Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - Vieux Québec City, Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec

Maria hit another home-run with a recommendation from the Frommer's Guide that she brought along. 

We found L'Oueforie across from our Hotel convenient for another brunch.

So we crossed the road to go eat at 9:37am.  Doing so, we observed a horse carriage passing by.

L'Oueforie has a tasty selection of food - we went for the breakfast items.

Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec - Botero

With that wonderful breakfast on board, at 10:47am we drove to Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, to visit the Botero exhibit. 

We arrived at 10:54am.

 

I quickly displayed my ignorance by taking pictures of the first few things I saw, including Botero's "The Rape of Europe".

Then it was pointed out to me in no uncertain terms that there was no photography.  And we were followed around the rest of the museum by a grim guard.  To the point of making quite a distraction for me.  Maria took one of the kids and separated from me so she could enjoy the exhibit.  Since I had the camera, the guard stayed with me.  How pleasant...

After that wonderful experience, we went to another wing where the kids got to play with the computers.  The guard didn't follow us.  In an act of defiance, I photographed their art for posterity.  How poetic that this wing is the former Quebec City Prison, annexed in the 1980's and reconfigured in the 1990's.  Maybe some of the guards were held over in new positions with the museum?

 

 

In a further act of defiance, I photographed the parking lot and the gargoyles.

We visited the Inuit Art exhibit but did not photograph it.

 

I took some pictures of the Jeep parked outside.

And one final act of defiance, another photograph of a statue through the window.  We left at 1:06pm

Next we drove to a Geocache - Tree within the Old City (GCHKWJ) with a cannonball in its roots, arriving at 1:14PM.  I logged our visit on the Geocaching web site later that night.

 

The we drove to a food market/restaurant mall near the museum.  We arrived at 1:38pm.  Weary and unsure of which of the many places might be a good choice, we ended up eating at a lunch counter and had hot dogs, etc. for lunch.  The place was full of specialized shops that had everything from meat and sushi, to cheese, to fresh vegetables, pasta and so on.  It was a feast for the eyes and surely the neighborhood loves to shop for everyday meals here.

 

When we came out we started the Jeep to get warmed up and spent a minute discussing our plans.  A woman came up, tapped on Maria's window and said something unintelligible and then walked away.  The only thing we could surmise was that perhaps she was reminding us of Canada's law about shutting off vehicles not in motion?  We moved on at 2:28pm before anything further came of it.

We reached the hotel at 2:55pm, where we took a break from touring to laze about in the pool and hot tub while the cold wind blew outside the windows of the surrounding atrium.  It was a cozy feeling sculling about in the pool while outside the snow was passing by the window horizontally and several tens of degrees cooler.  The hot tub was quite hot and we all sat there enjoying the relaxing effect it had on our muscles and our spirits.

Feeling refreshed, we got dressed and left again at 5:22pm in search of two nearby malls, recommended in Frommer's.  I just had to have my dose of shopping.  We found the two (Place Laurier and Place Fleur de Lys); both closed at 5:30pm!  Fortunately the requisite Zellers was open at the Place Fleur de Lys complex so we went in at 6:34pm and bought loads of Maple syrup for gifts and requests.

That made us ready for dinner so we drove down into the old city again, arriving at 6:57pm.  I parked the Jeep on a steep side street and silently anticipated when we would come out for it would test the all-wheel drive to get moving again on such a steep incline.

We went to Au Petit Coin Breton for a dinner of escargots, crepes, fondue, salad, pizza, au gratin (mushroom and asparagus)!  Here is a picture from a previous day of the outside of the restaurant, seen to the right of the street with the circular sign and green awning.

Here are some images taken inside while we dined.  We sat in the upper section.  This is the view from above, looking down into the main dining area. 

And our table...

At first I was disappointed we had been seated upstairs but with as much activity going on downstairs as there was, it ended up being quite cozy and intimate upstairs.  I am sure the group of women sitting next to us must have thought us a silly bunch because we had great time fooling around with the boys, and not being quiet at all.  I believe we may have gotten a disdainful look from one of the women with a decidedly English accent.

 

We had a nice meal.  The server was on duty all alone with whomever was in the kitchen.  They had not expected a very busy night.  Contrary to expectations, it was very busy.  After a confused first few minutes, everything went well and we enjoyed ourselves.  We didn't get the wine we ordered, something "similar" was substituted.  It tasted fine.  Then something was served a little different from what was on the menu.  But then we learned that this entire house of people was being served by one woman, our server, and it became easy to forgive these little adjustments.  I cannot imagine serving what - 10 tables?  No, everything was fine.

When it was time for desert I didn't pay much attention and Tom ordered a Sundae Surprise.  Maria and I were busy eating the bread for desert (it was that good).  And Tom's desert came out, it sure was a surprise!

Tom's Sundae Surprise...

Our harried hostess...

 

We spent almost two hours eating.  It was very relaxed and we never felt like we were waiting for anything.  It was a good time for us to reestablish our family bonds.

I was pleased with the Jeep when it was time to drive up the steep hill.  It was sure-footed with no slipping or instability.  The new vehicle started proving itself within days of our taking it home.  This was a good sign, especially considering the all-purpose tires that it has on it.  I have grown so accustomed to the aggressive Mud/Terrain tires that I find it hard to feel comfortable with "highway" tires.  But these are just fine so far.

We headed back to the hotel at 8:55pm.  It was quite a day.  It started out very cold, with some breaks for sun and then even some snow.  We went back to the hotel and crashed hard!

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