Summer Getaway Day 5 - Plains of Abraham

Instagram photo by jamie250196

We tried to leave early that morning to make our way to Quebec City but still wound up leaving an hour late. Quebec City was at least two and a half hours away from Montreal and we had a full two days of frolicking planned for it. In the end though, it probably was not meant to be. Out of the whole Quebec City leg, we did not really get to see as much as we wanted.

Our first frustration occurred upon arrival. The city streets were fraught with road constructions. The GPS could not really tell us exactly where to go without hitting one of the construction sites that we wasted a whole hour just trying to find the Plains of Abraham.

At one point we were already actually at the Plains but I had wanted to go to the tourist centre to check out the interactive museum and book a bus ride, so we went around and around and woe was us.

It was really quite difficult to manoeuvre streets you've never seen before. No matter how prepared you are, armed with Google Map and the Tomtom, unknown territories can be quite overwhelming. After the hour, in my desperation, I decided to call it quits and head for the hotel.

The GPS urged us to take yet another turn and voila! The visitors centre for the Plains of Abraham stood right in front of us. How's that for dumb luck?

We signed up for the bus trip but had a whole hour to wait. So we went through the interactive museum. We went through a series of audio visual clips of how the French and the English were fighting, and how the Plains of Abraham came to be. The French-English battle for the City was all but 20 minutes, but it was a historic battle that would forever change a country.

We learnt why Quebec stayed a French province although the English won the battle. We were shown why La Citadelle, the fort next door to the Plains, was a security key point in Canada.

The bus ride was equally entertaining. Madame Abraham, the wife of the famous Abraham who owned the Plains, drove us around and talked about areas on the Plains where specific events occurred.

Madame Abraham

After the ride was over, we checked out the neighbouring La Citadelle and promised to come back the next day for the full visit.

Because we lost so much time with directions, there was not much left to do but check in at the hotel and prepare for the night.

For the official website of the Plains of Abraham, click here.