Wednesday, 18 May 2016, Quebec

Celeste had a rough night, so we had a bit of a late start. We went to a small grocery store around the corner and stocked our hotel room fridge. After lunch from our newly stocked larder we headed out shortly after noon walking to the Lower Town at the foot of the fortified cliff. We will cover the areas on top of the cliff later. Because today and tomorrow were forecast to be a little cooler than the rest of our stay, we wanted to do the bulk of our indoor activities on those days. Today we toured the Museé de Civilisation. We covered a section on the development of Quebec history and culture, another on nanotechnology, and took the guided tour on First Nations and Inuit. After the museum we wandered around and took in the Place Royale square and the Rue du Petit-Champlain tourist shopping street where we succumbed to the siren call of gelato. Celeste was not confident that she could walk back on a full stomach, so we decided to walk back and eat from our fridge. After that we watched the Survivor finale.

Much of what we saw today was built in the early to mid-1800s, although some structures were older and some newer. It had a vaguely European feel, although the streets we saw today were generally wider and straighter with fewer older buildings. Most buildings here are plain, unpainted stone, whereas in Europe there seems to be more stucco and paint.

We expected to see lots of churches, but this one caught us by surprise. Not one of the more historic or beautiful.