Snowy streets

If you're going to be spending Christmas inside a real-life Christmas card, snow is a must. 

Sunrise

This is almost certainly my last sunrise for 2019: Christmas Eve in Quebec City.

Champlain

“It was of a man looking out over the city he'd founded four hundred years earlier.

Samuel de Champlain.

Bare-headed, bold, stepping forward as though wanting to join them, to be a part of this city that existed only because he had. And at the base of the statue another, smaller, image. An angel, sounding a trumpet to the glory of the founder. And even Gamache, who was no great fan of nationalism, felt wonder, awe, at the unshakable vision and courage of this man to do what many had tried and failed.”

-- Louise Penny, Bury Your Dead

Several of us on the trip were reading, or re-reading, this book because it's set in Quebec City. I love doing that -- reading a Rebus book in Edinburgh, or a Brunetti book in Venice, or Stieg Larsson in Stockholm -- and it was great fun to walk past a cafe where Gamache had stopped for hot chocolate, or to sit in the Château Frontenac reading about his meeting with the Champlain Society there. (He was in a private dining room upstairs and I was in the Starbucks but it was still fun.)

One more silent night

Silent night

These are some of my favorite pictures -- evening streets in Quebec City.

Abstract

Most of the birds in Quebec City quite sensibly headed south months ago; I only saw a few and they were high up and far away.

So here's an abstract painted by the snow on someone's car.

Saturday reflections

A city blanketed in snow doesn't offer much in the way of reflections, at least none that I noticed.

But there's a glimpse of sky and trees in the glass above this courtyard entrance in the old city.

Home again

My suitcase full of carelessly packed dirty laundry made it safely back to New York last night, along with its weary owner.

I will post more pictures from Quebec over the weekend, but here's one I like -- one of the huts at the German Christmas market where you can sit down and warm up and have a snack or a hot drink. I love how these two women -- mother and grandmother, presumably -- are staring at the little boy with the enormous pastry.

Tire d'érable

One more option for maple syrup lovers -- tire d'érable, a taffy made by cooking the syrup until thick, then pouring it over snow and twisting it around a popsicle stick.

I didn't try it; I have a sentimental attachment to my teeth and would prefer to hang on to them. 

Do take a good look at the hat the vendor is wearing. It looked like a coonskin cap from a distance, complete with furry tail, but it was actually a fox. It creeped me out.

Beurre d'érable

I'm a fan of good maple syrup, but only as an accompaniment to pancakes and waffles and the occasional slice of bacon.

French Canadians LOVE their sirop d'érable. It's served with fruit, it's cooked with vegetables, it's baked into pies. Some of these options are delicious -- maple works well with baked beans, for example. Others are highly dubious -- we had one dessert that combined maple with cheddar cheese, and I don't think those two flavors should even be in the same room together.

But I had never had maple butter before. It's light maple syrup, cooked until thick then whipped until creamy, and it's perfectly delicious in a buckwheat crepe or spread on toast. We had it on mini crepes during our food tasting walk a few days ago, and when I happened to walk by the cafe during one of our free afternoons I couldn't resist having another crepe.

It was enormous. It was delicious. Reader, I devoured it.

Joyeux Noël

Christmas trees lining a hallway at the Château Frontenac hotel.

A few weeks ago I would have said I could give old Ebenezer a run for his money in my lack of Christmas spirit, but Quebec City has won me over. I am actually singing Christmas carols! Voluntarily! Where other people can hear me!

I went to Mass at the basilica last night (a 9 pm Mass for those of us who cannot stay awake until midnight) and it was a lovely service with beautiful music and walking back to the hotel afterwards through the quiet streets I was filled with a completely unfamiliar sense of calm. And happiness.

I would definitely spend Christmas here again. It's magical.

Christmas concert

The crowd listening to the choir singing in front of city hall last night. That's the German Christmas market in the background. (It's funny how songs that drive me insane this time of year like Sleigh Ride are downright lovable when sung in French.)

We had a free evening, so theoretically I could have caught up on photos, but I was in a food coma and fell asleep shortly after coming back from the concert. After breakfast at the hotel we did a food walk through the Upper Town, sampling two kinds of crepes, pea soup, smoked salmon, hot spiced wine, and caribou, the fortified wine popular during the winter Carnaval in February. Then we had lunch (vegetable terrine, chicken in puff pastry, maple syrup pie.) Then we went to the Grand Marché where we had various cheeses with bread and croissants.

I did not eat dinner.