Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 3, 1994 TAG: 9404020003
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F-87 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID ALDRICH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
By vacationing in Quebec City, the most European of North American cities and a bargain to boot.
Quebec is safe, friendly and as pretty as its photographs, with winding streets, stone buildings that crowd up to the sidewalks like those of a small French village and broad vistas of the busy St. Lawrence. All this in the only walled city in North America.
And it's Quebec's fortified walls that have always fascinated me. Recently, I made the walking tour that I'd been promising myself for years: I circled the old city along its fortifications.
The three-mile circuit takes two hours if you make few stops. Visit the museums or take side trips, and it's a full day's excursion. In either case, you'll see areas that most visitors miss.
A good starting point is the Terrasse Dufferin, the wide boardwalk between the stately Chateau Frontenac hotel and the St. Lawrence. Pick up a map at the information gazebo and then head west to the steps leading up the Promenade des Gouverneurs. You'll be circling the old city counterclockwise.
From the top step, the Plains of Abraham spread out before you. In summer, it's a rumpled green space of quiet lanes, picnickers, bicyclists and kite-fliers. It's a peaceful vista today, but in 1759 the British overwhelmed the French in a 20-minute battle that rearranged the political destiny of Quebec and all of Canada. Two thousand soldiers were killed or wounded here; both commanders died.
Behind you lay the city's fortifications. The original walls date from 1690, with many additions and improvements up to the completion of the Citadel in 1832.
Did Quebec need to wrap itself in fortified walls, a practice common in Europe but unknown in the New World? Unfortunately, yes. Between 1629 and 1775, the city was attacked five times, the first four in battles for empire between Britain and France, and the fifth in 1775 by an unsuccessful American army led by Benedict Arnold.
The Citadel and its two museums are open in the summer. There's a changing of the guard (40 minutes, $2.75 U.S.), with soldiers parading in bright red uniforms and fuzzy black bouffant-style hats, officers barking orders in an incomprehensible French and a long-haired white goat as mascot.
Continue walking north along the walls and past three picture-book city gates: Porte St. Louis, Porte Kent and Porte St. .Jean. Turn right at rue St. Jean (Porte St. Jean) into the Latin Quarter, with its cafes, clubs and bookstores. This is a lively place in the evening. Especially recommended is the Saint Alexandre Pub for its array of international beers (at St. Jean and St. Stanislas).
For a longer side trip, follow St. Jean in the other direction. Explore the small food shops and bookstores and in particular the sidewalk cafes along avenue Cartier, a cross street about 10 blocks outside the walls, where the Quebecois relax on weekend afternoons.
Back at the northwest corner of the walled city, you come upon Artillery Park and the museum in the Dauphine Redoubt, a former barracks and officers' mess. The building's interior is moody in places, bright in others, and always architecturally interesting. Exhibits range from the conventional, such as soldier mannequins in period uniform, to an unexpected, 7-foot teapot with matching creamer and sugar bowl.
A nearby children's museum has walls painted like clouds, antique toys and an attic where youngsters can dress up in old clothes and pose before a mirror.
From here, take rue McMahon to the cote du Palais, turn left, and then pick up rue des Remparts to the right. Now you've reached a quiet section of the walled city. Streets climb, turn, descend. Lining them at sidewalk's edge are three-story, white plaster residences trimmed in blues, greens and deep reds.
Here and there you see a woman clutching a long loaf of bread in one hand and pushing a stroller with the other; a guitar-toting, unshaven student taking long strides up a sloping sidewalk; and neighbor women - hands on hips - speaking rapid French on a doorstep.
And here and there you catch a glimpse of the city as it looked before it became so bright and crisp and prosperous, of a house with broken red roof tiles, of corrugated metal patching an outside wall, of plaster fallen away to expose the brick.
Below the walls and to your left spreads working Quebec: tank farms, logs piled six stories high, docks, warehouses, a drawbridge and a grain elevator that looks big enough to supply bread to the world until the end of time. As backdrop, the blue Laurentians stretch across the horizon.
For a colorful side trip, head toward the Marche du Vieux-Port, a farmers' market housed in the long, blue building at water's edge. May through October, farmers and gardeners set up tables heaped with sweet corn, apples, pumpkins, house plants, tomatoes, preserves and home-made breads that scent the air.
Keeping the marina to your left, continue on rue St. Andre to the Musee du Vieux Port. This airy, free museum tells the story of the city's vibrant port in the mid-19th century, when a thousand cargo ships docked here each year. The first floor is a mock-up of a sailing ship's deck on which you can walk about, touch the displays and rest on benches shared by mannequin families in period dress.
Antique lovers should head for the shops on rue St. Paul. While there, check out the art galleries and cafes.
Backtrack to rue Rioux, then cote d'Ambourges, and re-enter the walls, walking toward the silvery roof of the Quebec Seminary. In the 19th century, the wealthy resided inside the walls, the less wealthy outside. But the upper class paid a price: crowding, commotion and buggy accidents on the narrow streets.
Follow the walls to the peaceful Parc Montmorency, which brings you back close to where you began. From here, you have an open view of the St. Lawrence. It's not hard to picture the river traffic throughout history: an Algonquin hunter paddling his canoe close to the river bank; Champlain's ship sailing upriver to create the first European settlement in 1608; French fur traders transporting beaver pelts back to the Old World; the fearsome British invasion fleet of 1759; and later the arrival of the many immigrant ships.
Filled with history and sights and good restaurants, Old Quebec City will constantly remind you of France. And it's 4,000 miles closer.
David Aldrich is a free-lance travel writer living in Lexington, Mass.
by CNB