It turns out that plankton produce over 60% of the world's oxygen and that climate change might have a serious impact on this. Flavienne's work involves lengthy Arctic visits on a research vessel. In her spare time she dabbles in music and cyles a lot. Quite proudly, and rightly so, she tells us that she cycles to work throughout the year, even in the winter. We ponder this, having just descended a huge hill to reach her appartment in the Bas-Ville - the old worker's quarter beside the river.
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| Quebec City's Bas Ville |
The neighbourhood has the feel of a French city - more so than the grander and impressive downtown old quarter which has all the large stone classical buildings from the French colonial era. Her neighbourhood is becoming trendy, but hasn't lost it's authentic rough edges. The local park puts on an outdoor film one evening a week and lots of street furniture has been set up for people to hang out in the open spaces. The streets themselves are narrow and lined with three-storey town houses, mostly split up into appartments like Flavienne's. It feels like a pocket of Europe sewn into the North American quilt.
We sit down to eat the pasta that Flavienne has rustled up for us. There's some unidentifiable meat in the sauce, unnaturally pink. In my politest way, I ask what it is. "Baloney", she replies. Aha! And they say that French cuisine is better than English, eh? But Flavienne is an experienced cyclist and she has wisely reasoned that we'll be ravenous. We eat the lot and go back for seconds, scraping the pan clean.
