Île d’Orléans, the Citadel, Château Frontenac, Old Quebec City, Montreal and the Notre-Dame Basilica
QUEBECCITY – On a recommendation from a fellow traveller, we added a road trip onto our itinerary … drove over to the charming, and VERY old little Island, Île d’Orléans – ‘The cradle of French America” It’s so great that Lynn talks to so many people we meet along the way! It would have been a shame had we missed visiting this little island. Jacques Cartier encountered this island and its inhabitants in 1535! We drove around the complete island and stopped for lunch at a family-owned Restaurant in a beautiful old building that was originally a flour mill 300yrs ago and amazingly is still owned by the same family today! We had a lovely day exploring this pretty island!
Passed by numerous beautiful stone churches
The next day we arrived at the Citadel and signed up for the Tour
We drove right in to the Citadel and through the maze of these high rock walls and that’s where we parked the truck for the day … for FREE!
Again, opting for the ‘Tour’ instead of just walking around the site on our own turned out to be the best way to go … the tour guides share so many Interesting facts!
The tour guide told us that our Governor General, Mary May Simon, stayed here when she was in town the previous week
on the Boardwalk in front of the Château Frontenac … most photographed hotel in the world. We also did a little walkabout inside it!
Old Quebec was quite an experience with it’s narrow cobblestone streets, French architecture, and cute boutiques and bistros
The streets were SO packed with people … very popular place to be! We sure enjoyed the few hours we spent exploring it all
Joan of Arc
Parliament Buildings
Next stop MONTREAL. It took us an hour and 45 minutes to drive 37kms in the crazy bumper to bumper traffic from our campsite to the parking garage in downtown Montreal 🫣 Wow! We are SO not ‘city people’. But once we finally got there and located the meeting point for the bus tour we’d booked, the remainder of the day was great! Francois, our tour guide was crazy knowledgeable, not only about Montreal history, but also many other cities that he’s lived in and done tours in. He recited (without ever consulting any notes) SO much information, quoting years and facts etc … it was quite impressive and informative! He was a bit of a comedian, so that made it even more enjoyable!
Biking is big here! There is 550kms of bike paths! Bikers EVERYWHERE 🚴♀️ fearlessly weaving through the traffic! 😱
Biosphere – Cool structure but we didn’t have time to visit it
Nabbed a great early morning picture of the Notre-Dame Basilica during the Bus Tour when not many people were around yet. By the time we got back there in the afternoon for our tour to see inside, it was swarming with people
Timely reflection from the sun
According to Francois, this is the largest cemetery in Canada with over one million graves! I’m sure we drove for 15 minutes and were still passing by it!
Francois and the bus driver even took us on a little tour down the F1 Racetrack!
That’s ‘The Big O’ in the distance. Olympic Stadium built in 1976 for the Summer Olympics
Once the Bus Tour ended we continued on and did our own walkabout town realizing we needed to do Montreal in one day as we were most certainly NOT up for round two of that drive back in to Montreal from our campsite the next day 🙃
This circle piece of art cost the
city of Montreal $5 Million! 😳
The names of 1200 Canadian Olympic Medalists are engraved on this commemorative structure
Basilica – a spectacular masterpiece of architecture!
Organ has 4 keyboards and 7000 individual pipes! Someone was up there playing it when we were there. To describe the sound; it was like the sound was coming out of the walls! It was everywhere! So amazing!
At the end of our busy day we walked down to the Port on the St Laurence for a ride on the Ferris Wheel
I am enjoying your pictures and experiences so much. Proof we should all do a little travelling in our own country, it’s like many countries in one! You two look fabulous!
The Basilica!! Oh my gosh that’s amazing 😍
I can’t get over the number of cool things you guys are getting to see!
I am enjoying your pictures and experiences so much. Proof we should all do a little travelling in our own country, it’s like many countries in one! You two look fabulous!