By the end of the 19th century, some wanted the city’s fortifications to be demolished as they were deemed unnecessary and they interfered with urban development. Lord Dufferin would successfully persuade officials to conserve the city’s fortified appearance by adapting it to meet the needs of a modern-day city.
With its ramparts, citadel, century-old houses, historic sites and landmarks, Québec’s Upper Town has a rich heritage of several generations with beautiful, unique surroundings.
Most of the buildings date back to the 19th century with the construction of some dating as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries.
The area also has many well-maintained parks. People can also take advantage of the great view of the St. Lawrence River from place D'Youville and the Dufferin Terrace."
We started out the morning tending to our cars that were in a church parking lot next to the Hotel Clarendon. The church is the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, now with a small membership of 80, the revenue from parking and artesian sales booths help keep it going. The lot is park like and open to passersby, and the church and hotel arranged for watchmen to stay with the cars overnight.
Here is Charlie Miller cleaning the dust and road grime off of his car.
And Al Marsh impressed this lady by letting her sit in his car... hopefully she will become a future Morgan owner.
After a light dust off of our cars so they made a good impression on the spectators, we walked down the hill to a French bakery, noted to be the best in the city. With strong coffee and croissant sandwiches it was very good.
We passed the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec which is, according to Wikipedia "the primate church of Canada and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec. It is also the parish church of the oldest North American parish north of Mexico and was the first north of Mexico to be elevated to the rank of minor basilica, by Pope Pius IX in 1874. It is a National Historic Site of Canada, and located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historic District of Old Québec.
Interesting growing plants decorated some of the sculpture there.
The city is abundant with floral and artistic decoration, despite the very short warm weather season.
Many outside dining locations.
Our tour bus for the morning.... runs every 45 minutes with off/on privileges.
Architecture, decoration and art seem to be paramount on city buildings. This is the transportation center, (Train and bus depot.)
This four piece sculpture depicts a cat leaping. Our tour guide explained that all new construction in the city requires 1% of its value to be spent on art.
From atop the double decker bus we viewed this carriage as we passed by.
This is part of the wall that surrounds the old city fortifications.
The Funicular incline takes you down the hill toward the riverfront and the narrowest street in the city, with lots of shops and restaurants, and no vehicle traffic.
This is where I bought a new Morgan Touring hat.
How's that for stylish?
Another view of this interesting shopping and eating area.
While having lunch on a sidewalk café a light rain began, but we endured. Bruce Reynolds and wife Dolores got the wet seats on the patio.
As the rain got stronger and we finished lunch, Bruce improvised with the waiter's help, and they designed new fashion wear.
The walk back up the hill was a struggle, but we made it, with only a couple of rest stops. Sorry I didn't count the steps, but it must have been nearly a thousand... well maybe 200.
Andy was in proper dress today with his Morgan Motor Club of Canada t-shirt.
We leave this fascinating city in the morning and head south to Maine.
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