It's boggling to me that there could ever be a thing such as "everyday life" for us here in Quebec. Yet now there is! These pictures are from a Sunday walk on a rainy day:
There was some sort of "New France" festival one weekend (New France is the country Quebec was part of in Revolutionary War times) and these strange tall statues were in the park as part of that.
People in historical costumes too.
I love this old convent steeple between tall buildings.
Sunflowers on top of a parking garage
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I've been so impressed by how all the kids are handling attending a French-speaking branch here! I was so worried about it, but the branch has been great and the kids have been great too. There are no Young Men Malachi's age, sadly, but he blesses the sacrament (in French!!) and I love seeing the older men, including Sam, passing the sacrament every week. They do it with such reverence and care.
Daisy and Junie have made pretty good friends with the other three young women. Two are from Brazil and one is from Portugal, so French is their second language and a couple of them speak quite good English too! Pretty amazing to see young women navigating a new culture so gracefully…it definitely makes my girls feel like they don't have anything to complain about! The lessons are in a funny mix of French, Portuguese, and a little English. Daisy even gave a lesson one Sunday!
Teddy and Goldie love singing Primary songs in French. They love learning new French words and recognizing ones they already know. Ziggy and Gus, after a little nervousness the first Sunday, seem happy enough whatever language is being spoken. Some of their teachers speak a little English and everyone does what they can to help everyone feel included! In addition to the Brazilians and Portuguese here, there are several families here from French-speaking African countries too (Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon) so it is a pretty cool mix of people!
The primary president sent me these pictures of primary and I love them—that faithful primary teacher casually holding his baby as he teaches these little kids across three languages and even more cultures. I love the members of this church and their everyday sacrifices.
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These windows are popular reading nooks
As are the balconies
Ziggy loves to play on the balconies too. Here he is being a "maple syrup man"
Our garden-y yard
(Zig is mad here because I made him go outside when he [for once] didn't want to)
The neighbors' garden-y yards
Some more pictures of our already-dear house:
Pretty woodwork
Tiptoe-dancing
A made bed
Malachi does, in fact, have a room
Clean kitchen one evening
Light coming around a corner
Long view along kitchen balcony
Girls all snuggling in one bed
In Junie's loft
Kids tucked into bed (but not sleeping!)
And finally sleeping! On a hot night.
Walking from the house to the car feels like we're in a parade
Heads sticking out of windows
Kids heading off to the park or somewhere…see, I can stick my head out the window too!
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Another Sunday walk with Daisy and Teddy
Moon!
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Family Home Evening walk to a playground by the old city walls
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We got to celebrate Daisy's 15th birthday here in Quebec! We started the day out with pastries from a bakery close by. It is hard to ever get enough pastries to feed these hungry mouths, but everyone at least got to taste everything!
Daisy always complains that people think she's younger than she is, but I think she's looking very grown-up these days!
Junie bought Daisy a little chocolate penguin at the chocolaterie on Rue Saint-Jean
The kids built the Château Frontenac together
For her birthday activity we walked to the cutest little toy store—big toy store, actually, but it had this cute little entrance for kids. It's called Benjo and it was such a fun place!
Gus said, "Look, a fire truck!"
The train only drives around on Saturdays, but the kids liked sitting in it anyway.
Ziggy set Daisy's place extra nicely that night at the dinner table.
She chose Leek Soup and Bread for her birthday dinner
And flourless chocolate cake.
Hooray for Daisy, the über-daughter! We all love her so much!
I found the best candles at the grocery store! First of all they had their own little holders to stand in, which is a thing I've looked for in the U.S. for YEARS and can't find even on Amazon! But second of all the candles had colored flames! They were so pretty! Years ago we did a chemistry unit where we made colored flames using different chemicals. It was super cool but quite a big project to gather the materials, so I haven't repeated it since. I had no idea there were birthday candles that could do the same thing!
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Some of the things the little kids have been up to:
Backhoe Scoop + Gus
Drum concerts (had to put a stop to this popular game when we realized we have downstairs neighbors now)
Watching the garbage truck
The garbage truck has two guys who hold onto the sides and jump on and off to pick up the bags from people's houses and toss them into the hopper. Also a little mechanical arm on the back for the garbage cans of the few houses that have them. Very fun to watch.
