Quebec City Episode

Québec City is one of the oldest cities of North America. Capital of Québec, the French province of Canada, this small city was built on the banks of Saint Lawrence River. This charismatic city has been declared as a World Heritage Centre.

Our trip to Québec province (Montréal and Québec City) was part of our South East Canadian Trip in May’10. We decided that it should be a road trip as we both enjoy driving around so much. Hence we hired a car at Toronto. The drive to Québec City was uneventful but not very picturesque. We noticed that sign boards written boldly in French as we entered the province. We knew the journey had almost ended that way. We reached Québec City late afternoon. We stayed at a quaint little hotel 10 minutes away from the old walled city.

One of the cobbled streets of Québec City

Most of the places of visit are within the walled city. So we decided to walk within for rest of the day. As one can imagine, parking is a big problem and is expensive within the walled city. The walled city is divided into upper village (Hauté Ville) and lower village (Bassé Ville). We walked around Hauté Ville all evening, admiring the narrow and cobbled streets, old-fashioned buildings. This place had such a European feel to it – so different from rest of Canada or even North America. We hopped on a couple of pubs and settled in a lovely Italian restaurant with live music for dinner (before you ask - we were reserving Québecois French food for the next day).

The next morning, we booked ourselves to a walking tour that we had heard so much about. We decided on taking the grand tour - What better way to see the old city! Our guide was a Quebecois (naturally) Professor who spoke good English. He had thorough knowledge about local history, an excellent sense of humor and patiently answered all questions. We were a group of 8 people in the tour. Since it was a walking tour, we didn’t go into any buildings. But the guide specified which ones were worth returning to. More details about the tour can be found here. After the tour, we had our lunch at a local favourite – a French café in 1 of the back alleys of Hauté Ville.

We then returned to the places that we wanted to re-visit, as per our walking tour guide:

• Rue du Petit-Champlain - the main street in Bassé Ville for shopping, food & street performances.
• Quebec City Mural – This is a five story three dimensional painting on the side of a building in Bassé Ville that displays a very successful trompe-l'oeil (to trick the eye) effect. It depicts several notable people in Quebec history
• Sainte Anne de Beaupre Basilica in Hauté Ville
• Funiclair - old time elevator between Hauté Ville and Bassé Ville
• Le Château Frontenac - A palace in Hauté Ville overlooking Saint Lawrence River. It has been turned into a hotel & is owned by Fairmont (Surprise! Surprise!)
• La Citadelle – The Royal 22e Régiment museum. We missed the changing of the guards (10:00 am daily in summer) as we went there in the evening.

But there is so much more to write about, to see around. We couldn’t cover all that we wanted to in the 2.5 days we were there (e.g., Museum of Civilization).

View of the walled city of Quebec from the Levis ferry

That evening, our 2nd in Québec City, we took the ferry to the other side of Saint Lawerence River – to Levis. Not that there is much to do in Levis, but the view of the walled city from Levis (or even the ferry) is breathtaking! Right next to the ferry docks at Levis, there is a micro-brewery called Corsaire Microbrasserie. We tried different types of beer (I think I counted 10 or 12) before we took the ferry back to the old city.

Our 3rd morning was spent driving around L' Île d'Orléans, an island formed in the middle of Saint Lawrence River. Though we didn’t go to any of the vineyards, wineries or museums, we drove around the whole island. We found the island to be a very quite and charming place with various small villages. We noticed that wind surfing and kite surfing were extremely popular off the island beaches.

Montmorency Falls

We then headed to Montmorency Falls. Its 11 kms (7 miles) from the walled city and on the way (back) from L' Île d'Orléans. The first thing one notices about Montmorency falls is its striking height - It is higher than the Niagara (one wouldn’t expect) and quite broad too (though not as much as Niagara or even American falls). There is a nice park around the waterfalls – with few walking trails that are good.

Hurons entertaining visitors at Wendake

The last stop around Québec City was Wendake is a reserved area (for native Indians from Huron tribe). A reconstructed Huron village called Onhouä Chetek8e (where 8 is pronounced as Oua - as in ‘wh’ of what) is the main attraction there. These natives are always dressed in native clothes and perform a dance to welcome people. They sell souvenirs, art & crafts made by the tribe. Guides explain their customs, tradition, trading practices. This place also has a restaurant serving native Indian food – but unfortunately we reached just after the restaurant closed.

Thus our 3 days in and around Québec City ended - totally overwhelmed by this old-world city and its surrounding areas. But we were also looking forward to our last leg our South East Canada Trip – Montréal