Quebec

Day 45

Today started with a visit to the old Quebec (Lower Town) where we walked the cobblestone streets to view the Fresque des Quebecois which tells the history of the city in art.  A whole wall of a 6 story building has been painted in 3D art to depict the events and people that founded Quebec dating back to 1535.

Our next stop was to visit the shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre.   St Anne is the grandmother of Jesus. This renowned pilgrimage site has welcomed people for over 350 years and is visited by over 1 million people every year.   It is here miracles have occurred and there is a collection of walking aids left by people who claim to have come here lame and walked out.  It is a beautiful basilica over 3 levels with magnificent paintings, mosaics, stained glass windows and wooden and stone sculptures.   It has huge copper embossed double doors which led us to our next stop the Albert Gilles Copper Art Studio.

This studio is the only one of its kind left in Canada and has been a family business for 3 generations.  There is a collection of 50 works in silver dedicated to the church which took 15 years to complete.  They did a demonstration of working with copper and had a display and gift shop for their work ranging from delicate jewelry, plates, mirrors, wall hangings to work for walls of buildings etc.  I bought a necklace.

Our next stop was for lunch at Le Moulin de Saint Laurent, a converted flour mill.  It was a beautiful place complete with a waterfall that used to turn the wheel to grind the grain.  The food was really delicious and the staff were lovely.

From there we went to a Sugar shack.  It is a farm of sugar maple trees which they drill, inset a tap and bucket to collect the fluid from the tree.  This is then boiled down to form maple syrup, toffees and sugar.  It takes 50 years for the tree to grow big enough to tap but then you can use them for 200 years.  Of course there was the gift shop with everything from their signature maple syrup to coated popcorn.

Our next stop was the spectacular Montmorency Falls which are half again as high as the Niagara Falls but not very wide.  We then came back to the city to walk around the upper city with its ramparts, gates and arches.   We visited the Hotel Frontenac, local shops, parks and the shoreline where we could look down on our ship below.    It really is a beautiful city !