Bonjour mes amis, we have arrived in Quebec City, Canada. Neither of us have ever been to Quebec, so while perhaps not as exotic as Peru or Croatia, it is nonetheless an international destination that not many people are visiting. For one, it isn't that easy to get to. If you were driving, it would be quite an undertaking to get there from the United States, or even if you drove from Montreal. You'd be spending at least six hours in the car. Flying isn't much better with most of the flights being short domestic hops to other cities in Canada. The only flight to anywhere in the U.S. is on a 50-seat E-145 that connects Quebec to Newark twice a day. From cold and rainy weather in New Jersey, we transitioned to beautiful, sunny weather in Quebec. After a 20 minute ride into town, we arrived at our hotel in the old city.
After taking in our surroundings for a bit, we stopped at a casual restaurant for some poutine, which is is to Quebec as cheese is to Wisconsin. It was a very hearty snack for us, which consisted of very largely cut potatoes, generous amounts of gravy, and what seemed like half a pound of cheese curds mixed in for good measure. It was tasty, but gave me gas.
As we walked around more into the late afternoon, it became clear that things close early and the tour groups that had been occupying the open squares and cobblestone streets had disappeared. This was nice, as tour groups are just the worst. There's nothing worse than almost being run over by a horse pulling a carriage because you had to walk in the street to avoid 40 slow-moving tourists following a blue flag somewhere ahead on the sidewalk.
As night descended on the town, the temperature came down a little bit, but it was still comfortable. The trees were still budding, which seems to indicate that winter has only just finished here. On queue, there are now dozens of ongoing public works projects that did sully picture taking a bit as it made it challenging to avoid getting a giant orange cone or construction vehicle in the shot. And on that note, on our way into town, there was a dump-truck strike going on. This demonstrates to me that the Quebecois have really embraced their French heritage in all areas.
The following morning, Nicole and I had crepes for breakfast and did a small amount of shopping- primarily to find an ornament for our very international christmas tree. The temperature was a bit cooler today, but considering that the leaves have yet to repopulate the vast majority of tree branches here, it could be a lot worse.
I later had a ham and cheese croissant for lunch when we discovered that our flight to Newark had been delayed three hours. Newark is the worst.
On the plus side, people were changing planes in Newark and were looking for different connections and half the plane jumped ship to an Air Canada flight to Toronto instead. This opened up seats for Nicole and I instead of having to stress about the 1 seat that was listed as available this morning.
It was interesting to spend some time in Quebec and I was a bit surprised to see the extent of French-speaking. I knew that it is the primary spoken language of the region, but it was still a bit confusing to see road signs, menus, and newspapers all in french. It would be easy to forget we were in Canada except for the plentiful maple leaf flags waving every 50 ft. For those looking for a European experience without leaving North America, I recommend Quebec. Merci pour lire mon blogue. A bientot.
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