Quebec,
Sillery, Ste-Foy
and bits of memory
From the Laurentian highway to the south finally appears, beyond the vast valley of the St-Charles river, the long east-west ridge of the Quebec spur, which stretches from Sillery and Ste-Foy to the Old Town of Quebec. You have to crane your neck to the left to see the masses of Château Frontenac from the road.
After crossing the valley, the ascent is via a street very steep with a step to the right, then to the left towards the plateau passing at the foot of a very massive old religious building. But impossible to find the route and the names of the streets, even on Google Maps!
I remember, 50 years ago , that winter road, salty and shiny, where the V8 engines of the Americans of the time roared. Small European front-wheel drive cars fared much better when it came to climbing a slippery slope. The huge rear-wheel drive Americans hunted and spun around.
Our accommodation is at 1365 René Lévesque Boulevard West. 50 years ago , it was called "boulevard St-Cyrille", since the notoriety of René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois only took off in the years 70-75 and that it is customary to name as well as the streets with a little hindsight and when it comes to a personality, to do so only posthumously.
Accommodation which, without overwhelming anyone, is only worth the approval of the reception; the room here leaves a lot to be desired, far from the beautiful "condos" encountered so far. But we are in Quebec City, or in any case its close suburb.
The agglomeration has become denser and Modern and high buildings appeared on the axis of the other large boulevard almost parallel to boulevard René Lévesque, boulevard Laurier.
I easily recognize the large and long plateau, with its streets and boulevards which gradually converge in a cluster towards the Old Town.
The principle of spaced individual houses, which, as we approach the Old Town leaves more and more room for small buildings, has been maintained.
So that there remains a impression of airy harmony, especially since the streets and houses have been embellished for a long time venerable and furnished trees; and still that perfect lawn that doesn't know fences. In this part of the suburb quite close to Quebec, the houses are rather opulent, of good market value; the inhabitants appreciate the calm as soon as one approaches the transverse streets which move away from the large boulevards.
Without leaving our Boulevard René Lévesque a little west, here is this building with bold neo-medieval architecture, up to the roofs of pepper-tree towers and a sort of narrow tower-keep.
Built in 1929, it was until 1992 a prison for women, which was called Maison Gomin, from the name of the owner of the land in the early days of New France.
Today, modernized, adjoining a beautiful public park, it is shared between "condos", a funeral company and the City of Quebec.
As long as we approach the old penitentiary register, let us emphasize in the Old Town, in the basement of a superb and venerable English-speaking library, a Ancient common prison, with its dungeons and vaults, which impresses the tourist by the conditions in which the imprisoned people survived. Yet the promoters of the time were inspired by the ideas of British prison reformer John Howard, who had known the horror of old English prisons. There, an attempt was made to introduce more enlightened concepts of imprisonment: individual cells at night, forced labor in a common space during the day, education. But the prison is filling up top quickly with the lowering of the level of infringements. The prison, open in 1812 finally closed its doors in 1868. It has now become a prison museum.
An eminent Scottish physician who was also mayor of Quebec, Joseph Morrin created in this building, the upper part of which he renovated, the College which bears his name in 1862. But above all, the north wing of this College hosted in 1868 the "Litterary and Historical" Society of Quebec ", the first learned society in Canada, founded in 1824. And it makes sense that in the Morrin Center is housed this quite beautiful English library which brings together works dating back to the 16th century, frequented by a few smooth readers comfortably seated in soft armchairs.
All the same, a curious introduction to visiting Quebec, where we start with the worst imaginable for French speakers, the two confinements that are the prison, and the English !!
Let us now go in search of traces of memory from 50 years ago .
In Ste-Foy, several sites appeal to me, at least two addresses where I lived, Laval University where I continued without ever catching up with them, some scientific studies which were soon aborted and abandoned (sometimes it takes time to see his own incompetence), and the Place Ste-Foy and Place Laurier shopping centers.
