Ambling, eating, and a bit of biking: Quebec 2024

A couple weeks before, I was feeling somewhat despondent about our pending vacation to Quebec City and Montreal, as the weather forecast seemed to be predicting rain, with some more rain, then a side order of rain. 🌧

But as of a week before, the forecast had completed flipped to sun, more sun, and a side of sun. This really perked me up. But I still had to deal with the jitters and the actual work of prepping to go. (Hiring a housesitter is great for the cats, but does mean having to prepare the house for a guest along with organizing oneself to be away.) 😟

The first night of vacation, I was back to dispirited. Lying in an overheated hotel room on a gray day in the uninspiring town of Drummondville, Quebec after an indifferent meal of St Hubert chicken, I wondered what the points of this was. Wouldn’t I be better off in my house, with its working air conditioner, and cute kitties? 😿

Six nights later, after a lovely dinner of French food on a beautiful patio with my best guy, I felt relaxed and content. Which I guess was the point? 🌞

Itinerary

We were away from Sunday, September 8 to Saturday September 14.

Day 1: Just a driving day; we got as far as Drummondville, Quebec.
Days 2 to 4: Québec City
Days 5 and 6: Montreal
Day 7: Another driving day to back home

Activities

Mainly, it was a lot of ambling, first around the Old Town of Québec City, then around the various neighbourhoods of Montreal. While no longer in the height of summer, Québec City was still pretty crowded with tourists, especially when the huge cruise ships were docked. But our hotel was very centrally located, so it was easy to walk to any part of Old Quebec.

Quebec City view. — Lovely view of the Quebec City port

Montreal is always a busy big city, of course. Our hotel was close to both downtown and Old Montreal, but not in either. So here we supplemented the walking with taking the métro. Figuring out the metro cards was a bit frustrating, but the system itself was great.

Leonard Cohen mural over patios in Montreal. — Crescent Street in Montreal

I was pleased to find how much my French came back to me on this trip—not that you can’t manage in English in both cities. But living la vie bilingue again was fun.

We fit in a few other items between the ambling (and eating. A lot of eating.)

Musée de la civilisation (Museum of Civilization)

It’s quite modern and interactive and full of technological gizmos. Featured exhibits on gladiators in Rome and wrestling in Québec were pretty good. But my favourite was the section on Québecois rap. There you had to don head phones that activated based on what exhibits you were standing near. You got the history of that type of music in this part of the world, and samples of it. It was kind of neat!

Map of the world in clothing tags. — The only picture I have from the museum. This map of the world is made up of clothing tags.

Ile d’Orléans

We’ve been before, so didn’t do as many stops this time. The best new discovery was Du Capitaine—Ferme, Vinaigrerie, Distillerie (the captain—farm, vinegars, distillery). We spoke at length with the owner and got to try various interesting vinegars and liqueurs, then buy a number for home use.

Flowers. — Not sure this photo was taken on the island, but it was definitely taken on this trip!

The best revisit was Vignoble du Mitan, where they make a lot of wines with the Vancliche grape that is native to the island. The guide to our tasting was very knowledgeable tasting, and we found that we enjoyed quite a few bottles, so they got patriated, also.

Bike tour

In Montreal we signed up for a three-hour bike tour of the city. This was possible for me because Ca Roule Montreal (Montreal On Wheels) offers ebike options for all of their guided tours. I of course went with that, and Jean decided to do the same. I was somewhat worried about riding an ebike that wasn’t the one type I had, and with keeping up with the group, but these proved to be no problem. I adjusted pretty easily to the bike (found it easier than mine, in some ways) and kept up no problem, given that the other five people on the tour (and the guide) were on regular bikes.

It was fun. The other participants were five guys from the States who were in Montreal for the first time. It was mostly on bike paths, which are very good in this city and were neat to experience. And we were guided through the street parts. We would stop and the guide would give us facts about the city. The only riding I found tricky was through McGill campus, simply because it was so crowded.

On the menu

So much eating! It was a great week in these two very foodie cities.

Coffees and cafes

Sure, you can get a good latte and some nice pastries in Waterloo. But it felt like these were just so everywhere, and so good, in Québec and Montreal. And even Drummondville! Whether the Van Houtte coffee chain, the independant Baguette et Chocolat that became our Québec City breakfast go-to, or the lovely Columbian Cafe in Montreal, it was all caffeinated bliss.

The fancy dinner

Tuesday evening was also somewhat cool in Québec, which made patio options a dodgy prospect that day. We’d been talking about getting back to Le St. Amour restaurant for some time, and Google Maps reported that Tuesdays were typically their quietest day.

