We docked at 6am...and had to be out at 7am.... Last time we wandered around town so today we decided to take the tour around the Ile of Orleans and to see the Montmorency falls! What a great idea! Quebec is so full of history and beauty. The Chateau Frontenac is the prominent building you see from the sea and it is magnificent! There are 3 rivers flowing into the city. The city was first populated by the Native Americans and they are still treated with respect here. next the people came from Normandy and Britany and you can see the brick houses with steep roofs that influenced that era. In 1608 the French dominated the city which was the oldest permanent city on the continent. In 1759 the British took over winning the war on the plains of Abraham. They had lots of money in those days and were heavily into logging! The natives chose sides...Huron Indians sided with French and Iroquois Indians sided with the British. In 1867 Quebec became officially part of Canada. Quebec City is a world heritage city as it is the only city with fortresses still intact. There are 3 gates guarding the city...St. Jean, St Louis, and Kent The island is just beautiful! Most of it is agricultural...the major supply of fruit, vegetables, wine, etc to Quebec City. There is also an area that has been a fishing area since the ages...you earn about 5 times more as a fisherman than a farmer! There is a mixture of old québécois houses with colours and balconies and shingles, old Normandy brick houses with steep roofs and modern day houses... The countryside is very fertile as 7 rivers run through it. We stopped at a doctors house...Jean Mauvide, whose house was built in 1744 and got to know how they lived back then. We also stopped at a sugar shack...yum, yum! They have to put taps int the maple trees early April and collect the sap by end of March. Depending on which temperature the sap is heated to after the evaporation process, they manufacture maple syrup, maple candy, maple butter and the hottest is maple sugar! We got to taste the maple syrup in snow...so good! We then drove back over the bridge to see the Montmorency waterfalls. We took a cable car to the top and had high tea there. Then we walked to the lookout and the bridge right on top of the falls. Very spectacular view! It is 83 metres high...30 metres higher than Niagara Falls. We had a terrible bus driver....when turning out on the road he scraped the bottom several times and then entered the car park where buses were not allowed and had a big fight with attendant! After completing the tour we walked through old Quebec City and found a lovely spot for lunch...I had a beautiful French onion soup and Fred had a duck roll! Funny enough as we were just leaving we spotted Lyn and Stan wh spent the day sightseeing the town...we walked back together. Then Fred and I had a game of crib with Joan and Larry and then went up to level12 for a drink and another few games of crib! Last dinner on board...went to watch dancing with the stars which was quite good, and depart tomorrow in Montreal...what a delightful trip!