For not having prepared enough for the visit, it was only when I returned by searching Google Maps that I ended up finding the first address where I lived, rue Lamberville, this banal name but which now sounds like a evidently, at the foot of the north hill. Impossible to find it live during our visit, for lack of having previously searched the name of the Street.
From this address, it was enough to go directly up to the plateau of Place Ste-Foy where handfuls of young French aid workers were employed, on behalf of the Ministry of National Education of Quebec, for the period of military service at the time. French who was 16 months old I believe, in a modern building fitted out in "open space", one would say today, with toilets in mezzanine. This is the opportunity that we had, and that we had seized, while the last turmoil of the "revolution" of May 68 in France was coming to an end. This much earlier choice could not have been guided by these events.
The 2nd address is the one in front of the North entrance of Laval University, at 2280 Chemin Ste-Foy, in two apartment buildings dressed in burgundy brick, that I literally saw being built around 1970. The floors were built one by one (La Palisse would he have said it better?), And the coming winter, the work in progress was enveloped in a bubble of tarpaulins inside which they could continue even in evening. Pompously, the site was called "Place Versailles" and retains that name today. It had the main advantage of being right in front of the University. It has probably become a kind of residence for students, among others in the area.
You could reach the University premises from the outside, or in the winter through the tunnels, through the large "blockhouse" which is the sports center of the University (the Pavilion of Physical Education and Sports) and which had also just been built. Whose modern lines haven't aged a bit.
Some buildings of the University are found, as on the rue du Séminaire for example the large underground sports center - already mentioned - on the right towards the south, and the huge building on the left, well cleared, which is now the Faculty of Music. But other buildings have been added, such as this "secular cathedral" which notably houses shops and restaurants in a totally current and dynamic campus atmosphere. Within the necessarily constrained perimeter of the University, the Faculties seem to have multiplied and diversified, completed.
Also, we had to look a little in the nooks and crannies to find the Van de Graaff (particle) accelerator, totally inoperative for a long time, half covered with ivy like a ruined vestige, concrete silo remarkable for its slightly conical shape clipped and by its height; it seemed to be preserved precisely as a scientific witness of the past, my time, the one when it had just been built.
But not at all, despite its appearance obsolete, I discover that it hosts since 2009 an original concept of a data processing supercomputer called the " Colosse de Québec ", one of the 4 Canadian computer platforms for research. Nice reconversion.
Then as a continuation, I recognize as obvious, more refined than in my memory, a length of openwork facade in which the winter sparrows squawked with enthusiasm, happy to find warmth there. Somewhere there had to be my student office and the basement laboratory, which I am unable to locate in retrospect. ; not even the old and already efficient library or the university restaurant of yesteryear. All this still belongs today to the Faculty of Sciences ... and Engineering.
Everything is tighter, despite very large parking lots. The spaces before have been nibbled away, by the modern "cathedral", by several external sports grounds against the blockaus, for Canadian football, baseball. It's here, under the birches that we were celebrating St.John's Day on the dry grass of campus a bit like the countryside, but in these times, mixed with "peace and love" sixty-eight, long hair and pat d'eph pants.
What seemed immense and bucolic today still livable and very pleasant, is however quickly limited by the surrounding urbanization, discreetly invasive.
But the subjective prism of memory doesn't he distort too much to his advantage the memory?
From the Place Ste-Foy shopping center, or is it Place Laurier, apart from the location, everything has changed, has developed on all sides.
Single a flight of powerful arcades, those of the "Simpson Sears" department store in Place Laurier, joins my memory.
To compare, the countless shops and commercial areas seem to hold back of sobriety, compared to their Parisian equivalent. Are the prestige and foolishness of commercial splendor making themselves felt more in Montreal?
Finally, no more introspections from the bar counter !!
Let's see where Quebec City ends up.
Endearing Quebec,
modern and historic
While we try yet to objectify, irresistibly memory emerges and comes to titillate the conscious.
