While the first half of our trip was all about seeing everyone and socializing, the second half ended up being our main tourist time. Here is a special post on the two days we spent in Quebec city.
Just being in “La Belle Province” with my husband was pretty wonderful but visiting Québec City, one of the oldest -and prettiest- cities in North America, was a step above. We started our journey in the early morning with a mandatory breakfast stop at Tim Hortons. They had this new special…maple syrup English muffin sandwich. Of course, we could not resist. We also ordered a dozen of Timbits…originally planning on taking them for the road but we simply could not wait. So off we went, with our bellies full of coffee and sweet goodness.
Our first stop was île d’Orléans, an island composed of six small villages, all filled with wonderful artisans. As we crossed the bridge, I played Le Tour de l’Île for him. I absolutely love visiting the island. I was so giddy to finally show Jeff the place I had spent so much time trying to describe to him. Our first stop was the shore. No matter how many time I go stand there, it never gets old. Always so beautiful, even on cloudy days.
Our second stop, the most exciting of them all, was the Chocolaterie. Can we just move in here? They are especially well known for their soft-serve ice cream, dipped in a thick layer of Belgium chocolate. Needless to say, I was in heaven.
We spent all morning and part of the afternoon driving around the island and stopping along the way to explore and take pictures. I especially enjoyed the view from the observation tower.
Once we left the island, we had planned to go directly to Old Québec but as I pointed out the Montmorency Falls to Jeff, he suggested we go check them out. I hadn’t been there in years, so why not? The Falls ended up being quite an adventure as Jeff realized how deep is fear of height was but we still really enjoyed our time there.
After spending a couple of hours at the falls, we finally ended to Old Québec. We checked into our hotel and then walked around for a bit. We were pretty exhausted so we grabbed some dinner and decided to keep most of the exploring for the next day.
So the next morning, we were ready to explore! We walked A LOT. We found a wonderful little restaurant for lunch, Le Chic Shack. Jeff had a chicken sandwich with truffle and Parmesan fries while I devoured a wild mushroom ragout poutine. I desperately want to try to make it. It might not have been the wisest lunch before spending the day walking but it was absolutely delicious.
We spent the afternoon walking through the busy streets of Place Royale, one of the oldest French settlements in North America. I quickly found a little store that sold “tire sur neige” (maple taffy on snow)…and of course I couldn’t help myself. We also saw a lot of cool art, including the Campbell soup and pigeons sculptures.
Later on, Jeff suggested walking by the riverfront, on the Promenade des Gouverneurs, all the way to Plains of Abraham Battlefield Park. Once we got there, we were able to walk on the city walls, all the way to our hotel!
After two days of being full-on tourists in a city big enough to offer English translations everywhere (it honestly gave me a break from constant translation for the hubby), it was almost a shock to go back to my small hometown. But this will be another post, folks! 🙂
The Hungry Quebbie 