Arrived at Levis which is across the river from Quebec on Aug. 16th. Trying to get around any big city here is a misery because of all the road repair which may block off an exit from a highway. They have little time to be able to repair their roads. There is a ferry from Levis to Quebec but getting there was not fun with all the detours. Walked to the the top of the hill and took a tour of Quebec's parliament. It is very pretty. The picture above is of the House of Commons. They did away with the House of lords( in the 60s I think). Not democratic. Trying to populate the area so France could keep it, one governor had girls brought over from the orphanages. They had to get married in 2 weeks and the men had 2 months. The population here had gone up very lowly compared to the English colonies. On interesting fact we learned was that a meeting and what was decided in it is considered to have never happened if the masse (looks like a gold club) is not in the room. It makes the meeting official. We walked on the walls of the old citadel which was built after the War of 1812 by the English to protect Quebec from the Americans. Walked around old town and had a good lunch. Had fun. Weather is low fifties in the day time to 64-75 in the day. They keep saying it is going to get warmer but it never does. Lots of rain but no more fog, and we left the mosquitoes behind, thank goodness. The next day we drove 150 miles to St Catherine which is beside Tadousssac to go whale watching. It is suppose to be the greatest whale watching area due to being near the mouth of the St Lawrence. It was a cloudy, very windy day, and the boat was crowded. Whales jumped out of the water several times, but I only could see it once ( due to not being able to see over people) and it was far away. There were mink, fin, and humpback whales, but none came real close to the boat. Did see flashes of white in the water on the way back in and learned it was beluga whales. That was neat. Stopped at a fromagerie (cheese making shop) and got fresh cheddar and brie. Still enjoying it.
On the 19th drove to a little town across the river from Montreal. We were told that the traffic came to a stand still after about 2PM on the highway into Montreal. It was under construction also. Butch says he gets a sinking feeling every time he sees an orange sign. We decided not to risk it and stayed in and did our wash and cleaned up till we left for supper at 7:00PM. Celebrated our 45th anniversary early with a very nice meal in Montreal. Big cities scare me to death. It had ramps off of ramps off of ramps. When we got there I was not sure I could pry my hand off the arm rest I had been holding so tightly. The next morning we drove to the subway across the river which was in the town we are staying in. Getting to it was not easy, but once we did we enjoyed using the subway to get around. Went to the Beau Arts museum. A lot of it was closed, but we enjoyed the exhibit on Napoleon (They had one of his hats and boots there.) and one on ancient civilizations. I enjoyed it because it gave a good time line of the civilizations. Then we went to Montreal Underground- 4 stories tall, 1700 stores, and 40 movies underground. Then we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral (gorgeous) and walked through old town to the old port which has a lot of tourist things like a discovery center. Had supper in a restaurant which was in a 300 year old stone building in the old town. There are 3 universities here and everyone seems to be younger than 40.
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