Quebec City, Day Three

We woke to a grey sky and wet pavement. The promised rain had arrived. A simple breakfast again then setting out to the Musée de l’Amérique francaise (the oldest museum in Canada). We bought a three-museum ticket so we could check out the others in the area.

This museum had a chapel and was attached to the seminary (we didn’t go on the tour). There was a gallery of religious art that the priests had collected over the centuries; then a couple of really interesting exhibitions about French-Canadian history. There were some really cool interpretive elements. They must have a lot of money as there were heaps of video and audio installations, in French and English, animation, displays and interactives.

Glen

Fountain outside Chateau Frontenac

The fountain and statue

Windy day in a UNESCO city.

One exhibition was about the discovery of a big stash of artefacts in 2005. The second was more generally about the French colonisation of Canada. There was one story about the early settlers dying from disease and the Stadacona Indians giving them medicine, which cured the settlers. What’s the lesson here? Don’t help white folk. And apparently the Aboriginal people on Newfoundland introduced/recommended the French to natives on the mainland. What the? Bizarre.

It was raining when we came out. We went for buffet lunch at Chateau Frontenac, sitting at a window seat watching the rain come down on the promenade and enjoying the view of very few tourists out and about. The place is so different today from the weekend. It’s quiet and lovely. The food was ok but it was the experience of eating there that interested me. Plus there was an older lady in the dining room just covered in giant pearls and loads of jewellery. Fascinating!

This is the view we had while having lunch at Chateau Frontenac. Beautiful.

Glen not impressed.

At lunch

Glen eating.

Leftovers

After lunch, we walked through the rain, back to the hotel to get my raincoat (yes, I’d forgotten it). Our feet were drenched by the time we got back but we persevered and headed out again, descending to Place Royal and checking out the museum there.

Another impressive interpretive display about the history of the area, of the busy port and town. We finished it by going in to watch a short film which was meant to be 3D. It wasn’t. The glasses did nothing. The film was about an artist painting a picture of Samuel Champlain, the founder of Quebec City, as far as I remember. The artist has a breakdown the night before the painting is due to be collected and throws a chair through the painting. This is based on the premise that no one knows what Samuel Champlain looks like (his image is a fake, a modified version of someone else because there were no portraits of him. The image has been perpetuated for centuries.) so for her to paint an image of him is false blah blah blah. She then hallucinates, interacts with her hallucinations, blacks out and redoes the painting with collage and soil and paint (the collage and soil you can’t see in the finished painting). It’s then morning and her painting is finished, Champlain talks to her, and that’s the end of the film. Maybe that’s what really happened. More than likely it’s a reimagining. All it says to me is that true art only comes from moments of inspiration and that process and deadlines can all go to hell. Ugh. And it wasn’t in 3D.

Other than that though, the museum is pretty cool with lots of things to do and see. We even played a board game with ships where the first to arrive in Quebec City from France wins. I won. Would like to know what their budget for interpretation is.

Looking down the steps near Place Royale. My feet were really wet by this stage.

The board game in Place Royale museum.

We then walked around Lower Town for a while, past more artisan shops, down quaint, picturesque streets, and then back up to Rue St-Jean to buy shoes. Glen found a nice pair of boots that could double as work shoes if he wanted. They were on sale for $50. I looked at all the boots that were displayed and tried them on but didn’t like any of them. The sales guy eventually said he’d bring out all size 10s for me to try on. I went through them all, moderately liking one, until we got to the last pair. I tried them on. Fit perfectly and they had red laces! Of course, not on sale. But Glen had lost patience by then so we bought them. Now I have dry shoes to wear tomorrow when we head out to La Mauricie National Park.

In the evening we went back to Piazetta for dinner again (the waiter remembered us). Glen wanted the fettucine carbonara. After that, back to the hotel and an early-ish night.