The Citadel (Citadelle in French) is a big star-shaped fortress on top of the cliffs above the St. Lawrence River. It's in the spot on the Plains of Abraham where the French were beaten by the British in the Battle of Quebec (that's why Quebec is part of Canada now and not New France), but it wasn't there at that time. If it had been, things may have turned out differently! Anyway, the British Army built up a fortress there later, as a defense against the Americans! But the Americans never did end up coming up to attack. So the Citadelle has never been through a real battle.
It's still a working army base (?), though, housing the Royal 22nd Regiment of the Canadian Army, the only French-speaking regiment. (They are called the "Van-doos" for the French number 22, vingt-deux. The kids liked knowing that.) They do a "changing of the guard" in the summer months (we never made it to see that). We walked by and around and on the citadel all the time (one of my favorite walks takes you up onto its walls) and we heard the cannon firing every day at noon. But we never actually went in until we were about to go back to Utah! We had a tour of it and went to the museum inside, and I was glad we did—it was very interesting!
Even though I didn't learn much of Quebec's history in school, I remembered there was something important about Quebec City, and it must have been this—the Quebec Conference with Churchill and Roosevelt during the Second World War. They met here in great secrecy at la Citadelle to discuss plans for the Allied invation of France and Italy.
A room full of medals
Inside the old powder magazine
This view is the best reason to go to the Citadelle! You can be higher up on Cap Diamant there than anywhere, with such a beautiful view of the Château and Old Québec and the river below you.
It was cold and windy! Though for Quebec—perhaps not that cold. (Malachi! Shorts!)
This part of the river is narrow. But it is still so BIG!
Heading home
Walking on the low wall (always!) past the Assemblée Nationale
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A few more pictures from November. Morning light on the Château.
Anytime you go anywhere in Old Quebec, you will probably have to navigate some steep flight of stairs like this one. Some are more rickety. Some less. But they are all steep! Better than just slipping and sliding down the hill, I suppose!
Christmas decorations in the window boxes (inside the Château courtyard)
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Ziggy proud of his clean room
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Drinking hot chocolate
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We came upon two vans like ours, parked just across the street! (There is ours on the right by the church. And the others on the left side.) We see these vans (Nissan NV) in Utah all the time, but hardly ever did in Quebec so it was quite notable to see two! Also, I see this is one of the annoying times there were two other people parked by "our" church spot. Usually we had it all to ourselves, but every now and then someone would come and park next to us and we were always a little put out by it, because we had to maneuver in more carefully, around a little curb and next to that light pole. We felt ownership over our spot and didn't want to share it, haha!
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This is a playground just up the street from there (Saint-Jean-Baptiste)—you can see the spire in the background. This street was under construction nearly the whole time we were in Quebec (we were always exasperatedly having to avoid it, very inconveniently) and it finally got finished at the end of November, so we could at long last access this newish playground! It was a fun one!
I think this was Ziggy's first time going across the monkey bars all by himself!
Back down the street to the church.
Hi van! (Ah, parked alone in that place. As it should be.)
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Restorative Poutine after a long morning doing errands with Daisy and Clementine
Sunset as we headed home. This is probably around 3:30 pm. The steam was so pretty turning pink in the slanted sunlight!
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A little Gnomey House Marigold made for Clementine (out of cardboard and a tiny plastic gnome she'd found in the gutter). My favorite part is the tiny rolling pin for the gnomey to roll out Christmas cookies!
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Daisy and I spotted Sam and Ziggy in a restaurant as we were walking home from the store. I like how this picture has the two of us superimposed over them.
Ziggy was there as a reward for reaching a milestone on his sticker chart (you always know when we break out a sticker chart for one of the kids that he or she is going through a period of particularly naughty behavior 😄).
This is a thing we had several times in Quebec—they call it a "Paris taco" and it's meat and french fries both wrapped in a sort of tortilla. They served it at Turkish or Lebanese places, sometimes with Doner Kebab too. Very interesting and good.
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This was a little board game store much beloved by Malachi. We rented games from here a couple times for our family to play, and Malachi made friends with the owner. I went there with Daisy to find Ky a Christmas present (and I found one!).
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Daisy and I wanted to revisit the best Eggs Benedict we've ever had (their Hollandaise sauce was so amazing) one last time before we went home. We took Junie with us this time.
Don't let Junie's sweet smile fool you—her fork is even now creeping toward Daisy's food
It was a quiet and almost warm afternoon with very few people out. The clouds were low and it was threatening to snow. We love walking through Quartier Petit Champlain when it's not crowded!
Especially as it was starting to be all decorated for Christmas!
The girls had been eying some "Québec" hoodies ever since we'd arrived in July. "Wait till it's colder, wait till it's colder," I kept saying. This was the day they found these two cute white ones and the price was right, so we snatched them up at last!
This was also the day I finally bought a gnome from the Gnome Store (which as you remember, I had also been eying since July). I was choosing between these three guys. It was very hard to choose. I finally chose the middle one, but don't tell me if I made the wrong choice—I love the others so much too! Had money been no object, I would have brought home a whole rainbow of gnomes in all shapes and sizes.
Through the Christmas Market on the way home
Snowy night from the front window!
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This was a fun puppet show on a Saturday at the Christmas Market. Narrated in French, of course, but pretty easy to understand while watching the action! It was a story about Krampus, who is scary, but people seem to love him for some reason. He wasn't VERY scary in this puppet show, anyway.
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Sam and I saw these funny plastic dome/pods outside of a restaurant. I like them. It means you can still use your outdoor patio…sort of. I think it would be snug to eat dinner in there!
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We went to the giant puppet parade at the market, too. Again featuring Krampus and Saint-Nicolas! That's the "German" part of the market, I suppose. It was really quite fun. I didn't expect to like it so much, but I did.
The people manning the puppets are dressed in black, so you hardly notice them. It's like the puppets themselves are just moving and walking around! And their handlers are very skilled at moving their joints and limbs.
This guy was super scary. He had glowing eyes. I'm unclear on if he is Krampus too? I thought he was, but…
Then there were all these furry guys running around too, and they looked more like the Krampus in the other puppet show. So maybe the stick-guy is someone else.
The stick-guy (or is he an onion? I'm so confused) could come apart, and then his arms and legs and head would run around chasing people independently. Eventually there was a big showdown between him and Saint Nicolas.
There was red fire and smoke and drummers playing a sort of scary rhythm! Very exciting! And then Saint Nicolas seemed to subdue the other guy somewhat. So…Merry Christmas??
The End
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