Quebec City, Part 3

Just a few last pictures. Another statue -- they're all over the place. I'm sorry to say that I've forgotten who this is. A closer shot:


Definitely a legislator of some sort -- perhaps one of the men involved with the early confederation talks?

The Quebec Legislature (Quebec City is the capital of the province of Quebec):


Crossing the city walls, out of the old city:


The wine and cheese reception on the second evening of the conference (which I should have taken a picture of -- the spread was astounding, and I was unable to eat most of the cheese, or drink the wine, dammit!) was in l'Observatoire, a glassed-in room in a tower. There were spectacular views, which are the last pictures I took in the city. The St. Lawrence River & the Plains of Abraham, where the battle between Wolfe & Montcalm for control of Quebec took place in 1759, resulting in the British takeover of New France (the beginnings of Canada) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Quebec_%281759%29):



The harbour:


The old citadel, nearest the river (which I wish I'd found the time to visit):



And that's all, folks! Thanks for wandering with me.

Quebec City, Part 2

Ok, as promised: back to Quebec City. Above, I'm looking up from the lower city to the ramparts, with the spring foliage of the trees making things even more colourful. Below, a statue & fountain that presumably has some symbolic importance, but I don't know who it's meant to be; she looks like she might be holding a cornucopia, maybe?


Next, a tiny, old lane, and proof that Classicists can be sexy (if not Classics...) :


A newer little corner in the old city:


And a mural, on the side of one of the newer buildings:


Ruins:


With explanation:


An historic church, Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, erected around 1658 on the site that Samuel de Champlain built his first home in 1608 when he founded the city (making it the first permanent French habitation in North America):


And then, a more modern construction, the world-renowned (ok, probably not!) Funiculaire!


It's just a way to quickly and scenically climb from the lower city to the upper city. But it has "fun" in its very name! So we had to ride on it.


Up, up, up we went...


Looking out at the view...


Until we got to the top, and the Chateau Frontenac (an old, fancy hotel, one of the CN (Canadian National) hotels that were built along the trans-national railroad):


There were more ruins:


I think of fortifications, or maybe another house -- I didn't look for the sign this time. And then, of course, the statue of Champlain:


Just a wee bit triumphal!

After all that wandering, we ended up here for dinner:


Not very quebecois, though it is in a building built in 1797 (I think) that used to be an armoury or some such thing. And it had some nice amenities, of which I sadly couldn't partake:


I still have more pictures, so I think I'll wait until tomorrow for part 3. One last shot from the ramparts as I walked home that evening:

Quebec City, Part 1

I attended a conference in Quebec City last week. This was the little plane I took to Toronto, for my connection to Quebec.

Now, the thing about Quebec City is that it's one of the oldest cities in North America, founded (sort of) in 1535 and continuously settled since 1608. It's also the only city with a fully walled garrison in North America. My conference was held right in the heart of the old city, so while I didn't do any concentrated sight-seeing, I did get many shots of historic areas as I wandered from meetings to lunches to receptions. Above you can see a section of the old city wall, at the top of the escarpment.

Walking in the Old City involves a lot of hills. Here's a road leading up to the ramparts, which I climbed to start the morning every day. My choice of 2.5" heels for the first day was perhaps injudicious.


Cannons are set into the ramparts along various stretches, for decorative purposes only, I assume, since all you could shoot at now would be this:


The harbour on the St. Lawrence.


Almost every street is picturesque, so I took pictures of a fairly random assortment of places.




I've got too many photos for one post (and not enough patience), so I'll end this post with an evening shot, and be back with more in a day or two.

Campus Wander

Yesterday I took a little wander around the university campus I work at (Laurentian University in Sudbury). The architecture of the campus is not inspiring, but there are some interesting things, and the wilderness setting is pretty special. Here's the view down the hill from the college where my office is; mostly concrete blocks:

But if you look a little more closely, you can see that the location is pretty nice:

That's Ramsay Lake, the big lake at the centre of Sudbury.

There's a Peace Garden across the parking lot from my college, created a few years ago by the Catholic college, I think. The entrance is marked by a set of religious icons:

The rocky thing on the right is a turtle, to represent Native and animistic spirituality:


To answer a question from Twitter, I don't know what the colours on his shell represent, if anything; I wouldn't be surprised if they had symbolic importance, though.

There was also a bit of guerilla knitting at the entrance:

Here's the path leading into the garden:


And more symbolism; this time clearly Judaeo-Christian ("Into ploughshares beat their swords...") but definitely appropriate to a Peace garden.

And then, around the corner, a large inuksuk, or more properly, an inunnguaq, since it's in the shape of a person:

For more information on these structures, Wikipedia's not bad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk.

There's a little bench overlooking a scenic view of Ramsay Lake; note the Superstack in the top right corner. That's the huge smokestack from the nickel refinery, the tallest in the world, I think. It's visible from most places in the city.
As you can see, the spring isn't very far advanced, though it's farther than usual for this time of year. But there are some leaves budding on the trees:

And when a flash of colour caught my eye, a ways off the path, I clambered through the trees and found these:

So pretty in the still-brown forest; someone must have planted them, but they aren't visible from any of the paths, so they feel like a secret.

There's a golf course between campus and the rest of the city, and it borders right on campus:

The campus isn't very centralized, but the main open area, as much as there is one, is here:


This is the teepee you can see in that picture; I think it's used for student gatherings and ceremonial occasions.



And that's everything, for now at least. There are a number of lovely walks around campus, but I'll wait until the leaves are out, since they're all pretty bare still. Until next time!