Quebec city

Wendy and I are currently in Quebec city while Wendy attends a conference. We flew from YTZ (Billy Bishop airport / Toronto City Centre) on Porter airlines. 

Luckily, we took the GO train - there was a marathon on that completely closed the Lakeshore and caused traffic chaos. Everyone at the airport was upset and rushed (is that a Toronto thing...?) except us.

The new tunnel to the airport was very convenient and was quite a pleasant way to get there. Barely a 5 min walk on moving sidewalks. 

The flight was fast and the fall colours were beautiful as we arrived in Quebec. On leaving the airport it started to snow! Winter seems closer here than at home. 

View from our hotel

Wendy with her poster

Dinner at the Parmesan

Night scene

On my first day of exploration, I tracked down a geocache. This one is a cannonball that supposedly landed here during the war of 1759. The tree grew around it and it is still where it landed. 

First geocache I found in Quebec 

The shopping was typically touristy, with some fashion I don't really get...

This is not far from our hotel, so I had to take a picture for our friend Penny who finds many such art pieces around Toronto.

Today I walked around the Plains of Abraham. This is one of the Martello towers overlooking the river.

Martello tower

 Here is a selfie showing some of the fall colours.

I went into the Musée national des beaux-art du Quebec and spent several hours wandering the collections. The Fernand Leduc exposition confirmed that I really don't resonate with modern art very well. The piece below didn't do anything for me.

This one, appearing like a plain white canvas was actually more intriguing when you got closer. It has a very subtle graphic pattern that has been painted over with white such that you can only see from very close. Clever, but not something I would use to decorate around.

Not just white! 

 Part of the museum is in an old prison.  Here are some cells.

From inside a cell

The Jean-Paul Riopelle exposition was interesting, but not really my style either.

This one was complex and included sand and cinders in the composition. I was captivated by this piece for quite a while.

Ok, he lost me on the point to this piece...

There was a turret that you could ascend and it housed some wood art by David Moore. Beautiful gallery setting and interesting sculptures in wood.

View from turret 

This piece, "the penalty" by Alfred Laliberte, struck a chord with me for some reason. It looked to me like it represented a painful burden.

I was most impressed by the decorative stained glass treatment for the fire cabinets.

I'll post some more pictures in the coming days as these are only ones taken with my phone. I have hundreds more on my real camera.