Québec - View from the River

On our third day in Québec we thought we'd drive away from the city to see what was there.  We also thought we'd have breakfast in perhaps a less expensive local establishment outside the city. We thought about driving north but ended up going east, alongside the St. Lawrence River and drove as far as Sainte Anne-de-Beaupré - some 30 miles away.


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It turned out that Ste. Anne-de-Beaupré is a place of pilgrimage for some catholics due to the church being reputed as a place of healing.  People also go there to visit the Cyclorama of Jerusalem.  We visited neither the church nor the Cyclorama, but turned around, stopped at Tim Horten's for coffee and donuts and returned to the city.  I can't help thinking that we missed an opportunity to do something a bit different by not going into the church or the Cyclorama, but I guess neither of us thought it worthwhile at the time.  It was only when we returned to our hotel to look up information that we learned what it was all about.

The highlight for us on that particular day was to be our 4-hour evening cruise on the St. Lawrence River to see fireworks over the Montmorency Falls.  The day was overcast and very humid with threatening rainstorms in the afternoon and evening.  We had pre-paid for our cruise tickets so off we went downtown on the bus armed with sweaters, umbrellas and (in my case) a rain jacket.  We picked up our tickets, at the same time enquiring about the predicted 60mph gusts on the river.  We were told that nothing short of a tsunami would cause the cruise to be cancelled.  I wasn't sure how bad it could be, but having crossed the English Channel a few times in choppy weather I wasn't too excited about being tossed around on a pleasure boat on that vast river.

Anyway, we went for an early dinner (because we hadn't booked the dinner cruise) and arrived at the boat about 45 minutes before it set sail.  I should mention at this point that it had been raining on and off for a while so that when we got on board, everything was wet, there were few places to sit under cover.  Since we were actually there to view fireworks, we set up on the top deck at the front - potentially the windiest, chilliest, wettest place but we decided to take a chance.  We barricaded ourselves behind umbrellas while it rained and hoped things would improve!

Taken on my mobile phone when the rain stopped

I had been looking forward to this cruise because it would afford an opportunity to see Québec from the river by night.  I'd seen it in photos but wanted to see it for myself.  I'm a sucker for 'views'  bright lights and fireworks so if it hadn't been for concerns about the weather I'd have been quite excited about it.

View of the Château Frotenac from the quayside.

 As it turned out, we were very fortunate.  The rain stopped and the clouds began to clear and while not a perfect starlit night, we ended up having a lovely evening.

The Château Frontenac from the river at dusk.

Wet deck after the rain stopped.

None of my fireworks photos are worth publishing and none of the night views of the scenery came out as well as I hoped, but we had such a nice time, it doesn't really matter.  At one point, members of the crew brought round free food - a box containing a ham baguette sandwich, a bag of chips (crisps) and salad.  We didn't know there would be food, but we devoured it despite having already had dinner!

Night view of old Quebec

Another feature of the cruise that we hadn't expected was the party atmosphere and from our birdseye view of the deck below we enjoyed the music and dancing as much as those who were participating.

The crew leading a performance of "YMCA"

It was fun singing along to all the old and new songs - and even a French one which I knew but can't for the life of me remember where from!  All in all it was a lovely evening and not at all spoilt by the rain or 60mph gusts of wind.

End of Day Three.