We made the drive up to Québec City and it was great seeing only French signs everywhere.  It had everything I loved:  Native Peoples (many tribes who are also in the U.S.), wildlife, history, French, and beautiful countryside.  We stopped to get gas and by the side of the station stood a goat as if it were a dog waiting on its master.  This was certainly not the steel and glass city we’d left behind.  With our ascent it got colder and started to rain.  We crossed the Loup River and I tried to get poor Burk to stop driving on a highway just so I could get a picture.  After only a couple of hours we entered into the capital.  Québec’s Old Town (Vieux-Québec) is the only North American fortified city whose ramparts still exist.  Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, we were lucky enough to be visiting on the city’s 400th anniversary.  It was founded in the early 17th century by French explorer Samuel de Champlain and was home to a pivotal battle between the French and English in 1759 that shaped the future of North America.  After checking into our boutique hotel we headed out for one of our favorite vacation activities: “schlock shopping”.  I was thrilled because they had lots of wolf things and Burk liked the toy soldiers.  Ironically, I got an “I ❤️ Québec” t-shirt when I did not even get one in New York.  The chilly, damp grayness of the day did nothing to diminish the Old Town’s charm.  I got sunburned in New York and was pleasantly surprised to find myself needing a sweater here in June.  The old streets were lined with rows of little shops and cafés all bursting with colorful blooms dripping gracefully from flower boxes and hanging baskets.  It was all beyond enchanting with people out walking the winding cobblestone streets, seeing ancient pitched roofs, and hearing tiny bells tinkling whenever one entered a store.  I felt this must have been what Paris would have been like if one could have stepped back several centuries in time.  It was our actual wedding anniversary and we had made dinner reservations at Le Ciel (the sky), a revolving restaurant in downtown within walking distance of Old Québec.  Burk proposed to me in Dallas at the now-gone Antares, the revolving restaurant on top of Reunion Tower, so it was a lovely remembrance of such a special time in our lives.  We went to the top just before sunset and were treated to a sweeping view of the St. Lawrence River and the majestic Chateau Frontenac.  My favorite memory of the meal was the butter shaped like fleur-de-lis.  I loved them so much; they reminded me of the days when there were big ash trays in front of elevators at swanky hotels and someone would come along and stamp the sand with a logo after they were cleaned.  It may be a weird association but that’s where my mind went.

“Nearly all our originality comes from the stamp that time impresses upon our sensibility.” ~ French poet Charles Baudelaire

Our time in old Québec City had already impressed itself indelibly upon mine.