Quebec - the city and province

Quebec, Canada

Who new French culture was this close?

In 2003, Cara took a solo cross-Canadian train tour from Vancouver to Halifax.  Some of her fondest memories along the way were from Quebec City and Montreal.  She studied French for 4 years in college, and Quebec is the perfect place to immerse yourself in French culture without having to take a trans-Atlantic flight.  Quebec and Montreal had a lot to live up to after the glowing praise from Cara and friends Tom and Juliet, who had just visited Montreal on their honeymoon.  

Not to mention that these were also stops on the honeymoon road trip of my parents, Sharon and Steve, back in the '70s.  Here they are about 40 years later in Houston.  Love you!

These two cities delivered and exceeded all expectations.  Here are a few shots from our Canadian weekend.

Quebec City

We arrived in the afternoon and took a walk with our big dog in the big city.  We started in the city park which is up on a hill and then walked thru the old walled city and the Citadelle towards the iconic hotel (Fairmont Le Cháteau Frontenac) which is the tallest building the background.  It was a beautiful day and there were great views of the city and the St. Lawrence River or Le Fleuve Saint-Laurent.  

A quaint street in the old city of Quebec.  The perfect setting for a lazy late afternoon stroll.

Poutine, the dish that motivated this detour north.  French fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy.  For the Austin readers, save yourself the 2,000 mile drive and just go to Haymaker.  In my (very biased) opinion, it confirmed that Homie and his Haymaker chefs have created a spot-on reproduction.

One of the squares we came across while walking.  There was a statue of Louis XIV in the center.  This was a great example of how you could easily forget you were in Canada.  Every sign is in French, everyone is speaking French, and there was a huge international tourist population.  We even asked a police officer directions at one point, and she communicated in French and a little broken English.

After dinner, we drove about 25 km north of the city to camp at Parc National de la Jacques-Cartier.  We arrived after dark to a full campsite.  Luckily, the ranger station was still open and they allowed us to set up camp in a picnic area as long as we promised to pack out by 9:00 am.  Below is a shot of the river that carved out the central valley of the park.  We packed out in the morning and headed to Montreal for the next leg of our Canadian adventure.

Montreal

Montreal city skyline from a harbor on the Saint Lawrence.  Although there was a beach there was absolutely no swimming.  Not sure if it was unique on the day we visited, but the river had an extremely strong current.

We spent our first night camping at a KOA campsite just outside the city because an AirBNB request fell through.  On our second day we had a hotel room reserved but we couldn't check in until 3:00 pm.  We spent the valuable morning hours tracking down and tasting the best bagels and croissants the city had to offer.

  

We walked around the old city and near the harbor after our double breakfast.  Here's a shot of the old city.  Other highlights of Montreal included our relaxing hotel room and hot shower, an amazing faux-meat vegetarian dinner at Yuan Vegetarian, and Mont Royal park.

Feeling refreshed and with full bellies we were ready to make our way back to the states for a quick adventure in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  "Time to move on, time to get going..."