Our first stop today was the Quebec Citadel, also known as La Citadelle, which is an active military installation and the secondary official residence of both the Canadian monarch and the governor-general of Canada.

It is located atop Cap Diamant, adjoining the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City, Quebec. The citadel contains the oldest military building in Canada and forms part of the fortifications of Quebec City, which is one of only two cities in North America still surrounded by fortifications, the other being Campeche, Mexico.

Ariela was very interested in the tank, but then she was more interested in the flower fields. This might be a good sign that she has a nice heart.

We visited the defensive walls that were designed to have zero bling spots for attacking the enemy. The engineering behind these fortresses is incredible.

The visit mostly includes walking around the Citadel walls, but you can enter some buildings for some cool exhibits. This one was inside the powder room. Ariela was already bored.

A cannon bullet.

The strategic importance of Cap Diamant was recognized by the French as early as 1608. Several defensive fortifications were built on the site first by the French and then by the British after their conquest of New France. The modern citadel was built from 1820 to 1850, to secure Quebec City against a potential American attack.

The British used the citadel until 1871, when they formally handed the property over to the Canadian government. Following the handover, the citadel was used as a military installation by the Canadian Armed Forces and as a royal and vice-regal residence.

Ariela was very excited to see soldiers and tanks, and today it was her lucky day as Canada was celebrating Victory Day, which is a federal Canadian public holiday observed on the last Monday preceding May 25 to honour Queen Victoria, who is known as the “Mother of Confederation”.

Today, the museum allowed visitors to walk at their own pace without the need for a guided tour, which would have been impossible to do with Ariela and her 2.5 second attention span.

At 12:00 PM, they performed the 21-gun salute ceremony which Ariela really liked, but it was loud, so we watched just a couple shots and retreated to ear drum safety.

We completed our visit with a quick museum exhibit run. We were starving so unfortunately for Eitan (and only Eitan), we could not read every sign in that exhibit.

We then walk to The Concord Hotel which has a very cool rotating restaurant at the top. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed due to the National Holiday. We were still able to see the amazing view from there.

We ended up eating at 3 Brasserie, which is a chain restaurant we have seen a lot (it’s the Chillis of Quebec). The food was mediocre at best but they had great cheap beer and wine.

We walked along the main road until we reached the National Assembly Of Quebec Building. We didn’t get inside but the front grounds are stunning.

The King in Right of Quebec, represented by the lieutenant governor of Quebec and the National Assembly compose the Legislature of Quebec, which operates in a fashion similar to those of other Westminster-style parliamentary systems. The assembly has 125 members elected first past the post from single-member districts. I never really understood how parliaments work in all honesty.

Right across is the Plains of Abaraham battlefield park, which was established on 17 March 1908. The land is the site of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which took place on 13 September 1759, but hundreds of acres of the fields became used for grazing, housing, and minor industrial structures.

On September 13, 1759, the area was the scene of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, part of the French and Indian War (1754–63), which preceded, then became a theatre of, the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). On that date, British soldiers under the command of General Wolfe, climbed the steep cliff under the city in darkness, surprising and defeating the French, through a single deadly volley of musket fire, causing the battle to be over within 30 minutes. Both Wolfe and the French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, died of their wounds, but the battle left control of Quebec City to the British, eventually allowing them to take control of Canada the following year.

Ariela loved running around here and climbing the “mountains”.

They have a very nice viewpoint at the very top.

We walked back through the Governors Promenade trail, which is a wooden trail along the cliff that takes you back to the Terrasse Dufferin boardwalk. This walk was not stroller friendly (the whole city is not stroller friendly) but we managed!

A lot more running around.

We walked to the hotel to relax a little bit before walking to a nearby restaurant that was very well reviewed and recommended by locals. This restaurant offered local Quebec Cuisine and to quote Sarah “Some local foods never get to leave their city for very good reasons”. The food was very very bad, almost sad considering Quebecans choose to eat this food when they have so many good choices within their French influence. We still had fun and enjoyed our last meal of the trip.

We went back to the hotel to finish packing as we were going to be leaving for the Airport at 2 am for our flight back home. Not a time we originally chose, but the Airline changed the flight on us last minute and we had no choice but to go with it.

The flights back and connection in Toronto went smoothly but we were all exhausted. At the end, we made it home well!

Bonus pic of the day: French Canadians favorite chip flavor is all the flavors….together. Yes, you heard it right. They made Lays with all the condiments from all the other lays in one. Sounds disgusting, but it does grow on you. It has an overpowering flavor of Ketchup and vinegar.