All in all, perhaps the modesty of the means of the time, the unavailability of the hectic youth, poles of interest far from tourism or the fact that it was still underdeveloped, so many reasons for not having appreciated the city with great restraint. While Quebec today seems intensely more restored, colored, repainted, enhanced, pleasantly explained, quite courtesan without having become (yet) a crust. Whereas 50 years ago , apart from the green roofs of institutional buildings, the dazzling colors of autumn and the blinding whiteness of the snowy coats outside, everything in the city seemed monochrome, dark, and winter, black from the salty mud of the streets. In any case, such is the somewhat depressing impression of the memory.
Then what has happened during all this time? How, dull and dark like a worn out old woman when I was 25, has the city resumed beauty of a beautiful mature woman when I have 50 ... more? Only cities can rejuvenate with the passage of time.
Among tall, modern new buildings, no Too many and playing with contrasting lines and mirrored sections, but at other times also interposing themselves in the landscape like an unsightly volume, we find the Parliament, just outside the fortified enclosure, which has been fortunately saved, or even recreated. with its well-preserved doors, the Plains of Abraham where the French episode ended, the many churches, temples which seem to develop with ripe delight exhibitions, museums about their own history, success relying on private and public means that seem amazing, and then the great diversity shops, restaurants, historic buildings highlighted by the color of the roofs that dare almost everything, by the cleanliness of the streets, by the remarkable topography of the city and its beautiful perspectives, its unevenness, at the foot of the massive volume and almost severe of the famous "Château Frontenac" whose picturesque takes on its full dimension when one moves away from it since. the ferry to Lévis. All this in a very modest perimeter that good steps allow to cover for those who are not too afraid of the slopes.
These beautiful houses that could resemble a modern Victorian style, stripped down, yet a bit heavy, bring to the approach of the historic city along Grande Allée Est a plush charm, and provide fine examples of "arched window", term preferred by Quebecers to "bow window" - we understand it - but also in the term "oriel" (still English at the origin), window advanced in corbelled therefore upstairs.
Fifty years ago , the heavy curtains that closed these arched windows evoked for me some unknown bourgeois romantic fantasies, dark and hushed.
Nearby, there are also old fortifications that surrounded the city and some beautiful gates whose history is sometimes turbulent.
Some doors
There is Porte St-Jean, rue St-Jean, just after Place d'Youville when you enter the city. The engraving opposite shows a solid and military avatar circa 1860 (3rd quarter of the 19th century). The first construction dates from 1693, the current (re) construction from 1939.
We have probably lost in picturesque what we have gained in homogeneity of style and solidity.
It suffices to note what the Prescott Gate was successively in 1850, then in 1873. This gate has disappeared and is replaced by a footbridge on the Côte de la Montagne.
Here the Porte St-Louis, and its illustration in 1930 in reverse view.
It overlooks rue St-Louis. Its first construction dates from 1693, that of today from 1878 with some intermediate stages of destruction reconstruction.
... and there the Kent Gate, illustrated in 1898, in reverse view of the photo.It overlooks rue Dauphine.
In any case, we can much prefer the old engravings and illustrations to the photos rather well missed (I assume) above.
Terrasse Dufferin and Château Frontenac
Homage is paid by all to Lord Dufferin, this Irishman appointed by England Governor General of Canada in 1872.
While in Quebec City around 1873, he indeed fell in love with the old stones of the city that the local architect Charles Baillairgé, in good emulation of Baron Haussmann in Paris, is in the process of suppressing. And in particular the city gates.
Dufferin is famous for having understood that historic Quebec and its fortifications were the only ones that still existed in North America .. and for its famous terrace at the foot of Château Frontenac.
Even before the hotel was built at the turn of the late 19th century, a terrace already existed, the Durham Terrace (below seen from the lower town in 1870, with carts and barrels on the harbor). The other view towards 1895 shows in its place the Dufferin Terrace in its original splendor; it was inaugurated in 1878.
