Autobiography of Nettie Covey Sharpe

On this one particular day, there were two couples who wanted
to be driven to Quebec City. I was fifteen years old at the time [1922],
and I had never been there before. I remember it very well. They asked me if I would like to come along. “Ah, yes!” It was all very new to me. I couldn’t believe it! I had never been away from home before.

I was particularly affected by the narrow dirt roads, the small houses of the Beauce. It’s a completely different type of house, you know. I had never seen anything like it, and I found it all quite charming. Not only that, but there were also many types of calvaires [roadside shrines]: big ones, all glassed-in, with four or five statues inside. I had never seen anything like that, either! And we saw all sorts of wayside crosses and lots of small grottoes. Ah, yes! I found it all lovely.

We drove the guests right to the Château Frontenac and took out their bags. Then my father said, “Now, we’ll have to have lunch before we return. We are going to have lunch at the Château. In the main dining room.” It was summer. The windows were open and there was a lovely breeze. It was so nice at the Château Frontenac. I will remember it always. My father also said to me, “Now, when we go back, don’t tell your mother we had lunch at the Château.” Because she was Scottish, so it was always all about money, and it would have been, “You had no business going there . . .”

I will remember it always, and the impression it made on me. Particularly down below, where there are boats and the crossing to Lévis. All those little French houses — narrow, with four or five storeys — in Old Quebec. Ahhhh! It was all so beautiful!