Thursday, December 3, 2009

Bonjour QC!

Let's back up a little to the day we drove into Quebec City a couple of weeks ago, after 9 1/2 hours on the highway.  Well, not literally "back up," although Quebec drivers are very fond of speeding in reverse to pretend they're going the right way down a one-way street when they really want to be going the other way, or spot a parking space in their rear view mirror that has suddenly been vacated.


Anyway, we are not reversing over the bridge as we head into Quebec City.


It's a bit of a rainy day and close to rush hour so I only have the chance to grab one quick picture.


But I do like how the Christmas lights reflect in the wet city street.


We are here to visit with my in-laws.  They have a beautiful view of the St.Lawrence River and there are often freighters sailing by, or cruise ships in the summer.  Do you see the freighter between the trees?


We're back on the road next day, heading to Montreal and, again, I steal a couple of pictures as we drive out of la ville de Québec.



An affectionate "Salut!" to the Château Frontenac perched atop the hill and we're off for another 3 hours of merging with crazy Québec drivers. I got a lot of knitting done on that leg of the trip; it was either knit or wear a blindfold!


16 comments:

  1. I think that one day I will have to get up to Montreal to see the sights and work on my French

    also to see the charming shots and greet
    the very lovely animals
    such as the ones in your post below.

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  2. Bonjour Elizabeth!
    I am positive you would be enchanted with Quebec City, and enjoy gadding about Montreal. Quebec City is still very much French-only please, but it seems Montrealers, especially the younger generation, are willing and able to help a visitor out in English if need be. I must admit, I find it a bit embarrassing when I'm hobbling along in my best French and the person I'm speaking to immediately responds in English!

    Lots of pooches out for walkies on the streets of Montreal and up through the park roads of Mt. Royal. Buster would make plenty of new friends. He has to learn to say "ouap ouap!" though.

    (I think I should work for Tourisme Québec!)

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  3. What a wonderful place it must be where houses have such walls.
    Reminds me of home - thank you very much. It's now close to ten to three in the morning, guess I found me a dream.
    A wonderful Saturday for you all.

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  4. Ah yes, Montreal. My French speaking is somewhat limited to the point of being able to order apple pie "a la mode". Way back when, finding myself alone there and hoping to find the Forum, asked a matronly French Cdn. lady in my best
    French, "Where is the Forum?" She looked me up and down and replied in English, "It opens at 5 o'clock". Something lost in translation, I guess.

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  5. Very nice traveling photos. Love the wet reflections of Christmas lights, but my favorite is your dramatic photo of Château Frontenac. Now, about the backwards driving... Here, when someone wants to drive adversely down a one-way street, they do it in the forward direction, and when you yell "Hey, this is a one-way street", they just yell back "I am going one-way". I suppose it's safer that way.
    And I see you peering across the St. Lawrence to the U.S... In a past life, my friend Jacques Cartier and I planned on traveling to China via the river, but were frightened by the sturgeon.
    David *
    Jacques Cartier

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  6. PS -- I'm trying to get Jacques to stop signing my comments.

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  7. Hi Robert: I'm very happy to have supplied you with dream material for the wee hours remaining for your sleep! Quebec City is the oldest in Canada, and the only one with such evident "old country" influence in its architecture. "Oldest" here means 400 years.
    Happy weekending to you!

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  8. âllo, Davide/Jacques!
    Glad to find you paddling upstream through my blogue! If you ride with the tide, it's one way only...could be the right way or the wrong way, depending on which way you want to be heading and which way the tide is flowing. I must say, you look rather dashing with that feather in your musketeer hat!

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  9. BONJOUR SHIRL! Almost missed replying to you. The comment box opens at 5 pm!

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  10. Despite all those hours of driving you still had the presence of mind to think "photos for blog"... and how do you get to stay in all these fabulous water-view places ? Vancouver, the St Laurence ??? Do you carry a divining rod to help steer you to large bodies of water ? I've only been once to Quebec, and wished I'd had more time to spend there. I remember though, I went there to try to practice my French, and when they heard me open my mouth to try, they would switch into English right away... So has it snowed up your way yet ? Shucks, I saw where Texas got snowed on this week...

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  11. Owen, yes, snow, last night, today. On est fait!

    So, the Parisians are far less fussy about how one massacres their language?

    Houses facing water bodies, very good feng shui. If one can afford the real estate and lives on high ground.

    Shucks?

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  12. Very lovely traveling photo's :-)
    The reflection on the bridge is perfect !!
    Have a nice sunday :-)

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  13. Ah, the feng shui, I should have guessed ! Looks like you've got it in spades...

    And seeing the word "shucks" all by itself there with just a question mark for company, I'm wondering what it even means now... seems to me that one "shucks" corn, to tear off the husks ?

    PS WV is "unglog", which means : the strangling noise one makes when making up in the morning, looking out the window, and realizing it has snowed in the night and one now has some serious shovelling to look forward to...

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  14. So, you obviously weren't the driver on this trip then? or can you multi-task driving with knitting blindfolded?
    Wonderful travels you're on, thanks for taking us with you!
    I only learned to ask for wine and chips in French for my visit to France. And I made sure to wear something to indicate I was a Kiwi - they seemed to like that!

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  15. Anya,
    Sorry I missed your comment last week, but it makes it even more delightful to find it shining through the reflections of my blog a week later!

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  16. Saj,
    I may be able to drive a car while knitting blindfolded but obviously I can't find comments posted on my blog while doing so! Sorry I missed this one at the time, but happy to find it tonight, blindfold removed.

    Just what does one wear to indicate one's Kiwiness?

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