We notice that the enormous dungeon tower of the hotel did not yet added.
Despite a beautiful sun, a cold wind sweeps her that day that no obstacle holds back; the light is contrasted, striking the perspectives which take on more width under the innumerable windows of the immense hotel. Marlene bundles up.
Dufferin Terrace circa 1895
Around the Place d'Armes, higher on rue St-Louis, restaurants are storming with coquetry in the old converted houses, whose red roofs with steeply sloping slopes are pierced with very beautiful skylights with so-called "nasturtium" windows (their roof). is with three slopes of which one in flap at the front), or "with easel" (their roof is with two slopes).
Color and picturesque cannot leave anyone indifferent.
on my way
forward!
and here is the Jacques Cartier in majesty
on my way
Durham Terrace in 1870
The Mass of the Château Frontenac above the Place d'Armes crushes the summit of Cap Diamant, the rock of which holds up well, however. The interior passage and its arrival courtyard are at the time of our passage a real current of icy air. We then gladly take refuge inside the very large and luxurious hall. reception, enjoying this cozy warmth behind the thick doors belted in brilliantly polished brass. But we dare barely penetrate further in the middle of the upscale clientele, casually condescending to this plebe of curious tourists, who in their eyes could pass for curious tourists ... But no, here it is I who fantasize: there are more tourists visitors than hotel guests!
The profile of the "castle", the world famous emblem of the city and of the Belle Province does not call for further comment.
forward!
The shoulder is on the right
Are the rules of respect and enhancement of historic buildings here as severe and restrictive as those imposed on us by the "Architects of French buildings"?
In any case, the result here is spectacular, and fits well in the context of the Old Town; but will we ever know if these roofs color vermilion-cherry and these vanilla facades, these chocolate or dark window frames, which in themselves are already delicacies, are those of the origins? Doubtful.
The contrast also becomes harmony between this colorful profusion and the classicism of the religious buildings of gray and so (m) bre stone.
Sometimes, the style of the old houses is reminiscent of the stripping of Dutch houses with small paned windows whose frame is elegantly enhanced with dark, or is adorned with discreet neo-Gothic decorations like the Maison Dauphine, or even affirms ostentatiously an ancient prosperity in wooden facades with very English arched windows.
almost back to the starting point
While strolling a little, rue St-Roch one comes across the "PANTOUTE Bookstore" which cannot fail to call out an amused and tasty memory of 50 years ago . Not for the bookstore itself but for this typically Quebecois word, "pantoute", distorted shorthand for the expression of lively denial "not in all "that the Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hébert, original version of "not at all" or "absolutely not".
Then through the stairs and the Prescott footbridge at the hairpin bend of the Côte de la Montagne, here is the Lower Town.
One dominates the pedestrian street of Petit Champlain, quite rectilinear, which skirts the foot of the cliff at the top of which is the Dufferin terrace. Charm and pleasure of the topography and the venerable houses which border it. The street is one of the oldest in Quebec.
Entirely devoted to tourism where the windows follow one another, it seduces with its period houses and the funicular that accesses the terrace up there, invisible. On the other hand the pennants banners decorations embellishments, small restaurants, beautiful shops are too distant in relation to the history or local life of before. This desire for permanent celebration, in their excess forget too quickly its originality. More sobriety would not hurt.
a a tall building with a donkey-shaped roof, however, is characterized by a rich and well-represented trompe-l'oeil facade; it is called " La Fresque du Petit Champlain ". She describes with lyricism the life of this old district from from the days of New France.
The three engravings below illustrate from left to right the evolution since 1688 (overview of Quebec), then in 1761, and in 1882.
