It was breakfast with Woody at 8.15am then off to explore with him and Sandy and Mike. Not such a great day as far as the weather goes but this wasn't going to deter us. We wrapped up warm and off we went; first stop was out the front of the Chateaux where we found a tour through the ruins of the St Louis Fort and Chateaux which is an archaeological crypt revealing the residence and seat of power of governors from 1620-1834.
A fridge! Was filled with ice with would keep food in a building on top of it cool for the summer months.
The pink part of the map above was the only area that belonged to the "yankees" all other areas in what is now known as the USA and Canada belonged to the French.
From here we took the Funiculaire down to the lower town which was really lovely and filled with shops, cafes and, you got it, restaurants. Jo had given us a run down of where things were and one of those things was the mural on one of the buildings in this area.
Then it was back up to the top and a cheeky look inside the Chateaux. Very posh!
We were rather hoping that the showers would've stopped but no so on we went to find something for lunch, which we did and also found Cheryl and Steve, after which we all walked up to the Citadelle right on top of Cap Diamond (highest point of Quebec) for a look-see. The Citadelle is an active military installation, and is also the second residence of Canada's Governor General, and its construction was started in 1673 which makes it the oldest military building in Canada. The design of the Citadelle is the very same as the one in Halifax, both in star formation which made it easy to defend. The Citadelle was built to defend Quebec but was never attacked as the war of Quebec was fought out on the Plains of Abraham and lasted 20 minutes with the British winning. Canada, and Quebec went backwards and forwards between the Brits and the french until finally being given its own sovereignty in 1931.
These guns could fire a ball 2 km's
The gun, Rachelle, could fire a ball 3 km's and weighs 5 tons.
The original mascot of the 22 Regiment Je Me Souviens. His descendants are still serving to this day and are looked after by an active serving member of the regiment and takes part on the changing of the guard ceremony at 10.00am each day between June and November.
By this time it was around 5.00pm and we had been going non stop all day; we were happily tired but wanting food and warmth. While Woody and I went to find food Judy went back to warm the room, boy that was welcome when we got back. Tonight we pack and tomorrow we leave this beautiful city for Montreal.
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