Quebec City

Strong headwinds and showers buffeted our little box all the way down the St. Lawrence to Quebec City. We've been lucky with the weather though; only about 1.5 days of rain TOTAL since we left Vancouver, nearly six weeks ago. The roads were pretty quiet too; Queen Victoria's birthday doesn't seem to be a big deal here for some reason. We stopped at the first indigenous 'restaurant' we recognized (from all the road signs) St. Huberts, but mistakenly walked into the take-out entrance, and not finding a place to sit, had to eat in the car. Duh.

Then we drove downtown and walked around the old city until we'd burned thru two sets of camera batteries, and with sore feet, sat on the street with the laptop, 'borrowing' wifi from an anonymous donor so that expedia could find us a home for the night. Very, very strangely, it put us in an excellent hotel, 4.5 miles across town, and RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the VERY SAME St. Huberts where we'd bought lunch!!! Wow...life is weird sometimes.

Our arrival coincided with anti-homophobe day here, which was quite cool.

Quebec City is without a doubt the nicest town in Canada, maybe in all of north America. They obviously value and have preserved their history here. It hasn't been re-created, as in so many places, but lives on, uninterupted. Their melodic language fills the sidewalks and shops, and there's no evidence of the anti-anglophone sentiment that we feared. Maybe it's because we always try to converse in French, no matter how pitifully. Our hosts have been, without exception, gracious and accommodating. The whole place oozes charm and pride. Beautiful! Speaking of oozing, we happened into Casa Calzone, home of the best, what else, calzone anywhere. Scrumptious! This little family-run eatery alone was worth the trip here.