Day 23 More museums

Lachie only woke very briefly last night, so he was up at 6:15 (et al) Breakfast and then the drop offs. Tim first, then Lachie. Sarah and I stopped at the GF LF Patisserie on the way home. Disaster. No power there. Luckily they had done the baking. So we got two delicious apricot Danish and a loaf of walnut bread for me. (They couldn’t slice it) We had to find the exact money because she couldn’t even use the till.

GF LF Walnut bread

Plains of Abraham

Home to do the weekly housework. The place was spotless by the time we finished and of course our reward was the Danish. SOOO good. After a short rest, we made our lunch and walked via the St Joan of Arc Park, through the Plains of Abraham to the city.

Our first stop was the Tourist Information centre, where Sarah picked up a small map of the town for me and I picked the brains of the guy behind the counter re other places to visit.

We went up to the Dufferin Terrace and paid our $3.90 for a ticket to explore the old fort and Governor’s house. The ruins were covered over by the terrace, when the original buildings burnt down. They had an excellent display and information about the ruins down there. My favourite section was the old ice house. A deep pit, which was lined with straw and filled with ice in winter and covered over to keep everything above cool in summer. Each Governor added onto his house until it became a very impressive building.

We went upstairs and ate our lunch on the deck. Then walked to the Musee De L’Amerique Francophone to complete our Three Museum Pass. The Museum Chapel was quite a surprise in its ornate decoration and stain glass windows. Built in 1898 to resemble a church in Paris, replacing an earlier chapel built in 1750, destroyed by fire in 1888. It also houses the largest collection of relics in Canada – 600. It is now used for concerts, and conferences.

An “interesting way” of accessing the actual Museum via a lift and walkway. We were advised to start on the third floor for the introductory movie tracing the steps of the first Francophones and why they settled here. Down to the second floor for a series of auditory posts to describe the immigrants and the early life here. One section reminded me that Francis the 1^st was on the throne at the time of settlement. The video on the top floor was good, but the rest was a different way of telling the story. i.e not a lot to look at.

Window of St Cecilia in museum chapel 

Our next stop was the Musee of the Ursuline nuns. (We also found what was purported to be the house with the smallest frontage in North America on the way? Not sure about that claim.) A good museum if you are interested in convent life/ education. $10 entry, BUT no photos allowed and the five post cards for sale were useless. The nuns were famous for their needlework and the work on the small display featured both petite point and stump work. Lots of gold, silver, copper and silk thread. Incredible needlework, which were not photographed well for the postcards. They need to rethink their whole postcard selection.

We continued up the hill past the caleches (Carriage) horses resting, the avenue of poets,

Rebuilding the Armory 

through the wall and back to the unit. Time to get a quick snack and head off to get both Lachie and Tim. Back home where Tim had to take a series of conference calls and Lachie was happy to play with his trucks.

Dinner was left over roast and just as delicious.