Preparation Day - Part 2

Continuing on with our wonderful days in Quebec - next we went to the Parliament Bldg. It even has a crown on the top of the building! Above the front door is the motto of Quebec. It is written here, and on all of their car license plates. It says: Je me souviens - which means "I remember"... and that has to do with them remembering that they are first & foremost FRENCH! (not necessarily Canadian) It had a lovely fountain in the plaza in front of the building, with gardens around it. They have used hedges to spell out the words : Parliament 125 years.Next we took the Funicular from the upper part of the old city down to Champlain Street - which they say is the oldest street in North America. A Funicular is like a tram. Usually there are stairs right beside it that people COULD walk up or down for free, but the funicular usually costs a little - but it is MUCH less work and WAY more fun. From there we walked all thru every little cobblestone street and bought a few pictures of the old city from a sidewalk artist. This part of the old city reminded us so much of France, so, of course, we loved it there. From there we took a ferry across the St.Lawrence River to the island of Levis. This looks like it should be pronounced like the jeans of the same name, but it is actually pronounced: "Lay- vee" .You can either drive your car onto the ferry or walk on. As we had left our car at the hotel, we walked on... a choice I came to feel very badly about. We got to Levis and had dinner in a restaurant that was billed as "authentic Memphis BBQ" ha! We come to Quebec and end up in a BBQ place that wants to be like the States! After dinner we heard about this wonderful place to get a chocolate dipped ice cream cone. Of course, this was from people who had DRIVEN over to the island. So, after the locals told us it was only a 10-15 minute walk, we set out. What they neglected to tell us was that the walk was STRAIGHT UP! You disembark from the ferry at the water level, but the town is all up on top of the hill! Oh man! I thought I was going to die from going up a million stairs! Thank heaven the chocolaterie was as wonderful as billed! I hope my feeble explanation can come close to how heavenly this place was!!! People had told us not to order a regular sized cone or we'd never be able to eat it all.These cones come in milk chocolate or dark chocolate. As you can see they are not particularly cheap, either. Bebe-size $1.75, Mini-$2.75, Petite- $4.05, Regular-$5.00 & Large- $5.40. You can also get them dipped in nuts on top of the chocolate for extra. The girl is holding a Regular size.

This place makes their own chocolate and it has to be the absolute BEST thing you've ever tasted! The chocolate is not like in the States. It is thicker and creamier. Usually in the states when you bite into a cone like this, the chocolate will crack & fall off...(usually on to me!) But this chocolate is thick and doesn't ever crack or fall off. Yet, when you do take a bite, the chocolate just melts in your mouth. (later the Elders told us that we were supposed to bite off the tip, then suck. This is because the hot chocolate will melt a little of the ice cream, so you can suck it out and then your cone will stay longer without melting.) We ordered two mini cones - and of course, we ordered the milk chocolate!

Glad we only ordered the mini-cones- they were plenty big! They were absolutely the BEST thing I've ever put in my mouth! Ya gotta love those French chocolateers ! We were also told that the best view of the old city is when you get back on the ferry and come home in the evening when the city is all lit up. They were absolutely right!
We loved, loved, loved our day in old Quebec. Tomorrow we head out of town a little way, to Mont Morency Falls and a lovely drive over to the Isle d'Orleans.