This morning weve arranged to do a tour of the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. We meet our guide, Thomas, who tells us that hes a French travelling salesman, and that hes 112 years old. Were perhaps struggling a bit with that last bit, but at least hes dressed the part.
Were told that the Chateau is named after Louis de Buade de Frontenac who was a much loved Governor General of New France in the late seventeenth century. It was originally built by the Canadian Pacific Railways as part of grand railways hotel program which includes such other icons as the Banff Springs Hotel, Chateau Lake Louise and the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton Lakes National Park. The logic was that if they built a railway, the passengers were more likely to travel if they had somewhere to stay when they got there, and didnt have to sleep in the snow where they might get eaten by bears (although, as I was reminded the other day, most bears are asleep when its snowing..they take their hazards one at a time here in Canada). The Chateau was opened in 1893. It wasnt that big originally, but has been
expanded three times, the last of them in 1993. Its certainly a very imposing structure. Its tower is just a tad under 80 metres high, and the whole structure sits on a cliff thats already some 50 metres above the river bank. Were told that its the most photographed hotel on the planet, at more than 6,000 shots per day. Thomas says they know this because thats the number of photos uploaded to social media on average every day. He doesnt tell us anything about the poor bastard who has to count them; thats surely taking tedious to a whole new level.
As I heard up at the Citadelle a couple of days ago, one of the Chateaus major claims to fame is as the site, together with the Citadelle, of the two Quebec Conferences between the Canadians, Roosevelt and Churchill in 1943 and 1944. These were apparently organised secrecy. The guests were all told to get out and find somewhere else to stay at a moments notice - had to be rehoused is the term Thomas uses. I wonder how that went down. The locals knew something was afoot, they just had no idea what. The
rumour mill then took over. Everyone became convinced that Quebec was about to get a visit from the Pope, so the number of confessions per day at the local churches went through the roof. I hope they werent too disappointed when it turned out instead to be just a couple of foreign politicians. It seems they had to wait a while to finally get to see their Pope; he did eventually turn up, but not until 1984.
Were shown into the room where decisions were made about the Normandy landings well it might have been this room, it was somewhere around here anyway. Apparently no ones too sure because no pictures were ever taken, as they didnt want any records kept in case they fell into enemy hands. The Secret Service set things up so that the building could be evacuated in 15 seconds if something went wrong. Thomas tells us that they reckoned that if a ship full of ballistic missiles sailed up the River, it would take the assassins 45 seconds to get them all so they reasoned that they had a full 30 seconds up their sleeves to get everyone out (Im not
exactly sure how you could know this, but theyre the Secret Service and Im not, so I guess they must have worked it out somehow). Perhaps unsurprisingly the press was a bit curious about why their distinguished visitors were here. They thought they might get a bit more out of the ladies, but when asked, Mrs Roosevelt and Mrs Churchill responded that the Canadians were nice and they liked the weather.
We take an effortless stroll up the 318 steps past the Citadelle and onto the park known as the Plains of Abraham. Well it should have been an effortless stroll after yesterdays monster 487 step effort, but maybe we still need a few more days training. I assumed this was named after the biblical figure, but wrong again.
