Parle Vous Francais?

Hey,

Well I am now on the train back to Montréal after spending two nights in Québec City. Internet was a pain in the backside at the hostel so writing this blog every travel day went out the window. So had a relaxing night in Montréal before leaving for Québec City so both Kat and I were chilling in the lounge with some other folks. There was one guy from London who was in Edinburgh for university but here for the summer holidays, Dave and Celine from Chicago and another guy who was from Vancouver. Pretty chilled just talking about the places we've been to, where we are from, little bits and bobs about ourselves and the odd time when we bored ourselves to watch Blue Jays baseball on the TV. I looked myself out of my suitcase silly me so for 30 minutes I was in my room with a bread knife hacking away at my tiny lock whilst Kat just sat back and laughed about it. Saw the funny side of it too but I needed to get into my suitcase so I could get dressed!

Dave and Celine were put in our room so when we were all packing we were talking to them about where to next and turns out they were off to Québec City the same day but didn't book a hostel so we gave them the name and address of the one we were staying at so they could check it out. It turned out they didn't get in as the rooms were booked that night.

So we arrive in Québec City at 9pm and we get picked up by a taxi driver and he also decided to teach us some French along the drive as both of us had trouble pronouncing the roads we were going to. Checked into the hostel and went downstairs to the hostel bar for a drink...or two...maybe three!

Next morning we got up for breakfast before heading out into the old town of Québec inside the old 17th century walls. Got some amazing views from the Citadel or the barracks as it is home to the 22nd Royal Regiment. Took a tour of the citadel fortress, got some more views across the river too. Pretty good for £4 to go round the place for an hour (as that was how long the tour took). Contined to walk along some of the remaining walls of the old city and meandered around the small side streets, which go in all directions and not the typical noth-south or east-west as most cities here do. Outside the walls that happens but inside it does not.

Decided to walk outside the walls when out of the blue we bump into Dave and Celine sitting in one of the main squares where we decided to walk the downtown area together and be completely submerged in French. Luckily for us Dave and Celine could speak fluent French and not like Kat and I who were highly skilled in saying "Bonjour", "oui" & "non" and thats your lot for my French. A few times I kind of figured out what they were saying to me in French but then had to have Dave to translate for me. Really should have paid much more attention to my French guide back home.

We also planned to go on a pub crawl around the old city with some other people in the hostels and managed to convince Dave and Celine to book in at the hostel as now there was a room for them. Later on we chilled in the lounge where we met Eddie and Phil (two guys from Ottawa but originally from Taiwan) and ended up going out together for the pub crawl so a good few of us we wasted by the time we got back from the whole of two bars we went to (so not much of a crawl but good night overall). Dave konked out on Celine in the second bar before Kat went back with them as I stayed out to drink more...now starting to feel the effects of that decision.

So overall my whole experience in the New France has been better than I thought it would be and considering I know absolutely no French, I managed to survive...even with the help of Dave & Celine and the 5% of Québec City that speak English.

Now off to Montréal for two hours whilst Kat and I wait for our train to Ottawa and back to English Canada...woo! Don't need to feel like a prat when asking where the toilets are in French.

So the verdict is Montréal and Québec City are definitely must see cities whilst in Canada for its different reasons and too many to list.

David