Quebec, Je me souviens

„Je me souviens“ is the official motto of the province of Quebec and it means “I will remember”. It says a lot about the people from Quebec who don’t forget their history, especially the part where Canada was under French leadership.

I will definitely remember Quebec city for the warm hospitality of it’s people and the gorgeous old town. Our CS hosts Dominique and Simon were really great, after we met them on Tuesday we went to a meeting of Couchsurfers in Quebec where we met a lot of nice people who recommended us things to see and do in our trip on the western part of Canada.

The best places we’ve seen in Quebec are:

• Chateu Frontenac – which is supposedly the most photographed hotel in the world. I heard a nice story about this hotel, when Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and General MacKenzie planned the D-Day here, they made their plans on napkins and left them on the table, later to be returned by a waiter. For me this story is pretty hard to believe but you can choose if you believe it or not.
• The old town – it’s one of the nicest old towns that we’ve ever seen with a lot of nice buildings and restaurants in an old fashion.
• The citadelle – we had a guided tour of the citadelle where we learnt about the history of Canada with it’s 3 stages, the French one, the British one and the one of the Canadian confederation and why people from Quebec are very proud on their French roots. The citadelle is the main quarter for the 22^nd Royal regiment which is the only French speaking regiment in the Canadia army.
• The Parliament of Quebec -  we had a guided tour at the Parliament and were also allowed to attend to live sessions of the Parliament.

The famous local food specialities that we tried are:

• Poutine – is a typical Quebec dish that’s very fat and contains French fries, which I think are fried in fat not in oil, and covered with a sort of cheese. Very tasty.
• Smoked meat typical for this region.
• Cretons – it’s a typical pasta of pork fat with onion and spices. It’s very similar to the German Grammelschmalz or the Romanian Jumar
• Bagels – bread products in form of rings.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

We have seen the Montmorency waterfall which is situated 13 km North-East from Quebec city and which is 83 m high, about 30m higher than the Niagara falls, though with not such a big volume of water.