What a lovely place Quebec City is. Really friendly people, murals on the sides of houses, really strange pink babies, a fabulous hotel on the top of the cliff, funicular railway, waterfalls & giant Basilica. All this comes complete with whales in the St Lawrence and the only copper repousse embossers in the world.
We have been here 2 days now & enjoyed ourselves tremendously. Learnt some of Quebec's Heritage. French here since the early 1600s, but defeated by Gen Wolfe in 1759. The Treaty of Paris had interesting effects - Article 1 gave the Catholic church full freedom. Today there are virtually no practicing Catholics in Quebec, no monasteries or convents & churches turned into apartment blocks. Article 2 guaranteed the French language which is taught in schools & you have to be able to speak French to be employed. The unintended consequence of this is labour shortages that prevent restaurants being able to open week, hospital treatment delayed & class size problems. Article 3 retained French law. Bizarrely this means you cannot change your surname, not when you get married or for any other reason. New borns can be given Mum's name, Dad's name or both names hyphenated in either order. If 2 double barrels give birth their children can have a maximum of 2 surnames.
We would like to come back & spend more time here, perhaps in the Hotel Frontenac, which looks fantastic - let's see.
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