Quebec, Lower Town
The church, originally built in 1723, was destroyed in 1759 by English bombardments, the first signs of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Its total renovation was completed in 1816, under the aegis of the Ballairgé dynasty, whose last offspring Charles, in 1873 was the one who wanted to remove the doors. It's François, his grandfather who completed this repair in 1816, after his great-grandfather Jean, a carpenter from Poitou who arrived in Quebec in 1741, restored the sacristy in 1766.
Beautiful example trompe-l'oeil works encountered here and there. One of them, more famous still is a few dozen steps away on rue Notre-Dame which leads to Place Royale. It is called " La Fresque des Québécois ". Even more gigantic, (420 to 450 m²), it illustrates the history of Quebec, its seasons, its houses, the outstanding personalities of the past, the most famous artists.
With a probably symbolic intention, it faces the remains of one of the oldest buildings in Quebec, at the last bend of the Côte de la Montagne before the port, a stone's throw from the very famous Place Royale.
Is this the second version of the Habitation de Champlain around 1626?
The restoration of Place Royale, which was also reconstruction, was decided in 1967. No wonder I only keep in my memory of 50 years ago , only a mixed memory, grayish, not very striking, since my stay in Quebec begins in the fall of 1968. The Square offers a harmonious space facing the oldest stone church in America north of Mexico, the Church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires.
We note in particular that in the Lower Town, a large part of the land has been reclaimed from the river.
The 1688 plan shows the statue of Louis XIV.
Around the port, we will visit the Old Port Market, which hosts local vendors and small restaurants in a friendly atmosphere. From there, we can see the imposing mass of the roof of the Gare centrale de Québec, which alone would be worth a detour. In the same area, a Wallace fountain, well the same as those we see a lot in Paris, which here seems very orphaned; and for good reason, there are two in Quebec, offered by the city of Paris to that of Quebec.
50 years ago , I remember in this lower part of the city, of a public market somewhere, in the open air where, under a cold lingering in late fall but before the snow came, small, succulent, dark carmine red apples, polished, shiny, of the Mac Intosh variety were bought.
But it is now necessary to know how to go up from the Lower to the Upper Town. By the way, wedged between the tower named "Edifice Price" and an art gallery on rue Ste-Anne, here is a group sculpted to the glory of log drivers, who deserve it.
Founding religious orders in Quebec
This chapter is especially devoted to the religious orders which shaped New France and to the Protestant period which followed "the Conquest", to through the beautiful religious buildings involved, churches and temples. We are limit to three of them. Among the 12 Catholic buildings in the Old Town, they will be the Augustines and the Ursulines. And for Anglicans, Holy Trinity Cathedral.
At the time of New France
Around 1635-40, the colony of New France did not number more than 250 to 300 people; the natives are much more numerous. The Jesuits, who arrived here in 1625, quickly found that they reached the limits of their action of exploration and especially of evangelization, taking into account the resources involved. From their point of view, and since they proselytize, the conversion of the Amerindians through that of Amerindian girls and women; and for that, it is better to appeal to women. They ask King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu to appeal to other congregations. For them, this is how we must continue the evangelization of the country, provide the necessary aid to the sick and give a Christian education to the Amerindian population.
Regarding hospital care, it is the monastic order Augustines of Dieppe who accepts this mission, at the same time as the king decides to found a Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec.
For education, it is the Ursulines of Tours who take up this challenge.
The Jesuits there have the legitimate claim of believing that their knowledge of the field is better than that of their correspondents in France. In any case, they themselves here, as well as their General, would have preferred "secular girls", that is to say lay girls, less committed by their vows than those of the regular orders which have offered themselves. In a country still so little organized, it was from their point of view premature to create convents, which would be kept by cloistered nuns.
But such were in fact the Augustines and the Ursulines since the recent Council of Trent that the French clergy accepted in 1615, which tore the Ursulines a little as well, until then more teaching in the field than contemplative, as the Augustines supporting the poor and sick rather than cloistered.
