand new and we have a large room on the top floor.

We had a McDonalds for a cheap quick meal and tried to go into the city without a street map. The sat nav took us up and down steep narrow roads and not along the main roads. So we saw the back streets and did not seem to get anywhere. Consequently we are back at our “holiday inn express” and making plans for the next 9 days here. 

A few pics I took from the car of bridges over the St Laurence river. You can tell it’s wet damp and not good weather!

Ottawa Aviation and space museum 

RCMP Horses and tulip displays

Today was cold and wet but we had planned to be in doors at the Aviation and Space Museum 

I got in free as a retired teacher! So that was a bonus .

Vince was in his element as there were so many different types of aircraft and some he’d not seen before (only in pictures).

I was interested too…. much to my surprise. The space travel was very well presented.

We spent about 3 hours there.

Next we visited the Mounties 

Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

And were shown around their famous horses. They perform in a musical show. It is famous world wide. The horses were shiny black and very tall. We saw the stables, tack room, spoke to the farrier and looked at the horse shoes etc

I learnt so much about horses. We may have chance to see them perform while we are in Quebec. Fingers crossed.

The place was all cleaned up and the brass on the harnesses polished and the carriage ready for Charles and Camilla to ride in. You should see all the preparations everywhere. They are going to block off all the side streets along the way he passes. We drove along there today as we went to see the fabulous tulips. 

The royal family of the Netherlands stayed here during WW2, since then the queen sent millions of tulip bulbs to the people of Canada to thank them. 

So we move on tomorrow and have a wet weekend in store but much better from Monday 

The Canada nature museum 

And walk around the parliament buildings perimeter.

Today we got a taxi to the nature museum.

We got timed tickets for the butterflies and the live tree exhibit. Both were so interesting. 

The butterflies flew around your heads and landed on a few people. They were eating fruits and sweet water.

There was a live bug section with tarantula spider, scarab beetles, stag beetles,stick insects and huge cockroaches and millipedes.

The tree exhibition was a true story of human destroying the environment and one man planting thousands of acorns to change the dead earth into a living environment once again, it was so well portrayed and ended with a magic musical tree that responded to our movements.

Other floors had an arctic area full of saving the earth themed

A world area full of minerals and great exhibits and even a meteorite. Loads of geological facts I wanted to stay there much longer.

A water floor

A dinosaur and fossil floor.

Afterwards we walked about 2 miles to the centre of the city as a hop on hop off tourist bus did not arrive.

We walked all around the perimeter of the parliament buildings. Major construction work is being carried out on all the buildings so it is cordoned off and huge cranes are working there.

We did see the back entrance which is work free. I think this is the entrance Charles and Camilla will use!

We are back at the hotel now feeling tired and a bit cold . We may go out later in our car along Queen Elizabeth highway.