Tuesday, September 26, 2006, Notre Dame du Lac, NB to Quebec City, QC

We awoke this morning to a beautiful view of the lake and a little rain. We found the "good"restaurant in town for breakfast, tried valiantlyly to put our french to practice, and convinced the proprietor of Dolce Vita to fix us breakfast even though we weren't staying at her inn. This was a difficult way to start the morning, considering we hadn't yet had any coffee and we HAD TO SPEAK FRENCH. Someone forgot to remind us that they speak French here and it's a DIFFERENT COUNTRY! The ignorant American raises its ugly head. I had no idea that Canada was "such"a different country.

After driving into Quebec City this morning, we spent a good portion of the afternoon at the Musee de la Civilisation, learning about the history of Canada and the existential crisis under which the Quebecoise suffer. Those darn francophones and if they aren't bad enough, what about those damn loyalists? How could we have lived so close to one another for so many years and still be so different? Why haven't they assimilated? Drank of the dark elixer, Coca Cola? I love these people!

We visited a great jewelry place this afternoon and came away with some new finds made by a local artist, Sonia Ferland, - yeah!!! Dinner, by suggestion of the very friendly salesperson, was at Les Freres de la Cote, "A delightful atmosphere where customers are undaunted by elbow to elbow contact in a festive ambiance." Take that as you will. We're staying at a great little inn, Hotel Maison du Fort, http://www.quebecweb.com/maisondufort/introang.html. Marielle is the hostess at the inn and she has been so friendly and helpful, as have her two very friendly cats. Photos to come soon. Quebec is a beautiful and it really feels as if we are in a European city.