Postcard: Quebec City

QUEBEC CITY -- It's been nearly 20 years since I last visited Quebec City, a place that my husband and I had on our short list for our honeymoon two years ago (we ended up in Santorini).
But even though I remembered bits and pieces of it -- the old port area, the funicular -- I'm not sure my eighth grade French-class self was able to take in the city back then in quite the same way I can see it now that I've been back here covering Team Europe getting ready for the World Cup of Hockey 2016.

And boy, is it delightful.
One of my first cab rides was spent chatting about Quebec Nordiques hockey with a driver who looked suspiciously like a French-Canadian version of Buddy Garrity from "Friday Night Lights," but with a far better historical perspective on the NHL. He talked, with nostalgia, about heading down to my town, Boston, to watch the Nordiques take on the Boston Bruins because it was cheaper and more fun. Plus the Bostonians could always match the French-Canadians beer for beer.
Sounds about right.
I've gotten a chance to wander the Old Port area of Quebec City, past the Chateau Frontenac -- the castle-like hotel that sits atop the city -- and through streets filled with street performers, some good, some bad, some weird. The street performers are everywhere, in fact, sometimes with boards listing scheduled performances in some particularly choice real estate.

I've eaten maple- and rum-flavored crème brulee and maple-flavored bread pudding. (I know, I know, sometimes this job is tough.) I've eaten bison bourguinon with blueberry sauce at Aux Anciens Canadiens, a restaurant in a house built in 1675, and bison cheek at Nordic restaurant Boulay. I've probably gained a few pounds.
I've even stumbled on the site where "O Canada" was penned, at least according to the plaque hanging on the wall, as I took what I thought was a wrong turn down a street half dug out by construction workers.
I didn't quite get the chance to tour the Citadelle, but I did walk around it, near the Plains of Abraham, where in 1759 a battle was fought that would determine the future of Canada. It was where the British forces defeated the French, leading to France's loss of Quebec to the British.
Even so, the French-ness of the city is surprising and utterly not surprising for someone much more used to Montreal. It's far less easy to get by with the French I forgot by the end of high school -- and I was good at it back then -- but I'm doing my best to use what I remember. And the Quebec City residents have been nice enough to play along, and help me out where they can.
This is it for me for Quebec City, at least for this trip. I'll be home in Boston for a few days before nearly three weeks in Toronto for the World Cup. Toronto has its charms, to be sure, but they're not quite the same as Quebec City. I'll miss it. And a return trip definitely will be in the cards.