Day 17. Layover…Quebec City

9/3/23

Mileage stats for Week 1 and 2:

291 miles week 2. (7 days)

222 miles week 1 (6 days)

Looonnnggg one…….

After a relaxing croissant and coffee breakfast in a cafe we took a long walk through a Parc along the Riviere St Charles. A big part of heading to the north side of the city from where we are staying was to resupply our freeze dried meals. Found a good camping store, then headed to a grocery store for lunch and snacks for the next few days riding. We walked about 6 miles through the Basse Ville (lower area). We also need to cleanup our bikes from the rainy day, lube chains, etc. Chores Day! Jim spent a little relaxing time in the Parc plotting next week’s daily distances.

We made a big loop back to our home. I truly think by walking we saw quite a bit of Quebec City in and near the “Old City” walls, both upper and lower, parcs and rivers. We also checked off the “to-do list” before we embark tomorrow.

Being Québécois….

Some things I learned from Aimee. In the province of Quebec women generally do not refer discuss whether they are married or not. Some are married… some are civil unions. Anyhow… they call their partners “chums” or something along that line. Women are very independent, their status is not dependent on being married with children or diminished by having children “out of wedlock” etc. Those identifiers are not deemed as important… that’s personal.

So I learned about the history of the Files du Roi. When Quebec was colonized the area needed women for all the men. The king of France sent women who were widowed, divorced, etc to marry the men.

The province of Quebec sees itself as independent from Canada. They are Quebecoise and then there is Canada! They went through the Quiet Revolution in the 1960’s. At this time they separated their education system from the Catholic Church and became secular. Even their higher education is subsidized by the government. They also took government control over their power and developed HydroQuebec. This gave them independence from corporate control and wealth to the province. I find this fascinating because I didn’t realize how strongly they are separate! Quebecois first..Canadian second.

Backyards in QC

I like how the rows of house create a very flat look along the street. Aimee told us the back yards are where the neighbors share their greenery. Pretty cool.

Quebec City… highly recommend

What’s for dinner tonight? Savory crepes

When you go to a truly European-type city you must check out the Epicerie Europeenne. What delight it was to walk through this grocery. There was more of course!