My final week in Quebec began with a minor crisis. I ran out of money and since my mom could not get to the bank until Monday to put funds on my debit card, she had to send me some cash through Western Union. After picking up my money at the nearby Metro-Plus and buying some groceries, I looked around in the mall which the supermarket is a part of and had lunch in its food court before heading back to Laval.
On Monday was my sixth and final excursion: to the Huron-Wendat historic site. The Huron-Wendat are one of the Iroquois nations. A village like the one recreated at their historic site would have supported 900 to 1600 people, organized into 30 or 40 longhouses made from longs and tree bark. Our guide explained that a longhouse can hold an average of six families.
The villagers supported themselves by growing the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash, as well as sunflowers and tobacco and by hunting deer and other wild animals. For transportation, the built canoes and racquet snowshoes out of wood and animal hides, waterproofed with resin and bear fat.
I bought one of those kitschy dream catchers the places like this sell in their gift shops along with leather wristbands and postcards for my friends back home. On our way back to Laval, we stopped to look at a waterfall on Huron-Wendat property.
Tuesday was fairly low key. I was part of a small group going to a place called Crackpot Cafe, a paint your own pottery studio which also sells coffee, hot, chocolate, tea, and snacks. I ordered a brownie and a can of Pepsi and decided to paint a soup bowl.
My inspiration for how I planned to decorate the bowl was the owl iconography of the Greek goddess Athena: my patron goddess. On Friday, the bowl was finished being fired and I picked it up from de Koninck.
I had planned on going to the Aquarium of Quebec but I had a hard time getting there. Google Maps said to take the number thirteen bus and get off at de la Promenade but the first number thirteen bus I took did not stop at de la Promenade and left me stranded out in the boondocks, waiting for another bus. This bus did not stop at de la Promenade, so, frustrated, I stayed on as it went back towards Laval.
After we checked out of Laval, we went to the Plains of Abraham. I was able to get a better look at the things I missed the last time I was there because it had been so crowded.
We were shown around the displays my a guide named Louis.
My parents made me pose in the stocks.
After looking in the first exhibit, we watched a film about the battle of the Plains of Abraham which had narrators telling the story of the battle from the perspectives of the British, the French, the Canadians, and the First Nations (what they call native Americans in Canada). The second exhibit was the one with the uniforms and diorama. When we were looking at reproductions of the uniforms worn by the Marquis de Montcalm (the French general) and James Wolfe (the English general), my dad pointed out that Wolfe was wearing a mourning band for one of his relatives.
It was supper time when we were finished at the Plains of Abraham, so we went to the Grand-Allée to find a place to eat. We eventually settled on the Restaurant Parmesan. The restaurant’s walls are covered in old bottles and knickknacks which are entertaining to look at. One of the bottles looks like Adolf Hitler and is turned around so it’s back is facing you. I went out on a bit of a limb and order the veal tortellini in chicken broth, which it the spot, and the black forest cake, which was delicious.
On our way back to the car, we looked in a couple of souvenir shops and I bought a Quebec patch for my backpack. We are staying at the same Travel Lodge where I spent the night on my way to Laval. I took a quick swim in the pool before getting ready for bed.
Sunday was my final day in Quebec. First thing in the morning, we returned to the Plains of Abraham to take a bus tour of the battlefield. Our guide was an interpreter portraying Marguerite Martin, one of Quebec’s earliest settlers and wife of Abraham Martin, who the Plains of Abraham are named after because he was known to drive his cattle through these fields. Abraham and Marguerite’s son, Eustace, was the first native-born Canadian. The Plains of Abraham were turned into a national park in the early twentieth century. Aside from being a historic site, it hosts events such as the Quebec Winter Carnival and the Quebec Summer Festival. Not having a window seat, I was not able to get decent shots of what our tour guide pointed out, such as the monument to General Wolfe.
Towards the end of the tour, we were given the opportunity to either stay on the bus and continue on back to the museum or get off an explore the Martello towers. Dad and I went to see the towers while Mom went back to the museum.
A Martello tower is a type of military fortification that was popular in the nineteenth century, around the time of the Napoleonic Wars, because it’s squat, sturdy design makes it impenetrable to canons fire. But advances in artillery meant that Martello towers were obsolete by the mid-nineteenth century. The four towers put up here in Quebec were intended to keep out the Americans during the War of 1812.
For lunch., we went to Le Petit Château, a crepe and fondue place next to the Chateau Frontenac. I had the pepperoni pizza crepe which was fantastic: the sweet crepe with the tangy tomato sauce and cheese and the salty pepperoni, which is more like salami here in Canada. After lunch, we went across the street to the Musée du Fort, which I wanted to show my parents since I first went there a few weeks ago. I bought a French language copy of the poem Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow the last time I was there, so this time, I bought an English language copy along with a piece of amethyst topped with a silver owl and a plaster bust of Empress Josephine.
The three places my mom wanted to visit were the Musée des Ursulines, Notre Dame de Quebec, and Notre Dame des Victoires. As I showed her around the exhibits of the museums, Mom told me about one of my great aunts who became a nun, though a sister of mercy. We were not able to stay long at Notre Dame de Quebec, but Mom was able to buy a large number of prayer cards and I bought a lovely set of pink marble rosary beads. Descending down to Le Petit-Champlain, Mom and I looked inside Notre Dame des Victoires and then the three of us stopped at Le Pub des Borgias for a drink before taking the funicular back up to Chateau Frontenac.
It was bittersweet to leave Quebec. I had a wonderful time here and I will miss the place but I couldn’t wait to move on to the next adventure.
Quebec: Week Five My final week in Quebec began with a minor crisis. I ran out of money and since my mom could not get to the bank until Monday to put funds on my debit card, she had to send me some cash through Western Union.
