Category: Canada/US East Coast, Fall 2023

Our ship pulled into Quebec City and the first thing I could see was an industrial paper mill.  Lovely view.  Unfortunately, the best dock in the city was already being used by the massive Jewel of the Seas.  Smaller ships get second fiddle, despite our ship being luxury and the Jewel being just huge.  Fortunately, once again, I had a shore excursion planned with Tours-By-Locals.  If you are going to be on a cruise in the near future, try to use them for shore excursions whenever possible.  Our guide, Carol, picked us up on the dock, and took us to our first stop, Montmorency Falls.

Even though we just visited Iceland and saw some incredible waterfalls, this one is still impressive, particularly based on the overall volume of water involved.  We were told by a local that this is fairly mild…the falls gets much stronger after a large rainstorm comes through, and the spot in the below photo would be covered in heavy mist.  That’s the informative local on the left.

Definitely deserving of video.

I’m getting better with the selfies!  I need to get better with the razor!

The lake at the bottom of the falls can rise by 3+ feet when the falls is really going.  At 272 feet, this is the highest waterfall in Quebec, and the 8th highest in Canada.

Our guide then took us to the top of the falls so we could get a different perspective.  This impressive bridge spans the gorge the falls flows through.  If you visit, make sure you visit the bottom AND the top!

The brown color of the water reminded us of Ireland, where the color comes from water filtered through peat bogs.  I didn’t learn where the color comes from here, but I’m going to assume it’s similar.

You can hike down a few dozen stairs to another viewpoint looking up at the face of the falls.  Those wires running across the face are for a zip line, which we opted out of.  Looks pretty cool though!

More video!

Our next stop was Saint Anne Basilica.  This site has been a Roman Catholic church for 360 years, and a place of pilgrimage, receiving half a million pilgrims a year. Saint Anne was the Mother of the Virgin Mary, and is known as the Patroness and Saint of sickness.

Inside the church you can see all of the crutches and other items those who ventured here needed in their lives, until they were reportedly “healed” due to their visit to the Basilica.

The inside of the church is gorgeous.

The rose window is beautiful!

This is the statue of Saint Anne, which was saved from a fire in the original Basilica in 1922.  Pope Francis visited this Basilica in 2022, and prayed before this statue.

This is a replica of Michelangelo’s “La Pieta” statue, from the original created in 1498-1499.  Our guide and the website for the Basilica claim this is the best replica to be found, but in searching wikipedia there are approximately 74 of these around the world, so I can’t verify that.  I’ve got a feeling every church that has a replica thinks theirs is the best!

They also have a replica of the Shroud of Turin.  Fun fact, if you go to Turin and want to see the Shroud, you can only see a replica, so this is just as good as visiting Turin!

On our way back towards Quebec City, I saw a wine tasting sign on the side of the road.  Our guide, Carol, advised that the place we saw the sign for sucked, but he’d gladly take us to a decent spot on a nearby island.  That’s how we ended up at Saint Pierre winery!

The wines were just ok, with the best of them being the Reverie white wine, a combination of two white varietals I had never heard of.  We ended up picking up a bottle and drinking it on the ship, but I still don’t know what the varietals were.

There was even a view of the distant Montmorency Falls from the winery!

Rather than taking us back to our cruise ship, Carol brought us into the heart of Quebec City so we could have lunch, and then have a quick walk around.  Below is the absolutely stunning Fairmont Hotel!  Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were guests of the Canadian government here for a conference during WWII.  It definitely looks fit for such a conference!

This was a little side street in Quebec City that I found to be quite cute.  I’m unsure as to why it was so crowded, but the entire city was over run with tourists due to the huge ship being in town.

One last shot of Quebec City as we made our way back to the ship.  We didn’t have nearly enough time here, and this place deserves at least 4-5 days.  We may have to make another trip up this way at some point.  The city is stunning!

Up next, we visit tiny Saguenay, Quebec, Canada.

 

On our second day in Montreal we connected with our friends Tony and Julie, and took a hike up to the top of Mount Royal.  I’ve gotta say, it’s not really a “mountain”, more like a hill, but it’s still 220 steps to the top, so it’s a bit of a slog, particularly on a warm, humid morning.

The views of downtown Montreal from the top are well worth it though.  It’s interesting to note that local laws require all buildings in the city to be shorter than Mount Royal, which sits at 233 meters.  It’s also interesting to note that the name Montreal comes from “Mount Royal”.  This all makes a visit to this spot a must-do!

We then walked towards Old Montreal and visited Place d’Armes, where these two statues captured our attention.  “The English Pug and the French Poodle”, also known as “The Two Snobs”, are private artworks installed in 2013.  The statues evoke the discord that used to exist between the French and English Canadians (used to exist??).  The two statues are at either end of the square, facing away from each other.  At the north end of the square, this Frenchwoman with a French Poodle stares with discontent at the Bank of Montreal, a symbol of English Power.

On the south end of the square stands an Englishman with an English Pug, staring with condescension at the Notre-Dame Basilica, a symbol of the religious dominance of the Catholic Church in Quebec.  Both of the dogs appear attracted to each other, but are forced apart by their owners.

We had to take Tony and Julie back to the port overview we had visited the day prior.  It really is a gorgeous spot located in the Museum of Archeology, and free to visit.

Tony is doing his best impression of the snooty Englishman from Place d’Armes.  The only thing missing is the English Pug!

That night we had booked “Aura”, a light show inside the Notre-Dame Basilica.  I took a couple of photos before the show started, but we were told not to take any shots during the performance, and for once I actually followed instructions.  I know, I’m slipping.  Sorry!

The organ was also lit up before the show started.  Aside from all sorts of lights on the ceiling, they even had a laser light show…it was like being at a Pink Floyd concert, with loud religious music instead of flying pigs!  This is well worth doing if you are in Montreal.  The place was packed, so buy your tickets in advance!

The next day it was raining cats and dogs, so we spent some time inside at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.  They have a few famous Impressionist paintings, so we were quite happy.  First up is “Young Girl with Hat” by Auguste Renoir, from 1890.

While this piece isn’t famous, at least to me, it is painted by the always excellent Claude Monet.  This is “The Main Path at Giverny”, painted in 1900.  We have GOT to get to Giverny!

This is the popular and well known “The Thinker, by Auguste Rodin, cast between 1902 and 1909.  Rodin produced this in a number of versions and various sizes.  This one is quite small compared to the one we’ve seen in Paris (although the one at the Rodin museum in Paris is a duplicate, the real one is stored away for safe-keeping).

From one of the landings inside the museum you could see this mural painted on a building.  This is singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen, who was born in Westmount, Quebec, and wrote the famous song “Hallelujah”.

This is his original version of the song from Youtube.

 A temporary exhibition of the museum had a retrospective on an artist, Mirasol, I had not heard of previously.  Mirasol Escobar was a Venezuelan-American sculptor who was quite popular in the 1960’s.  Her sculptures are very unique.  Below is “The Funeral”, portraying three-year-old John F. Kennedy, Jr. saluting his father during his funeral procession in 1963.

This is Mirasol’s sculpture of Picasso, created in bronze in 1977.

Kim pointed out that the face looks just like a character from a Steven Wilson music video, “The Raven that Refused to Sing”.

Who is Steven Wilson?  Go check him out now!  Here is the music video in question, my absolute favorite music video he has produced, and definitely one of his best songs.

The day we boarded the ship we were greeted with the view of this rainbow from our stateroom, portending an excellent voyage!

As we were leaving the city, we passed this unique condo property, that looked like something Fred Flintstone would live in.  Yabba dabba do!

Up next, we visit Quebec City, which we have heard is stunning!