Quebec, Montreal, and the Falls

Although it's all in a single province, it took two long days of driving down the St. Lawrence River from the Gaspé Peninsula to reach the city of Quebec, founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. Quebec is an Algonquin word that means "where the river narrows" and that is exactly what happens to the St. Lawrence when it reaches Quebec City.

Our first day in the area we rode our e-bikes along both sides of the river, where we had great views of the old city sitting on cliffs high above the water. There were plenty of little cafes along the bike route.

To cross to the other side we took a passenger ferry. We weren't the only cyclists doing that!

After riding 6-7 miles back up the river, we had to cross over again on Quebec's Old Bridge. The pedestrian path on the side of the bridge is pretty narrow, so we walked (vs. rode) most of the way.

After our ride, we drove about 30 minutes east of the city to see Montmorency Falls, which are about 270 feet tall. It's a big tourist draw (with a hotel, restaurant, ziplines, etc.) but we arrived fairly late in the day after most of the crowds had left. Doug hiked over the pedestrian suspension bridge above the falls to the other side for an unobstructed view of the falls.

The following day we drove into Quebec's historic area, a maze of narrow streets, alleys, historic buildings, shops, and restaurants. We participated in a 2.5-hour walking tour in English, visiting churches and the stone wall that still surrounds the Old City (which has been designated as a UNESCO Heritage Site).

We also took a Hop-On/Hop-Off bus tour to see more of the city, and then walked around the Old City ourselves in the early evening.

There's an amazing wall mural that highlights some of Quebec City's history. It was hard to figure out where reality ended and the painting began!

This winter toboggan run has been operating for 150 years.

Narrow alleys in the "Lower City" down by the docks house more shops, restaurants, and a lot of tourists!

We ended the day by Quebec's most famous hotel (and most photographed view) - the Chateau Frontenac.

It was time to continue our drive up the St. Lawrence to Montreal. We'd visited Montreal in August 2017, staying at an AirBnB rental downtown for a few days. For this visit, we wanted to see some sights we'd missed before. On our first full day in the area, we spent the afternoon at the Jardin Botanique (the Botanical Garden). It's huge and beautiful, and located close to the main stadium from the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Shortly after entering, we walked through a group of rose gardens.

Unfortunately, the roses were past their prime, although we did find some isolated beautiful late bloomers.

Another section of the gardens was devoted to alpine plants which typically grow in high mountain areas. Every continent was represented by a separate display area.

The Garden had partnered with the city of Shanghai a number of years ago, and recreated the estate of a high ranking official including the living area, temples, beautiful Chinese gardens, ornamental rocks, and Chinese bonsai (they say there is a difference in Japanese and Chinese bonsai but they looked the same to us). There was also a lake with fanciful cloth-covered sculptures, although they had drained the lake that day for cleaning.

Another huge area of the gardens celebrated all things lily, with almost 200 varieties of regular and day lilies in an amazing variety of colors, and all seeming at peak bloom.

There was also a Japanese garden, although it was much smaller than the Chinese garden section. It also had a home and a tea ceremony room. The gardens seemed to be styled more in harmony with the landscape, as opposed to the Chinese gardens which followed strict design principles.

Montreal is a city devoted to bicycling, and the next day we parked the Fittata on one of the islands in the center of the St. Lawrence River and rode a 20 mile circuit that wound through islands and the harbor area of Montreal. We rode past a number of sites from both the 1967 World's Fair (which Doug had visited on a school trip in 10th grade) and other Olympic venues from 1976 (now repurposed for public use).

Now a museum called the Biosphere, this geodesic dome housed the USA Pavilion in the 67 Worlds Fair.

Habitat 67 was a highlight of the World's Fair, and showcased modular housing.

1976 Olympic diving platform, now part of a public pool complex, being used that day for a youth diving competition. Some of the kids on the diving platforms looked like they were in their very early teens at best, but all were talented divers!

After our bike ride, we drove up to the top of Mont Royal Park (which gives the city its name - the mountain was named by Jacques Cartier in 1535). It provides an expansive view of downtown Montreal.

The next day, we traveled about 1.5 hours north of Montreal to the town of Saint-Sauveur in the Laurentian Mountains. Back during our visit to Newfoundland, we first met a Quebec couple, Mario and Elise, while hiking the Skerwink Trail. We ran into them again a few days later in the Twillingate area. When we were thrown together for the third time on the ferry back to Nova Scotia, we all felt that fate had been pushing us together and so they invited us to come up to Saint-Sauveur to visit them. After a delicious brunch at their lovely home, and a chance to get to know each other better, we headed into the village and took up residence in the main square.

In the evening, we were able to enjoy not one but two free blues concerts while the church next to the park put on a light show.

The next day we headed southwest along the St. Lawrence River, and after an overnight stop in Kingston, Ontario (where it seemed somewhat strange to be greeted in English again rather than French) we arrived in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

We weren't quite ready to cross back into the US, so we chose a campground on that side rather than in New York. After setting up camp, we drove downtown to take in the view.

If you've been to Niagara Falls before, you'll know there's a lot of schlock in the areas surrounding the falls, with a "boardwalk/amusement park" vibe.

However, once you walk past it and get to the edge of the gorge, there's nothing that can compare with that view of the entire Great Lakes flow emptying over the two cataracts: the American Falls...

...and the Canadian (or Horseshoe) Falls.

We stayed till dark to take in the lighting of the falls which occurs every night. In the past 6 years, they've installed brighter and more versatile LED lighting.

On the half-hours, they do a five-minute show where the colors flow into one another, as you can see in the videos below.

On our second day in the Niagara Falls area, we grabbed our passports and COVID vaccination cards, parked near the falls on the Ontario side, and hiked across Rainbow Bridge to visit Niagara Falls State Park in New York.

The views of the falls are not as good (in our opinion) as they are from the Canadian side, and you can see from all the towers on the Canadian side that the tourist industry agrees.

The famous Maid of the Mist boats (which we decided not to ride) leave from both the American side (with blue raincoats) and Canadian side (with red raincoats) so people don't have to cross the border to spend their money. Here you can see some American-side Mist-ers who wanted a little more spray before ending their adventure.

We crossed to Goat Island to see Horseshoe Falls from the American side...

...before reversing course and taking the long trek back across the state park, across Rainbow Bridge, back through Canada border control, through the schlock, and ultimately to our car.

The next day we crossed the border for good, arriving back in the US after 6+ weeks in Canada and heading to the Finger Lakes region of New York State. More about that in our next blog post!