What a beautiful and historic city! Described by many as the most beautiful in Canada the city is perched on top of and below the cliffs of Cape Diamond (Cap Diamant) at the confluence of the St Charles and St Lawrence Rivers. Québec is the only walled city in North America and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. As the provincial capital, the city is the seat of the of regional government which has just elected a pro-separatist party, although after two narrow defeats in referenda the feeling is that there is little chance of cessation from Canada in the near future especially since the First Nations groups in the north of Quebec long ago made treaties to remain in federal Canada.
We currently have Sir Andrew Burns aboard, a former High Commissioner to Canada (2003 – 2007), giving a series of lectures on Canadian culture. He like our previous speaker from Gualph University, Brent McKenzi believes that the British Government has some lessons to learn about referenda with respect to Scotland since the two referenda on Québec separation were poorly worded and failed to ask a direct question as well as restricting the vote only to Québécois voters!
More about the city in my next posting when I shall describe my wonderful afternoon meandering through the Parisian style streets and revisiting the historic sites viewed from the Panoramic bus tour taken in the morning with Peg. The main reason for this posting is to fulfil a request from some of my blog readers to see a photo of Peg – well here she is pictured with the Montmorency Falls in the background.
The Falls are located 4.5 miles east of Québec and higher than Niagara Falls. The cascade is created as the Montmorency River emptiesinto the St Lawrence River – a total of 100ft higher than the 175ft drop of the Niagara Falls from the Niagara River to Lake Ontario (and another place on my bucket list to visit when I get back to New York).
The Falls are spectacular in both summer and winter where although the water still runs a great mound of ice from the spray builds up at the base of the waterfall. You just have to keep remembering that winters in Canada are extremely cold with temperatures averaging -30C and often falling below -40C. Today, although there was a chilly wind, the sun was shining and some of the trees were showing their autumn hues.
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