But the Jesuits bow to the decision de Richelieu, influenced by his niece Mme d'Aiguillon. This is itself close to Mme de Peltrie, a young and wealthy widow, whimsical but endowed with an iron will who, after disputes worthy of a melodrama, indeed wanted to finance the establishment of the Ursulines and Augustines overseas.
A little earlier, the Jesuits did not hesitate to divert under honorable pretexts other subsidies, those of the Commandeur de Sillery, diplomat under Henry IV. He is from this village in the Marne, more exactly located in Champagne.
Close to Marie de Médicis, Sillery decides in 1632 to donate his fortune and take orders; the Jesuits of Quebec will benefit from it; settled west of Quebec where they created the St-Joseph Mission around 1637, it became Sillery in 1678.
The Commander died in 1640, a year after the birth of this Benedictine monk, Dom Pérignon who, a few kilometers from Sillery in France, in Hautvillers made the reputation of the wine of Champagne from the 1670s. Curious fates almost crossed between a court aristocrat who, abandoning luxury and amusements between with humility and stripping in orders while in his country of origin comes shortly after a religious which contributes at length to creating this festive and festive wine, and which uses Sillery harvests in particular.
After almost 4 long months of crossing, the small team (3 hospital Augustines, the benefactress Mme de la Peltrie, 3 Ursulines including Marie de L'Incarnation who also comes here to found the Convent of the Ursulines, and 3 Jesuits) landed in Quebec on August 1, 1639 and began hard at work.
At the same end of year is erected, of wood and stone, the Hôtel-Dieu du Précieux-Sang in Quebec.
Thus, with the Augustinians, the hospital order of New France was established, at the base of the health system in Quebec today.
The evolution of the Hôtel-Dieu since 1639 appears in 1868 then on the right in its current configuration.
Right against the Hôtel-Dieu of today, the beautiful chapel through which one enters the premises. The museum, open since August 2015, is a "place of memory", which has the particularity of continuing to be inhabited by nuns.
For various reasons, the hospitals initially owned or managed by the Augustines were integrated into the public health network in Quebec. In order to safeguard their precious cultural heritage (thousands of objects, 1 linear km of archives and old documents of great value), they entrusted it to a trust (transfer of property under condition of use and duration) of social utility, emanation of the public company of Quebec. Access to this heritage bringing together all the cultural values of the 12 Augustinian monasteries in Quebec is made in the Hôtel-Dieu Monastery then named Augustinian Monastery.
The order benefited from the transfer amounts from the Hôtel-Dieu to the Belle Province and from various donations, partially public, to create this superb site. The overall restoration cost $ 45M Canadian. We can also recently rent accommodation in its premises (65 rooms), at a good price around $ 130 per night.
Shortly before our visit, the "National Geographic Traveler" voted it "the best healing tourist experience in the world ".
For having seen the only part devoted to the museum, the testimonies and sometimes in situ reconstructions of the Augustinian activity exercises are remarkable: pharmacy, treatment room, places of prayer ...
The Ursulines , for their part, laid the foundations for a first educational system in New France intended first and foremost for the Christian formation of Amerindian girls, then to the daughters of French settlers. They found on this occasion the first school for girls in North America.
In Quebec, some boarding students were Algonquin and Montagnais, then Huron after 1650 when this nation was defeated by the Iroquois. The Ursulines are disconcerted by what seems to be instability on the part of the interns who often flee, but which only reflects the unsuitability for the sedentary life of the "savages", of a culture. so different.
They keep in touch and continue to obtain resources from their order in France from 1759 until the French Revolution. The link is then broken; they then welcomed more English-speaking students and contributed in the 19th century to reuniting the two linguistic communities at the same time as order was spreading in the American continent.
Then with the transfer to Ottawa in 1858 of the governance of the Ursulines, while Quebec once again became almost exclusively French-speaking, the order developed even more globally.
