The Glorious Hospitality of Quebec City in a Nutshell

One of the stops in the Maritimes bus tour was Quebec City.  We arrived at the Old Quebec section of the city, behind the wall.  The tour guide gave us 2 hours to walk around the various cobblestone streets and visit all the attractions.  We arrived at the old Quebec section later in the afternoon as we had just finished the whale watching tour.  Naturally, we arrived hungry, so we went to the tourist information centre and asked for directions to the nearest McDonalds.   While eating at the McDonalds, my daughter told us something mildly interesting about the Quebecois locals.  She noticed an old tourist couple walking by and one of them dropped a toonie.  Shortly afterwards, she noticed a young person pick up the toonie and walking off instead of returning it back to the old couple.

We arrived at the Notre Dame de Quebec Basilica Cathedral.  It was nice, and reminded me of Christ Church Cathedral back at my hometown, only a super sized Catholic version.  After walking around inside, we went outside and looked for someone to help us take a family photo, as I didn't particularly enjoy using the selfie stick today.  We saw this middle aged, obese person who seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere.  Nonetheless, I ask this person to help us take a photograph.  Unfortunately, this representative of all that Quebec City has to offer, muttered something to us in Quebecois french, dismissed us without even offering to help, and the continued on past us.  I kept looking at this person turned the corner, and confirmed the person was not busy trying to catch a bus.
This was the first time ever I have been turned down for assistance with taking a photo, what hospitality !

We were walking around and before we knew it it was time to go back to the tour bus.  However my daughter wanted to go the washroom.  Due to some miscommunication, we wound up looking for a washroom for her, which caused us to be late getting back to the bus. The tour guide admonished us for being a mere 5 minutes late getting back to the bus.  The reason being that some city official was threatening to give her a traffic ticket for parking the bus too long in a no parking zone.  So let me get this straight: their city hall could not be bothered to increase their tourism revenues by changing their bylaw to be more accommodating of tour buses to park in designated zones..... Really ?  

That is just awesome, I can't wait for my next vacation to Quebec to experience even more of their warm hospitality!