Welcome to the last day of our travels to Quebec City. As mentioned last week we started the day by visiting the Citadel. Then after lunch and some wandering the wonderful streets, we did a tour of the Chateau Frontenac.
The hotel, which has been built in 6 parts over 100 years, opened in 1893 and was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was the second hotel they build on their route from Quebec City to Vancouver (Banff's hotel being the first one) and was originally built so those using the railway had a place to get off and stay. To get British Columbia to join Canada, it needed to be joined with the country and the railroad allowed this.
It has become a very famous hotel where celebrates etc. like to stay. It has an exclusive section within the hotel. It also hosted several secret meetings of Ally leaders during WWII. We did not stay there. When looking at rooms, during the time we were there, a normal room was going to cost about $800 Cdn a night ($580 US/497 Euros). That was just a little less than the cost of 4 nights at the hotel we stayed in (which was lovely).
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| Our tour took us into a guest room as one was available. This was part of a suite. |
In 2014 they redid most of the hotel. Trying to keep the charm alive with a modern touch.
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| From the lobby looking up towards 2 of the ballrooms |
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| One of the original chandeliers in the 3rd wing built in the 1920 |
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| A ballroom |
After dinner, before our last big event, we sat in a park and watched children (and a few adults) play in this fountain. I love when cities allow people to use all the spaces like this.
Our last event of the day was a Crimes of New France tour. Led by the ghost of Marie Riverie, the wife of the longest serving executioner in the city, we wandered the streets learning about some of the history of the city and much of the crime history and history of the criminal justice system. Marie, was a woman who was sent from France by the King, at the King's expense (known as the King's Daughters), to provide a wife for a settler. Approximately 800 women came to New France with this program.
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| Our guide |
On our walk, we met other ghosts, criminals and victims alike, who shared tales as well. It is so fun to see the faces of other people when you are walking around talking to ghosts.
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| A criminal we met who had 12 burned bodies in his house when captured |
Fun fact: No one wanted the job as executioner, so it was given to a criminal facing execution. It paid well (300 a year, compared to the 250 a surgeon would make a year) and came with a house outside the city. The executioner also delivered all the other sentences (beatings etc.). It was a rough and dangerous time.
My favourite ghost - not pictured here was executed after killing her 2 husbands. While telling her story, she tried to recruit the Man for her 3rd husband. I laughed so hard.
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| A victim, whose family was murdered by the people who were helping them leave the city |
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| Me with the actors |
After a fun evening, we walked back headed back to our hotel.
The next day, we were tried and we had a slow morning before hitting the road home.
It took me a long time to get to Quebec City, but I can imagine going back again. I hear you can get reasonable prices for the Chateau Frontenac mid-week in November, so maybe that is in my future.
I hope you enjoyed this snapshot of our trip. Thanks to Gris and Styxy for sharing the blog.
we read about that howltel and the two ghosts who live there... have you seen them while the tour?
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