There was still some hemming and hawing over whether to go, because on perusal of their menu, we weren’t sure about the entrée (main course) options. But yeah, in the end, we went, early, sans reservation, and they were able to accommodate.

Amuse of fish-shaped cracker thing on little pates. — At St Amour, not being disappointed by the amuse bouche and the hors d’oeuvre

Appetizers of various kinds of foie gras. — At St Amour, not being disappointed by the amuse bouche and the hors d’oeuvre

The wine ordering was interesting, as the menu is 75 pages. We picked one bottle out (there wasn’t much by the glass), but said we’d be open to other suggestions. The sommelier came back with a map of the world to show the various areas of the lighter-style red wines he’d suggest and why. In the end, we picked the cheapest one he recommended, which was $105.

It was in fact delicious.

I resolved my main course dilemma by ordering a large appetizer to start—the beautiful platter pictured above—then followed with another appetizer, a seafood medley. Jean was more traditional, and had an actual main course of lobster. And we both had dessert. I don’t now remember what that were, but it was fantastic. The whole meal was fantastic, the room still beautiful with its natural light and high ceiling (excellent CO2 readings!), the service perfection.

Patio moods

We had many meals on patios, but they each had their own “feel”.

La Buchette. Now we’re on vacation: Our first meal in Québec City, this popular restaurant is right on the main St-Jean stretch. It had an excellent charcuterie board.

Charcuterie board on patio with blue umbrellas and glasses of wine. — Entering vacation mode at La Buchette.

Le Lapin Sauté: Cozy and casual. Located in lower town, they specialize in duck and rabbit. We had the main course platter; all good, with amazing confit in particular. The desserts were also nice. And we talked to people at the neighbouring table here, a rarity for us!

Umbrellas and a big pink man in lower town Quebec, looking up at Chateau Frontenac. — Le Lapin Saute is near this area. The pink dude was part of an art installation. He showed up in various public spaces in both Québec City and Montreal.

L’Echaudé: Joie de vivre. A discovery of the trip, L’Echaudé is also in lower town, a French bistro. The appetizers and main courses were great, and we were both excited to see tarte au sucre (sugar pie) on the dessert menu (which we had in the form of a dessert platter with other delicious things).

Dessert platter of tarte au sucre, creme brulee, meringue, sorbet. — Gallery of items from L’Echaudé.

Duck confit. — Gallery of items from L’Echaudé.

Terrasse Place d’Arme: Cinq à sept night life. A rooftop terrace in Old Montreal. It was crowded (but not too crowded), there was music (but not too loud), well-dressed people, and a great view. Food wasn’t bad, either! Nor was the company.

Boqueria Tapa Bar: Bustling. We stopped at this busy tapas bar after our bike ride, when drinks and some smaller plates seemed just the ticket at this point. The first picture on this blog post was taken there.

Bistro La Fabrique: Date night. Our last dinner of the trip was selected and booked just a couple hours before we went, and what a capper! It was at a French bistro on St-Denis, which was nicely decorated with fabric and plants. Though busy inside, we had the patio almost to ourselves (which the waiter was mystified about, as it was an absolutely gorgeous day). It made for a lovely, relaxed dinner.

The menu was very France French, with wine offered by the cL instead of by the bottle or glass, and items like rillettes, terrine, and tartare. I had the slightly less French (I suppose) squash ravioli with beets, Brussels sprouts, hazelnuts, and wild mushroom foam—fantastic. For dessert, we puzzled over what a verrine was (same word used on French and English menus), but ordered it anyway. Turned out to be a jar, filled with fig, nectarine, apricot cream, lemon foam, and hazelnut praline crumble. Mm, mm, good.

Hotels: Meh

The Drummondville Travelodge, booked in Expedia enroute, was renovated and very clean, but as previously noted, was difficult to keep cool enough.

Our Québec City hotel, Terrasse Dufferin, had a great location right by the Chateau Frontenac. But the room was quite small and a bit run down. The bathroom sink had two separate faucets. The shower had trouble maintaining temperature. The room could be a bit stuffy. There was no hair dryer. That sort of thing.

Quebec City port and Chateau Frontenac. — Our hotel was right around here.

