Levis Quebec – Stairway to Heaven

A big advantage to staying in one place for a week is that you really get to know that place. We felt that way about beautiful Old Quebec. On Saturday, we took the ferry across the St. Lawerence River to the cute town of Levis. It was only a 12 minute ferry ride. Levis was founded in 1826 by Henry Caldwell. It was originally known as Ville d’Aubigny. It’s claim to fame was several shipyards, which had easy access to lots for forests. It was also the rail connection to Old Quebec since there were no tracks on the North Shore.

Here’s the view of Levis from the ferry:

Here’s the view of the Chateau Frontenac from Levis ferry:

Once you get to the Levis ferry terminal, you have a lot of steps to climb to get to the sights!

After pausing several times to catch our breath, we saw the view from the top was worth it.

We then visited the Maison Alphonse-DesJardins. The DesJardins family is kind of like the Canadian version of the Rockefellers. Although I think the DesJardins were nicer. Alphonse DesJardins believed in building support for a cooperative movement that would reinvest the savings of members in the local economy.

Here are pictures of the DesJardins parlor and office:

What goes up must come down, so we had to climb back down a lot of stairs. This was a different set of stairs than the ones we climbed up. The stairs are red. I wanted to show you a larger picture so you could get a better idea of how steep the climb was.

We certainly earned our lunch! We found a delightful little French cafe, right next to the ferry. I have never had such a delicious sandwich; it was on a yummy French baguette. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

This day was especially fun because it wasn’t completely planned. On a whim, I had decided to look into visiting Levis. Our wonderful walking tour guide, Louise, had recommended this. I am so glad we did this!

What unexpected fun have you had while traveling?