The powerful and majestic stone chapel at 1 rue Donnacona, without hindsight for the photo, houses real artistic treasures, but also the tomb of Montcalm after his death in 1759. That of his enemy Wolfe, his "twin" in the struggle and death, transited also in this chapel before being transported in England. A black marble stele shelters the remains of the very venerated Marie of the Incarnation.
Is it in its basements that we visit classrooms well equipped for the end of the 19th century, with many objects relating to the natural sciences?
In any case, if the Ursulines dispensed Christian education with great pugnacity, charity and dedication, the rules of life for interns for the girls received here were very strict, not to say rigid even in the 1st part of the program. 20th century.
We can also only regret the ban on taking photos, except in the chapel. However, there are many opportunities to want to illustrate this very edifying place in a personal capacity, such as the attic with chests (those in which the Ursulines kept their civil affairs when entering here), the laundry room, the ancestral well or the old bread oven and many other places.
The view lower left illustrates what the Convent of the Ursulines was in 1878.
A stone's throw away, continuing the path along the quiet rue des Jardins, the last edifying little stopover illustrating the history of the Old Town, without however wanting to take an exhaustive tour: the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity .
Near the Place d'Armes, its history is linked to that of the English victory at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, very close on Cap Diamant above the river.
There, in 1759 , the kingdom of France bowed. The Treaty of Paris, which closes the Seven Years' War, sealed the cession of Canada to Great Britain in 1763.
After independence from the United States just to the south in 1783 , Canada therefore remained the only colonial possession of Great Britain in North America.
To assert its supremacy on these lands, in the face of this great and new neighbor to whom it was necessary to resolve to give birth, at least on a religious level the (Anglican) diocese of Quebec was created in 1793 for Upper and Lower Canada.
This led King George III to authorize in 1799 the construction of the Anglican Holy Trinity Cathedral here in Quebec, the first to be built outside the British Isles.
At the expense of the Crown, construction lasts from 1800 to 1804, on the site of the former Récollets monastery (whose garden gave its name to the rue des Jardins) burned down in 1796; its architectural model is that of St-Martin-in-the-fields church in Trafalgar Square in London, but with materials adapted to the country.
Consecrated in 1804, in addition to the dark wood benches - from Windsor oak in England - which were rented in the past, and its two side aisles with mezzanine of the same wood, one of which in the north contains the seat reserved for English royalty or to the governor, it presents "commemorative" stained glass windows, a bell tower with 8 bells which cover the octave and which do not ring on the fly but according to defined sequences and this harmonious stripping peculiar to the Reformed religion. Some say it would be haunted ... Obviously, it's English!
In 1804, in Quebec, there were therefore two cathedrals, one Catholic. two steps away, Notre-Dame de Québec right up against the Grand Séminaire, the other Anglican.
The two illustrations opposite show the cathedral in winter in the 19th century, and some very realistic parishioners a little after its construction.
Quebec, other urban surprises
Then, in the city, along the paths and streets, here is on the 1st floor (2nd floor in Quebec) of a shop an astonishing and very educational exhibition on the production of maple syrup, which we will not develop further here. The store is called "Délices, érables § Cie" at 1044 rue St-Jean. Little publicity is given to the exhibition, which is nevertheless absolutely worth a visit, if not more than the store on the ground floor. Here is a presentation of the syrup extraction taps and the buckets used successively to collect it.
We Are
MOVERS & SHAKERS
And some picturesque streets on the steep slope before reaching the plateau, or other perspectives, arched windows, a view of the port, ... according to our surprises and our little favorites, under a bland sun ( see the slideshow below ).
We then find rue St-Louis on the edge of the Plains of Abraham. There, a little wink: a beautiful "European-style" fountain pours out its elegant jets. It is the Fontaine de Tourny. I am challenged: an avenue in Bordeaux, -my city of useless studies-, called Allées Tourny and a Place Tourny exist there, named after the intendant of Louis XIV who fitted them out between 1743 and 1757 in the Girondine capital.
