More French than France

Normally I haggle a bit on the price of a motel. This almost always works except for here in Quebec. All English has all but disappeared and the abrupt attitude of the people towards our Englishness means no discount for us! Again we look around a couple of motels, neither of which offer non-smoking rooms, and settle for one rather nice place outside of town. I attempt speaking a bit of French here and there as I desperately try to remember the school days. It seems that I can do nothing but think of the Spanish for everything which makes it all the more confusing. There are benefits to this French speaking madness as it does feel like a break from the Americanised world with a bit of a taste of the good living of Europe once again.
Instantly Quebec is a quieter and better looking city than we've come across in Canada. In fact it feels a lot more historic and European than anywhere we've seen in North America.
Quebec is also the name of the territory in which Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec itself resides. Some years ago the idea of Quebec becoming a separate country in it's own right was put up for vote. The majority decided to stay with Canada but it just shows how the Quebec people feel about themselves and their territory. Unlike other areas of Canada where signs read in both French and English here the English has been dropped altogether. There's no compromise. It's French and that's that. Again, it seems no-one told these people that the British won and in fact they've been part of the British Commonwealth for hundreds of years now.


The downtown area of the city is typically dull but at least this time 'downtown' is the right description. The real heart of the city is high above on and around a large hill overlooking downtown. It's an old walled city that includes a fort that was built to fend off the British, it failed but still looks great. Once you're within the old city walls everything changes and you're thrust into a French town complete with cobbled streets narrow alleyways and tall thin stone buildings. It's unashamedly European and I love it. Unfortunately it's much chillier than Montreal and up here on the hill ice still remains. We dive into a pizza restaurant where we eat the best pizza we've had or seen in North America, nobody yet has managed to beat the Peruvians on quality pizza making.
In the daylight of the following morning we get to see Quebec in it's real light and much warmer sunshine. Lots of places here declare themselves as being 'National'. Like the parliament, which blatantly isn't national as that is housed in Ottawa. National this and National that just really means that is the capital of the territory of Quebec. Great buildings though and a large square houses a mixture of these 'national' structures but it seems one has had a recent fire and all but the stone frontage has succumb to the flames. It turns out to be the once grand looking army barracks.
We take a stroll over the park where the English defeated the French toward the river. It's another murky looking thing that looks less appealing when that wind blows. We follow a boardwalk that is built along the edge of a main wall over the river and spot some graffiti reading, "Go home Canadians". This is followed underneath by, "I am home". This again shows a little bit of the attitude of the people. Not all of them really consider themselves to be part of Canada. It's all very odd to me.
We walk around the grand green roofed chateau overlooking the water toward a street of outdoor cafes. This feels just like Europe.
And, like Europe, the food is right on the money too. Finally we're eating good bread and pastries again. Just to have a sandwich here is great. I've no idea how America got used to being fed such bad overpriced bread and poorly baked pastries and cakes but they think everything they do is amazing so nothing has changed. Once over the border and into Canada the food instantly improves. Supermarkets have butties and other such take-away items that are totally edible and there's plenty of choice too.
In Montreal there was the small old town area but here it's vast. Street after street looks superb, although street parking is somewhat expensive. At this point we decide to only put minimal amounts into parking meters. I like these things because quite often you turn up and the previous driver has left some time on the meter. We duly get a parking ticket for leaving the car for four hours and only paying for one. The ticket is for $25 and totally written in French. I'm sure this should be illegal. Either way we're not paying it.
A bit lower down from the large Chateau is the Small Champlain area, named after a French explorer. This is a pedestrianised collection of alleys, narrow shopping streets and squares. Brilliant. Americans can't get cities right, except for a couple of exceptions, so coming here is like a breath of fresh air. It's funny how we've thought that some of the best cities in the world have some flavour of Europe about them. We can't help but think how lucky we are to live in such close proximity to vast array of great places Europe has to offer.


Flash boutiques, clothes and ice cream shops are dotted around Small Champlain, aswell as the odd well finished wall mural.
The outdoor life is part of the French way of life and translates well here. I like this place a lot and it without doubt is one of the top cities in North America.


We heard cheers from a pub the previous night due to the Montreal ice hockey team winning the famous Stanley Cup. The celebrations were later shown on TV. Around downtown Montreal police cars were over turned and set fire too and windows were smashed in and places like 'Footlocker' were looted in full view of tv camaras. Molotov cocktails were thrown at the police and so on. I'm glad we left when we did!
Before leaving we drive along the waterfront, the city has a large river or two flowing around it, to view the most expensive and highly sought after accommodation in Quebec. These blocks of flats were built in the 60's for the World Expo that was held here. They were hailed as a marvel of modernist design for their grey quirky boxy nature. They couldn't look more grim if they tried. A large industrial silo stands a hundred metres away and other large industrial rusting structures are all within a stones throw of these multi-million pound apartments. Overpriced and pretty ugly. It's such a shame that these are consider the place to live when old town Quebec is clearly a far more attractive proposition.
Quebec is great but our budget has been hammered by consistently overspending in Canada. It's not far to the American border from here and that's where we're heading. I'd have liked to have seen more of Canada but on this budget we could only see soo much. But still it was enough to make me come to the conclusion that I quite like the place. The vast wilderness and unfathomable expanses to the North will have to be savoured on another trip, one with a more forgiving budget.