Day 2

June 23, 2015

What do you do when you’re on vacation in Quebec City and it rains? Grab your umbrella and go out walking anyway. Possibly the rain makes it even more romantic, if that’s possible.

Since the Plains of Abraham and the boardwalk were pretty much closed because of the Fête nationale du Québec taking place later that evening, we decided over breakfast that we’d walk to the Porte-Saint-Louis and walk the top of the wall as far as we could. Besides, who wants to go walking through the wet grass?

romantic — Cannons on the wall at Porte Saint-Louis

It was only spitting rain when we left the hotel, but looking at the sky it would only be a matter of time before it came down harder.

The horse-drawn carriages have a parking area in Parc de l’Esplanades. This was the first to turn up – number 14. All of the carriages are numbered and the horse wears a tag on his bridle with the corresponding number. Oh, and look – there’s the Price Building in the background.

Porte Kent is at the head of rue Dauphine. Under normal circumstances, you could go through the gate and carry on but the doorway was boarded over so we had to go down to street level.

The Maison Dauphine is a shelter for street youth from the ages of 12 to 24. You can read more about the work they do here. It’s a beautiful building and yes, that’s another steep hill.

Porte Saint-Jean is the last of the remaining gates in the wall around the city. You can see that some of the stones have been turned green from the copper roof.

This is rue Saint-Jean outside the wall at Place D’Youville. In the winter there is a skating rink set up on the extreme left of this photo. This time it was marquis type tents set up for the comedy festival and other things happening in the city.

At street level in the red brick building on the left of the photo is the Pub Saint-Alexandre one of our favourite haunts but since we’ve not been there yet, I’ll save it for now. But look – there’s the Price Building.

We walked through Parc de l’Artillerie when we were here in November and thought it would be fun to do it in more favourable weather. And look at what’s peeking over the roof of the white building – you guessed it. It’s the Price Building.

This walkway was closed off in November but was open this time of year. Since we couldn’t walk through here then, we did on this occasion. It’s a shame that the buildings have been vandalized by tagging.

After exiting the park, we continued along rue des Remparts. The narrow streets leading off this one are filled with colourful houses. And yup, there’s the Price Building again.

Remember this house on the left of the photo. The one with the stone front and brick side.

Rue Sous-le-Cap is a lovely narrow street in Vieux-Quebec. We first experienced it in November when Philippe took us through there on our carriage ride. One of the houses in this photo even has a rooftop terrace!

This is about where rue des Remparts becomes rue Port-Dauphin. There are a number of cannons along here as you can see in this photo taken last November.

And the steps at the back for the soldiers to climb up to load them makes a perfect spot for a gal to have a wee rest, don’t you think?

Down below you can see rue Notre-Dame and the Parc de la Cetière. The were doing some construction between two of the houses. I have no idea what it will be but there’s a round-top opening on one side and where within the next few days, where the plywood is cut on the angle, there’s another piece there to make it triangular. Looks like a return trip to find out just what the purpose of all that was.

To the right of the picture you can see a stone wall with a red door in it that leads to a courtyard.

We walked over this bridge and took the remaining stairs up to Place D’Armes located in front of the Chateau Frontenac. If you look to the right of there is another flight of stairs that takes you down to street level on Côte de la Montagne.

It wasn’t much longer and the skies really opened up but it didn’t last long. Basically long enough to get everything soaking wet.

We circled around to rue du Trésor where we boarded this carriage for a ride around the city (at least the places we could go that weren’t blocked off because of festivals and the like). We chose this carriage because it looked more romantic than the others. White with the red interior and the heart-shaped window at the back.

While we were out, Andre took us by this house (remember it from an earlier picture?). He told us that it is supposedly the most haunted house in Quebec City. After hearing that, I had to go back and get a better photo of it. With the peeling paint and shutters hanging at crazy angles, not to mention the trees taking over in front of the two lower windows, it’s not hard to see how it got it’s reputation.