All kinds of churches are being built
Police motorcycle, by Ziggy
Clementine made this half-circle building (possibly someone helped her)…
which is very clearly this building. (Théâtre Capitole)
The boys made a cruise ship
And who knows what this is!
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Sam and I went out on a mildly rainy night to find a place to eat for our date. The rain intensified until it was absolutely pouring and we were soaked! After huddling under an awning for a while, we raced across the street to a fish and chips place…
which was piping hot and possibly the best thing ever.
We also make it a point to visit, whenever we can, these "casse-croûtes" you run across out in the countryside (the translation of that is "snack bar" [or literally "break-crust"] and they are basically just little roadside hamburger/poutine shacks)—because we heard they often have the best poutine. It's true! The fries are usually made fresh on the premises and the cheese curds are always plentiful and obviously fresh (because extremely squeaky!). Yummmm.
These places are usually open only until the weather starts to get cold, and we are already dreading when that time will come! Where will we get our poutine then?
Maybe we'll make it. With the help of our favorite cheese curds… "Skouik skouik!"
Daisy and I did, in fact, make poutine here. We hand-cut all the potatoes and deep fried them twice in oil.
It was delicious! But frying enough fries for a hungry family of poutine-eaters like ours takes forevvvvverrrrr.
Some other good recent meals…Croque Monsieur…
…qnd these long delicious picnic sandwiches (with interesting mustards!) on baguettes.
There is also a delightful variety of cheese and salami available here!
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One night Sam and I were out walking when the sky just lit up completely in orange and gold. It had been cloudy and rainy earlier and it created just the right conditions for the amazing sunset, I guess. It was breathtaking!
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Here are just some other parts of the city I haven't gotten as many pictures of
Train station (Gare du palais)
Place d'Youville. There are always people skateboarding here and we like to sit and laugh at watch them.
City Hall fountains at night
Looking down the hill by the Morrin Library
Porte Kent, the newest of the four city gates
"J'aime Quebec" sign at some hotel
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Daisy discovered a secret room in her room! It was hidden behind this door, which was behind her dresser. A few weeks in she moved the dresser for something and opened up the door.
It just leads to a little closet full of random windows and doors (strange) and then on the other side, this narrow staircase and a tiny little platform just big enough for Daisy to curl up on. It's not the most useful of nooks, but still…a secret room! She loves it, and all the little kids love it when she lets them go in there.
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Another fun thing Daisy has devised is taking her little brothers on scavenger hunts around the city. She makes a list of things they'll like, like a Mazda, a fire hydrant, a cannon, a husky dog (Zig)—a tiny Quebec flag, a moose, a fountain (Gus)—and so forth. Gus and Ziggy have loved it so much!
(Oh, that tooth! It has finally fallen out as of this writing. But the other one is starting to stick out in the same way.)
Daisy was taking a picture of Ziggy and this guy offered to hold the umbrella over him while she took it. So cute! I like the way Ziggy is looking at him.
Tiny mug Daisy bought on one of their expeditions
Such a fun thing that I'm sure they'll remember forever!
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And lastly…a million pictures of beautiful scenes from our balcony!
The little boys love this freeway. They can often see ambulances and police cars driving on it. And they love these smokestacks too!
(not quite from the balcony)
I love the beautiful twin spires of Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou in this group of pictures. (Another no-longer-church 😥)
The rooftop balcony next to us always seems to catch the light nicely
(Hi Gus)
Spire of St.-Jean-Baptiste in the background here
There's a pretty church this direction too, but I bet you can't spot it. It blends in so perfectly I can barely find it myself.
It's the Saint-Roch Church (still a church! yay!) and you can actually see both ends of it (under the black arrows). It's closer than it looks. The left side is two huge bell towers which chime on every hour and ring for a good long time at noon and 6 pm. The church is only a five-minute walk from our house down the hill, so we can hear the bells clearly whenever they ring. I love them.
We are so blessed to have this beautiful view, and I enjoy it every single day.
I can never begin to really comment on all that should be commented on in those posts. But it’s just so crazy to think any of this was ever unknown to you! And now it is yours! The sights, the views, the house, the experiences, the branch, the food. All part of the known and familiar! It’s almost too happy to be true.
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