… something of a wash-out.
I’d come to Quebec mainly to do some research at the University of Laval, but I abandoned round by lunchtime.
I was going to say that I’d had a good night’s sleep but I’d had a very bad attack of cramp in the night – I’ve been having a few of these again just recently.
So a nice early start with coffee and porridge made in the microwave, and then a pile of paperwork to prepare things. And then I hit the road.
Reaching the University was one thing – finding where I was going was something else. I ended up going up a one way street the wrong way – twice! And through a red traffic light too.
Parking is weird there too – you either pay for an hour or for a day. There’s no in-between., and it isn’t cheap either. I can’t help feeling that there’s someone making an awful lot of money out of parking fees.
In the reception, a couple of helpful people at reception pointed me on my way to the library, and there, a very helpful lady helped me find what I needed – none of this incestuous academia like at Cambridge a few years ago.
Why I was here was in respect of a researcher by the name of Thomas Edward Lee.
An author by the name of James Enterline had written a book in the early 70s with a well-thought-out but very flaky argument about the Norse presence in Ungava Bay in the north of Quebec.
He had quoted Lee as one of his sources, but Lee’s works weren’t in the mainstream. The Centre of Nordic Studies at the University of Laval had funded his research and I had discovered that they till held his thesis.
And so I came here to read it.
And, as I said, it was a disappointment.
Lee, being aware of Enterline’s arguments, succeeds in undermining, if not demolishing them. But his own excavations at Pomiok Island are disappointing.
He’s sure that he has found a Norse Longhouse here, but his conclusions are based on coincidence rather than any hard discovery. The only substantial artefact – a Norse iron axe-head – wasn’t discovered by him but handed to him by an Inuit who had apparently found it many years earlier. And so its provenance could not even be verified.
The net result of all of Lee’s labours that he incited a great deal of discussion amongst his peers, and his funding was stopped.
I wasn’t impressed by his confrontational and polemic style of dialogue either. It struck me as being most un-Academic.
As a result, I decided to abandon my research, thinking that he couldn’t really tell me anything concrete about the Norse presence in Ungava.
At the end of the day, it was difficult to decide how much of Lee’s funding issues had been due to the inconclusive nature of his discoveries, how much was due to the un-academic manner of presentation, and how much was due to the confrontational, polemic style of his debate with his peers
Lunch was next on the agenda and so I removed myself to the Parc des Braves.
I had a list of things that needed doing on the north shore of the St Lawrence – a list that has been current since 2013 – and so I decided to attack that.
Especially as the Parc des Braves was included thereupon. I’m not sure how I had managed to miss that out before.
If, like me, you were educated in the 1960s you would have received the same kind of Empire-building jingo that I had had.
And we were taught that the UK always won, and came through every test with flying colours.
And the magnificent victory on the Plains of Abraham that General Wolfe had had, which had won French North America for the British crown.
I was even in “Wolfe” House in my primary school.
But that is, unfortunately, far from the truth.
It’s certainly true that the British had beaten the French at Quebec and occupied the city, but the fighting was far from over.
A French relief force had set out from Montreal and engaged the British in Battle at Saint-Foy, right where we are standing – and defeated them soundly.
The British retreated behind the walls of the Citadel of Quebec and the siege was on.
And had it been a French fleet that had been the first to break through the ice on the St Lawrence in the following Spring to reach the city, not a British one, the History of Quebec would have been very, very different.
And, of course, we were taught nothing about this at school as it didn’t fit in with the image of the Powerful All-Mighty UK (or “England” as we were taught then).
One thing left to do – and that was to go to find the Ursuline Convent – something else that I had spectacularly overlooked when I was here last.
Finding a parking space was, as usual, the issue in Old Quebec, but we soon come across more of this religious hypocrisy here.
We’ve seen so much of this on our travels – not just in North America – and you’re all probably very tired of me drawing your attention to it.
But whatever happened to the Forgiveness of Sins, or of Turning The Other Cheek, or Giving All That Thou Hast To The Poor.
There’s nothing whatever in the Bible about the towing away of offenders.
The Ursulaines – three of them – came over here in the 1èth Century to give instruction and education to the girls of the city – in the same way that Marguerite Bourgeoys did in Montreal round about the same time.
And the education part is still continuing, as you can tell, because I seem to have arrived round about chucking-out time and there are brats everywhere.
And you can tell what kind of school it is simply by looking at the clothes worn by the girls.
It’s the fashion in North America for exclusive private schools to dress their girls in plaid. And the more plaid, the more exclusive the school.
Here, they are wearing full-length plaid smocks. You don’t get more exclusive than this.
And the mothers picking up their daughters in their expensive Porsche Carreras is another sign of exclusivity too.
Somehow, you get the feeling that here at the Ursuline Convent and the Ursuline School, the message of Jesus Christ has has become extremely distorted.
I bet that Mother Marie of the Incarnation, the original founder of the Institution here in Quebec, is turning in her grave.
When I was here for my mega-ramble in 2012, this particular Square was fenced off and undergoing a great deal of renovation.
I was therefore extremely curious to see what had become of it and so I directed myself here.
And I wasn’t disappointed. They seem to have made a very fine job of it and I was quite impressed. I like the laurels particularly – and the fountain.
On the way back to my motel I stopped off at a “Maxi” Supermarket for some soya milk. And ended up with a few other things too, including Spruce Beer and also some grapes at 89 cents a pound – which didn’t last long.
Back here, another couple was moving in next door and they took quite a liking to Strawberry Moose.
But here’s a thing.
When was the last time that I crashed out? I mean – seriously?
It all caught up with me yesterday afternoon. I started to yawn at about 16:30 and that’s all that I remember until 21:00 when I found myself fully-dressed under the bedclothes with the internet radio blaring away. I was gone for good by the looks of things.
It took me a while to come round, but I still managed to make tea – and then I was gone again.
Mind you, I’m not surprised that it’s caught me up. I’ve been going at quite a pace just recently and something had to give.