Our Montreal hotel, Le Nouvel Hotel, was the biggest and newest of the lot, and had the best-functioning climate control. It offered a Chromecast-type television service, but I couldn’t work out how to connect my apps to it. It also had a bit of cockroach issue…

Precautions

We took some of those! Covid projections for that time weren’t great, but we were lucky enough to be able to do most activities outdoors, and then we supplemented with:

Mini HEPA filter for the hotel rooms.
Antihistamines, H1 (Allegra) and H2 (Pepcid), taken daily.
Nasal sprays before and after more crowded maskless activities.
Respirator masks, for places like the Montreal métro (where, hey, we weren’t the only ones!).
Laminar personal air purifier to blow clean air onto my face when indoor dining. Less obtrusive than I initially feared (you can see it in the pictures of the St Amour).
CO2 monitor, which is merely informative, not actually protective. Biggest surprise: The great readings on the Montreal métro stations and trains.

Whoo, that’s a lot! But if it’s still not enough, you can read this again, with a bit more detail on some aspects, at this location: https://culturearchive.ca/quebec-city-and-montreal-2024/

Pandemic vacation in Quebec

That it did wonders for my mental health, there’s no doubt. Despite the constant consideration of risk to physical health in everything we did.

Jean wanted a vacation that actually felt like a vacation, which to him, meant getting out of the province. We weren’t up for flying, though, and of course wouldn’t have wanted to go to the country to the south even if we were allowed to, which we weren’t. In a week, the only “outside Ontario” destination that was possible was Quebec.

We did start in Ontario, with a couple days in Ganonoque. Then it was three days in Quebec City, and two in Montreal to finish. In the days leading up, I became obsessive about reading the daily Covid case counts—which at that point, were actually pretty good. And while away, Ontario trended up a bit, but Quebec was still on a downswing.

It did feel like a vacation. Though one unlike any other. (Including the slightly uneasy feeling about blogging about having managed a pretty good vacation in these times… )

Continue reading →

Visiting l’accent de l’Amérique

Our next destination after Prince Eward County was Québec City—currently branding itself as l’accent de l’Amérique, which is kind of clever. The 6-hour drive there seemed rather long, and a bit of a waste of another nice day, but we passed the time listening to the audiobook of Ready Player One, a fun, near-future sci-fi novel recently turned Stephen Spielberg movie. (The audiobook was read by Will Wheaton, which made one detail in the novel especially amusing.)

Guess what was playing in Picton while we were there? Didn’t see it, though; didn’t want to spoil the book

We had booked a room at the fancy and historic Château Frontenac, which was having anniversary specials. So we had the door man, and concierge services, and a great, central location. The room was just one of their “basic” ones, but it was still a good size and comfortable.

Chateaux Frontnac lobby — Our modest little hotel

And the outside of it. It’s huge! You can get lost in its corridors.

We had wanted to have dinner at Toast, but—cue the jokes—Toast was closed due to fire. So we booked (or really, had the concierge book for us) at their sister restaurant, Simple Snack Sympathique, or SSS. We found it just as delightful as we remembered Toast being, with creative food combinations and lovely presentation. I had the Québec Exquis special, which was a prix fixe of three courses all incorporating maple syrup in some way. (Québec Exquis was a one-week period in which Québec restaurants featured three-course, prix-fixe menus built around items from québecois food producers .)

First up for me was snow crab, then duck (the maple sauce was amazing), then maple éclair. Jean went with the regular menu for foie gras, smoked pork, then fromage fermier (farmer cheese!) for dessert.

We enjoyed a selection of wines from the Languedoc region with that—also part of the Québec Exquis special. (By the way, we had no idea before leaving that all these restaurant specials would be on.)

Jean took to getting up early for photos, while I had more leisurely mornings. Worked out for both of us.

How the world looks to morning people, apparently

Our first full day there, after a joint breakfast (not at the hotel), we walked down rue St-Jean, the shopping street outside the Old Town. This time we didn’t find too many treasures worth buying, though: just a bargain-priced collection of sheet music, for me.

We’d never been to Ile D’Orléans before—an island about a 30-minute drive from Québec—and had been planning to visit it this trip. But after driving around Prince Edward County, which is nearly an island, visiting various food-related destinations, we weren’t sure if we wanted to get back in the car and do the same here? On the map provided by the hotel, though, I noticed that there were bus tours we could take to the island. So we signed up for La route des saveurs, starting at 2:00, and running for 2.5 hours

Joining us on the tour—which started right at our hotel—was a friendly couple from Carolina, on an anniversary vacation, and two young women from South Korea, in Canada for what seemed like an absurdly short time for such a long trip. We found out that a popular South Korean show was filmed in Québec City, leading to an increased number of Korean tourists going there and looking for the “red door”. (CBC story: How a popular Korean soap opera is drawing Asian tourists to Quebec City.)

