Race

No riding today. By us.

If you have not been to Quebec, you may not know the expression "Je me souviens", which graces Quebec license plates. While there are various interpretations of the meaning, literally "I remember", it references the struggle of the Quebec people within the context of British rule. Having learned a little more about the battles for control of New France the last few days, it has a little more meaning to us.

New France was permanently settled in 1608 but the British definitively took control in 1759 after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. While there were continued skirmishes until 1763, the British had firm control and France had ceded Quebec to the British.

Since the British made little effort to control the French population, Quebec people and culture flourished notwithstanding British rule. There remains a certain resentment of British rule here in Quebec, which basically translates to "Anglo rule" and an understanding of the history helps to understand that resentment. Our own knowledge of the subject is limited and I am happy to be corrected if you know something I don't but this is our sense of it.

However, I will have to say that our stay in Quebec has so far been nothing short of outstanding. We have had the pleasure of meeting many people, in restaurants, pubs and on the street who have been very welcoming to two people from British Columbia and very friendly and helpful. We had had the expectation that the Quebec people might be a little standoff-ish but nothing could be further from the truth. We are excited to venture further afield and be out of the city to see what we may find. And already, we are talking about when we might return here.

So, today we thought we might visit a couple of museums but also take in some of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec, the annual bicycle race that forms part of the Tour de France road bike circuit and just happens to be on today. The route is around Old Quebec City, is 12 km and comprises 18 laps of wickedly hilly terrain.

We left our apartment around 10:30, which allowed us enough time to get a position shortly after the start to catch the riders just as they began their first lap. There were about 200 racers and an untold number of support people including chase vehicles with spare bikes, a chase motorcycle with bike parts, multiple police motorcycles, police cars, camera operators plus volunteers passing water or gel to the competitors. It was a surprisingly fun and exciting event to witness, despite never really having taken an interest in it in the past. We both took lots of pictures and videos.

We were right close to the action.

Dutch camera crew, as evidenced by the license plate.

One police cruiser on this curve was scraping his pegs all the way.

We spread this out over the course of the day as the race lasted nearly five hours (not including the crying afterwards). We stepped up to the sidelines at times and others into a cafe, restaurant or museum.

We did pay a visit to the Battle of the Plains of Abraham Museum, a Parks Canada Museum that contained artifacts and relics from the Seven Years War. Most of the uniforms, weaponry and artifacts were replicas but there were a number of items that had been excavated from the refuse dump, battlefield or forts. Canons were frequently intact (that would be a lot of iron to fade away) as we're shots (cannonballs), flints, buttons, bone fragments and pots or plates.