ville de Québec
On Monday, August 1, we (me, my parents, and one of my best friends Nikki whom we had "abducted") drove to Quebec City, Canada. The ride was long. I think about ten hours. But we finally got there and it is so, soso amazing. I loooove it. :D Last time I went five years ago we stayed in the new part of the city in a modern hotel, but this time, we stayed in the old part where there are narrow cobblestone streets, horsedrawn carriages, so many outdoor cafés, and all the buildings are old and made of stone with flowerboxes in the windows. And instead of staying in a hotel, we rented an apartment for five days.
The part of the fort that separates the old city from the new city
The street we stayed on
The main street that our street came off of
The apartments (my parents had one and n & I had another) were in a building that's over 200 years old. Some of the walls were stone. The apartments had large living rooms but tiny kitchens. Nikki and my bathroom was down the hall so most of the time we used my parents' bathroom. Our shower was in a cabinet. But we could always hear the horsedrawn carriages going by and people speaking French on the road right there with the windows pulled open and curtains fluttery and lighted.
The apartments were only a few houses down from the Château Frontenac, which is an enormous, grand, and breathtaking mansion that is always towering up and being exquisite. It's so big and amazing-looking, like a castle, that sometimes it doesn't even seem real.
The Château is the red green-roofed building in the background
This is a poor splice of three images meant to show how big the Château is. But this is still only one part of it.
We spent our days going about and shopping, eating at French cafés, many of which are in summer outdoors with live music from guitarists, singers, accordion players, and other musicians. The food is completely delicious, especially, of course, the dessert. Once we had dessert at night (because the cafés are open past midnight most of the time) at a place called Le Petit Château Créperie, where I had a crepe with strawberry and cream filling and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was always so good, and I had a lot of it since I don't really like plain coffee that much. Besides, I definitely agree with Cassandra Mortmain that cocoa is a heavenly drink.
During the day and sometimes at night there were street performers everywhere. Walking down the winding & hilly streets we would often hear joyful music coming from nearby and come across mimes, clowns, and other performers whom I loved.
A mime
A puppet playing piano and his puppetier
The city is like a magical place waiting to be discovered. The streets are old and full of history and stories, along with bright colors and snaps of French conversation that I could not understand in only passing. Every day was exciting because there were so many fascinating things to see and experience.
The language was thrilling. I can read and write French passably, but can only understand spoken French if it is spoken v e --- rrrrrr y yyyyy ......... s sllll ooooo www llll yyyyy. Very slowly. So I could understand a lot of something like a magic show because the magician was speaking not so fast and e-nun-ci-a-ting so everyone in the crowd could understand him. But a shopkeeper or a resident was harder to understand because they were speaking so fast so most of the time I had to speak English. My spoken French is sometimes so bad that I was ashamed to speak it.
But even if I couldn't understand a lot of things, it was intoxicating to be in a place where mostly everyone was speaking a foreign language. Like stepping into another world, and I am devoted to the search for & discovery of other worlds. It seems like if someone speaks two languages, he belongs to two worlds. The more languages he speaks, the more worlds he belongs to. So when someone speaks two languages, it seems to me like he can be two people. I want to learn a lot of languages. I think I will master French first.
A café called The Little Crazy Pig, Le Petit Cochon Dingue
While we were there, the Fêtes de la Nouvelle France (Festival of New France) was going on. It is something like a Renaissance faire. Except it takes place over the whole city. We would always see people dressed in 1700s costume walking down the streets which was very, very happy. Once we saw a man and a woman both in very elaborate and beautiful costumes, driving down the street in a bright Volkswagen bug. The festival itself has areas set up in places all over the whole city, where there are performers, food, booths with crafts for sale, and everything. We saw a lot of that and I reveled in it. The only thing lacking was a costume, because I adore costumes but they were so expensive I couldn't buy one. (And my Renaissance faire gown wasn't period-appropriate, so I didn't bring it.)
We also went to an international Fireworks Competition and the night we saw was Sweden. It was exquisite. Over the Montmorency Falls, a stunning waterfall. I had another hot chocolate and put on an oversized and so comfortable sweater that said Québec on it. It was cold at night.
Other things we did: took a ferry to Levis, which is right across the St. Laurence River from Québec City, and which is where my ancestors come from. Walked about a lot and shopped a lot. Had lot of Trademark Laura and Nikki crazy times of hilarity and laughing. Annoyed people with incessant picture taking. Ice cream on the boardwalk. Was utterly excited to be there.
A square with a church
I did not want to come back at all. I was entirely wrapped up in the place and thought it was awful to leave so soon. But once again I'm verified in my dream to travel the world. I know I'll do it because the more I see, the less I want to stay in the same place and the more I want to wander and experience everything. I have a passion for experience.