20180425-QuebecCity-471of471-HDR — Not *the* red door, but still a cool shot of Old Québec

Our guide was a lively young man with an enthusiasm for both Québec and the culinary products of Ile d’Orléans. Being early spring, with snow still in the fields, the island landscape wasn’t as lovely as it presumably becomes when plants are in bloom. So, we don’t have too many photos from this part. But, we did enjoy the tastings at each stop.

Chocolaterie: Your typical artisanale chocolate shop, except that they also had an ice cream shop with chocolate-dipped cones. We enjoyed the chocolate maple sample, and bought another set of maple-based chocolates for later consumption, but resisted the ice cream, figuring that would give us a sugar overload too early in the tour.
Maison Smith: A coffee shop where we sampled a maple latte. Normally I don’t care for sweetened coffees, but this one had a very light touch with the maple, and I quite enjoyed it. The owner gave an interesting overview of his business as well. We bought some ground coffee here, for planned use at our Ottawa accommodations.
Sucrerie: Probably the most interesting stop, as the maple syrup was currently being gathered here and we got an overview of the whole process. We tasted various strengths of maple syrup and the maple jelly, which we bought a jar of.
Cidrerie Bilodeau: Here they make dry and sweet apple ciders of various types, from dry sparkling to iced apple, any of which we were able to sample. We bought a cassis / apple blend that we figured could make interesting kir-like drinks. And also a jar of the most delicious apple butter I’ve ever had. Should have bought more. [There was no obligation to buy things at each stop. We just did.]
Nougaterie: Run by an originally European couple who immigrated to Canada and established this business. They had nougat in an extraordinary range of flavors, all super-fresh as it was made on the premises. We restricted ourselves to purchasing a single salt caramel bar. Amazing-tasting caramel, though.
Cassis Mona et Fille: Probably the most famous destination on the island. They make a range of products based on cassis (black currant), and gave us an overview of them all. In the summer, they also run a restaurant that is supposed to be quite good. All the drinks were lovely, but we especially blown away by the creme de cassis, which we bought (more kir!). We also got some cassis mustard (yes, it’s purple).

All that eating did not stop us from going out to eat later! We went back to an old favourite, Thai restaurant Apsara. We had one of the set menus that is a real bargain, even when we upgraded the included wine to be a Blanquette de Limoux. Each course was fresh and delicious. And the ladies got a lovely change purse as a gift at the end.

Assortment of Thai desserts—and note the cool teapot

The next morning we spent more time wandering in the Old Town, as we’d previously been rushing through it.

The afternoon we spent at the Québec Art Gallery, which has only modern and contemporary works. Our favourites were the Inuit sculptures, which were just amazing. The building was formerly a prison, and we also had a look at the old cells. Not big!

One of the exhibits at the Quebec Art Gallery. (Photo by me, hence the blurri-ness.)

Our last dinner in Quebec, on a somewhat rainy evening, was at Le St. Amour. We’ve always loved Le St. Amour. It’s in this gorgeous, high-ceiling roomed with a sunroof. And the food is always amazing. It didn’t disappoint this time, either.

We started off the evening trying to work in French—French menus, speaking French to the waiters (an ongoing amusement of the trip was Québecois complimenting Jean on how good his French was, for an Ontario. Well, I hope so.). But we detected a bit of an anglo accent from one of our waiters—bit unusual in these parts—and it turned out he was originally Australian! And still had that accent in English.

L’amuse bouche at Le St. Amour. Or as they call it in English, the amuse bouche. (Food just sounds better in French.)

So he was happy to English-it-up with us, and then we were hopelessly back in English-land with everyone, with even the native Québec waiters. Oh well!

This part will come as a shock to you all, but I had the Québec Exquis special, while Jean ordered off the regular menu! For me this meant a main course of escargot and Jerusalem artichokes, a main course of duck, and a chocolate mousse-themed dessert.

Jean started with foie gras, then had a lamb leg and ground lamb ravioli, and concluded with a cheese plate. We shared a bottle of Languedoc red, a Grenache-Syrah blend (no Mourvedre). With dessert I had a red banyuls (“a little French love letter to chocolate”, is how this wine is described) while Jean was recommended a sherry, which he enjoyed.

A great capper to a very enjoyable visit. Our next stop on the way home was Ottawa.

Itinerary

Activities

Musée de la civilisation (Museum of Civilization)

Ile d’Orléans

Bike tour

On the menu

Coffees and cafes

The fancy dinner

Patio moods

Hotels: Meh

Precautions

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