Quebec is one of the settings used in my French & Indian War-set historical romance, Rogue’s Hostage. When I was writing the book, my husband and I took a vacation to Quebec Province so I could do some research. We started in Montreal, where I managed to find my way around the Metro using my college French. (Note: I took this trip back in the pre-digital photography days so the photos are from my Art Explosion CD collection.)
After a couple of days we took the train to Quebec, and I fell in love with the charming old city, though I had to keep reminding myself that the city in my book was the previous city, the one that was destroyed by the British shelling.
Since I wanted to stay in the old part of the city, I booked us a room at Chateau Frontenac, the venerable Canadian Railway hotel. Picturesque setting, but we were pretty sure they gave us the smallest room in the place! Instead of a view looking out toward the river, our window looked down onto an alley. Oh, well, we didn’t spend much time in the room anyway.
We were far more interested in wandering the streets, taking pictures of the old houses and the fort and battlefield, which plays a part in my book, as does the lovely church pictured below.
On the last day we took a boat ride on the St. Lawrence for the spectacular views of the city and countryside. What a beautiful area! I’d love to go back some day.
Rogue’s Hostage is currently on a 99 cent Kindle Countdown Deal at Amazon.com and Amazon.uk through the end of the day, Friday, Jan. 28th. My apologies to my Canadian readers. Amazon doesn’t have Kindle Countdown Deals in Canada yet. Some day, I hope.
Where are you going this year? I’m scheduled for a trip to upstate New York in June, and I’m hoping to finally make it to Australia and New Zealand in September. I’ll get back to Canada one of these days.
Linda
Linda–I love how you did the research for your book. Thanks for sharing your photos and describing what you learned in those locations (and how you used that in writing your book). Interesting!