Now that I am back, it seems wrong that no one is speaking French, all the signs are in English, and the streets are too wide. I so miss the way of life there. Going to the patisserie for pastries and a baguette. Having dessert at outdoor cafés watching the interesting and lively people go by. Exploring. It seems too easy being able to communicate properly. Right now America seems weirdly like a foreign country actually.
I loved the city incredibly.
The part of the fort that separates the old city from the new city
The street we stayed on
The main street that our street came off of
The apartments (my parents had one and n & I had another) were in a building that's over 200 years old. Some of the walls were stone. The apartments had large living rooms but tiny kitchens. Nikki and my bathroom was down the hall so most of the time we used my parents' bathroom. Our shower was in a cabinet. But we could always hear the horsedrawn carriages going by and people speaking French on the road right there with the windows pulled open and curtains fluttery and lighted.
The apartments were only a few houses down from the Château Frontenac, which is an enormous, grand, and breathtaking mansion that is always towering up and being exquisite. It's so big and amazing-looking, like a castle, that sometimes it doesn't even seem real.
The Château is the red green-roofed building in the background
This is a poor splice of three images meant to show how big the Château is. But this is still only one part of it.
We spent our days going about and shopping, eating at French cafés, many of which are in summer outdoors with live music from guitarists, singers, accordion players, and other musicians. The food is completely delicious, especially, of course, the dessert. Once we had dessert at night (because the cafés are open past midnight most of the time) at a place called Le Petit Château Créperie, where I had a crepe with strawberry and cream filling and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was always so good, and I had a lot of it since I don't really like plain coffee that much. Besides, I definitely agree with Cassandra Mortmain that cocoa is a heavenly drink.
During the day and sometimes at night there were street performers everywhere. Walking down the winding & hilly streets we would often hear joyful music coming from nearby and come across mimes, clowns, and other performers whom I loved.
A mime
A puppet playing piano and his puppetier
The city is like a magical place waiting to be discovered. The streets are old and full of history and stories, along with bright colors and snaps of French conversation that I could not understand in only passing. Every day was exciting because there were so many fascinating things to see and experience.
The language was thrilling. I can read and write French passably, but can only understand spoken French if it is spoken v e --- rrrrrr y yyyyy ......... s sllll ooooo www llll yyyyy. Very slowly. So I could understand a lot of something like a magic show because the magician was speaking not so fast and e-nun-ci-a-ting so everyone in the crowd could understand him. But a shopkeeper or a resident was harder to understand because they were speaking so fast so most of the time I had to speak English. My spoken French is sometimes so bad that I was ashamed to speak it.
But even if I couldn't understand a lot of things, it was intoxicating to be in a place where mostly everyone was speaking a foreign language. Like stepping into another world, and I am devoted to the search for & discovery of other worlds. It seems like if someone speaks two languages, he belongs to two worlds. The more languages he speaks, the more worlds he belongs to. So when someone speaks two languages, it seems to me like he can be two people. I want to learn a lot of languages. I think I will master French first.
A café called The Little Crazy Pig, Le Petit Cochon Dingue
While we were there, the Fêtes de la Nouvelle France (Festival of New France) was going on. It is something like a Renaissance faire. Except it takes place over the whole city. We would always see people dressed in 1700s costume walking down the streets which was very, very happy. Once we saw a man and a woman both in very elaborate and beautiful costumes, driving down the street in a bright Volkswagen bug. The festival itself has areas set up in places all over the whole city, where there are performers, food, booths with crafts for sale, and everything. We saw a lot of that and I reveled in it. The only thing lacking was a costume, because I adore costumes but they were so expensive I couldn't buy one. (And my Renaissance faire gown wasn't period-appropriate, so I didn't bring it.)
We also went to an international Fireworks Competition and the night we saw was Sweden. It was exquisite. Over the Montmorency Falls, a stunning waterfall. I had another hot chocolate and put on an oversized and so comfortable sweater that said Québec on it. It was cold at night.
Other things we did: took a ferry to Levis, which is right across the St. Laurence River from Québec City, and which is where my ancestors come from. Walked about a lot and shopped a lot. Had lot of Trademark Laura and Nikki crazy times of hilarity and laughing. Annoyed people with incessant picture taking. Ice cream on the boardwalk. Was utterly excited to be there.
A square with a church
I did not want to come back at all. I was entirely wrapped up in the place and thought it was awful to leave so soon. But once again I'm verified in my dream to travel the world. I know I'll do it because the more I see, the less I want to stay in the same place and the more I want to wander and experience everything. I have a passion for experience.
Now that I am back, it seems wrong that no one is speaking French, all the signs are in English, and the streets are too wide. I so miss the way of life there. Going to the patisserie for pastries and a baguette. Having dessert at outdoor cafés watching the interesting and lively people go by. Exploring. It seems too easy being able to communicate properly. Right now America seems weirdly like a foreign country actually.
I loved the city incredibly.
posted by Laura at 3:09 PM
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