A strange couple of nights in Quebec.  We spent 2 nights in a campsite just outside of Quebec City. Children were delighted as it had a pool and play area. We were slightly less excited about the proximity of said pool to the Highway.   Slightly surreal hour or so spent in the pool as trucks hurtled past us.

We caught the shuttle bus into Quebec City and arrived at the same time as at least 6 coach loads of school kids and organized tours. Arghhhh.

The only walled city north of the Rio Grande apparently (?!?) Quebec’s narrow cobblestone streets and 18^th century buildings make it very pretty and very French looking which was charming in it’s way. We ‘ticked off’ a sighting of the provincial parliament building where the Assemblee Nationale hold their debates in French .

We wandered around the main sights above and below the Cap Diamant cliffs which comprised an awful lot of shops we had to talk our kids out of and balked at the hugely expensive coffees and ice creams.

The highlight of the day was the market down at the port where we picked up some yummy fresh lobster, asparagus and strawberries and the boys spent an hour sketching which was nice.

(Please note the cheerful faces on the boys in the last picture – a joy!)

A very quick look around the tiny free Naval Museum and we were sort of done.

A beautiful city and perhaps if we hadn’t chosen the last week of school term so the endless coach loads of kids on their school trips hadn’t been there we might have enjoyed it more.