The anecdote is this: these Bordeaux alleys are embellished in 1857 of two fountains, called fountains of Tourny, since they are located on the alleys of the same name. In 1960, they are dismantled; one of them is transported and reassembled here in Quebec in 2007 for the 400th anniversary of the city in 2008. It is a donation from the great Quebec merchant Simons, of Scottish origin, who bought it for 4 M $ Can. The city is still spending another $ 2 million to install it.
As a reminder, the two cities have been twinned since 1962.
Under the snow, hey no! it is not the fountain in Quebec in winter, but one of the two fountains of Tourny in Bordeaux near the Grand Théâtre, during "the terrible" winter 1956 (for 3 weeks, temperatures drop to -20 ° C and Bordeaux is covered with 80 cm of snow). Something to make Quebecers smile nicely !!!
Then, beyond the Citadel that we will not take the time to visit, we head towards the famous Plains of Abraham, on the plateau from where we can see the Quebec flag flapping proudly in the wind at the top of the Cartier Tower of Parliament.
Over there, in this area stood 50 years ago the hotel where we spent our first night on the day of our arrival, in September 1968. around 5 am of a beautiful, still pale morning, on the benches at the foot of Parliament. The building, of Second Empire invoice is made beautiful clear stones. Have they been swallowed up? The memory makes them darker, weathered.
After viewing, in the Musée des Plaines, an evocation of the battle in which, in September 1759, Montcalm and Wolfe became, within a few hours, brothers in death, the logical outcome of their merciless fight during their lifetime, we cross a splendid exhibition showing the uniforms and war clothes of the time, European and Indian, all reconstructed with great fidelity.
Besides, we understand what does "the lace war" mean when we see Montcalm's and Wolfe's costumes in red, opposite, their luxury of jabot, fine cloth, gold thread, leather kneepad, fur felt hat, silver buttons. Was it so underline its power, with the pomp of these uniforms whose practicality is, with our gaze modern, well unsuited to the conditions of a battle?
Even the soldiers' uniforms seem primarily made for the parade. Yet these are war uniforms which, for the highest ranking officers, do not wear any decoration or distinction and are even the expression of sobriety according to expert historians.
The perfect lawn under a bright sun, the few sparse people who take a break here form an atmosphere of total tranquility, not even disturbed by rare and very lively dark brown squirrels. The shade, clearly delimited by the oblique sun, is already cool.
Beautiful maple trees are beginning to display the splendor of the short autumn of the days to come.
There too, betrayal of memory: crossing the Plains from East to West in a quiet walk allows us to reach our accommodation on foot even further to the West without excessive effort; whereas 50 years ago , the whole seemed disproportionate to me, facing the green roofs of institutional buildings which made it the only touch of color in winter, above the snow cover.
From the low alley that winds at the edge forest covering the slope and the cliff above the St. Lawrence to the south, here is the beautiful modern building of the Foundation of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, necessarily non-existent 50 years ago. From this below, cyclists and runners who take the cycle path on the plateau appear to hover in equilibrium at the edge of the sky.
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However, we will soon have to tear ourselves away from this charm and pack our bags. But first, we will cross the St. Lawrence for a little foray on the South shore.
The well-oiled merry-go-round of the arrival of the ferry, the embarkation of a few vehicles and bicycles goes smoothly.
A cruise liner, the "Norwegian Dawn", from the top of its ten decks, blocks a perspective view of the St. Lawrence from the quay, like an enormous bar of a building. However, what a difference when you appreciate all the elegance of its lines from the river. There is exerted in the modeling of these enormous masses all the design modern where allied functional and aesthetic, here at the foot of the Grand Séminaire. And when they come into motion, their lightness of mastodon seduces and fascinates.
Then as our ferry moves away from the shore, the whole panorama of the port is offered to us. The highlight of the show remains the breathtaking view of the Upper Town topped by the Château Frontenac and the long Dufferin terrace.
