Jen and Will's North American Adventure!: Quebec City II

We visited the Citadelle up on the hill and took the tour of the working barracks. Pretty cool that it’s still part of the actual army, hundreds of years after it was built! It was a pretty good tour and the view from up there was pretty spectacular. There were quite a few displays, including the mascot. The mascot is a goat which was given by the Queen of England to the special forces that were trained at this barracks and then was bred, so that for parade purposes, there was always a goat on hand. Apparently it only makes an appearance once a day, at the changing of the guard, ‘cos being a goat, it can’t do two appearances. We didn’t go to the changing of the guard as we wanted to sleep in and besides we’ve seen it in Ottawa and London J. We were a bit disappointed though, as we waited for the Stamping out of the Guard at the end of the guarding day, but they cancelled it for no reason. Or at least the army guy in the checkpoint didn’t want to elaborate.

Other cool facts: the ramparts of this part of the city known as Old Quebec are the only remaining fortified city walls existing in the Americas north of Mexico. The Citadelle also controlled access to the St Lawrence River from the Atlantic. It's the only way to get ships to the Great Lakes. Power!