Quebec City and Montmorency Falls

While visiting Maine recently, I drove to Canada for the first time. After crossing the St. Lawrence River into Quebec City, I made a wrong turn, ending up at this intersection where folks were going about their everyday lives around a bodega and bus stop. Waiting for the light to change, I debated if I should just stop and explore there. Instead, I kept going and found a parking garage on the waterfront.

I’d end up spending most of the day wandering around the city’s tourist areas and Montomorency Falls before heading back to the States.

That quick trip—and what I briefly managed to see of Quebec City—was lovely, but I regretted not returning to the first area I’d accidentally wound up in. Maybe I could’ve found some local dive where someone would’ve ranted to me about the Quebec Sovereignty Movement over the course of several drinks.

A few days later, I was reading a book that had nothing to do with Canadian politics, travel, or living in the present. It did have this line that stuck out, however:

“But do I really remember [these moments] or are they only memories built from photos?”

I should’ve gone back to that neighborhood. At least I have the following photographs, though. Most made with the digital camera and others made with a Pentax K1000 + Kodak Ultramax 35mm film.

Place Royale gift shop highlighting the defunct Montreal Expos baseball team.
Digital.

Funiculaire du Vieux-Québec.
Digital

Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.
*Digital*

Restaurant L'omelette and Rue Saint-Louis.
*Digital*

Monument to Religious Teaching Communities.
*Digital*

Street art along Rue Saint-Jean.
Digital

View from Côte Dinan just below the city’s ramparts.
*35mm*

“When my father died it was like a whole library had burned down” (2015) by Sweedish artist Susanna Hesselberg. Part of the ninth edition of the Passages Insolites public art festival.
*Digital*

“La Vivrière” erected in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
*Digital*

“An Adaptive Moment” (2021) by American artist Nicole Banowetz. Part of the ninth edition of the Passages Insolites public art festival.
*Digital.*

Place Royale. The t-shirt features the logo of the Quebec Nordiques, the city’s defunct National Hockey League team which relocated to Denver in 1995 to become the Colorado Avalanche.
*Digital*

This kind gift shop proprietor gave me a free Canadian flag keychain. He also thanked me for visiting from “the city of rain and grunge music,” because he misheard “Cincinnati” as “Seattle” after asking where I was from.
*Digital*

“Myth and Evidence” (2017) by Canadian artist Mathieu Valade. Part of the ninth edition of the Passages Insolites public art festival.
*Digital*

“Life Jackets” (2022) by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Created by repurposing life vests once belonging to Syrian migrants who fled to Greece. The installation is fitted around Quebec City’s Royal Battery. Part of the ninth edition of the Passages Insolites public art festival.
Digital

Museum of Civilization.
35mm.

Quebec City from the Montmorency Falls overlook.
*Digital*

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Quebec City and Montmorency Falls

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