Observations and IDEAS From a month stay in Quebec City
I’m in a maple forest! (otherwise known as a Sugar Bush).
See those blue tubes? They are collecting the maple 🍁 sap from the trees.
Thought I’d share some fun observations and few photos after spending a month in Quebec City (all of October 2021).
1) Maple leaf profusion! I haven’t worked out if it’s a Quebec province thing ( the home of maple syrup and polar bears), or all over Canada but there are maple leaf 🍁 images just dang everywhere!
On banks, menus, even the McDonalds sign has a small maple leaf in the middle. It’s like you don’t have the right to sell anything to Canadians unless you put a maple leaf on it?
2) Also poutine. Okay, I get it, it’s the national dish (us Scots are proud of haggis too). But poutine is on EVERY single restaurant menu no matter how fancy (at least it feels that way 😂). Gotta love it.
3) Yummy everywhere. 😋 Overall, The food in Quebec is great, lots to see when we aren't working and the weather hasn't turned to winter quite yet (but you can tell, at the end of October, that it’s coming any day!). We’ll have moved on by then - tomorrow we get on the road for a few days and by Monday we’ll be in Toronto and then Vancouver BC.
Most fun things we did here:
Visit an alpaca farm
We visted and loved Domaine Fraser. A must not miss and basically a cuteness overload.
Did you know that coming from the mountainous regions of Peru alpacas have evolved to only give birth earlier in the day so the later freezing temperatures don’t harm the new baby?
Also, they like to hang around together in groups and don’t love being touched but are super inquisitive. See photos - Erin the one I took for a walk was definitely having a conversation with me!
Ile D’Orleans for the fall colors
Or just because you’re a foodie! I wanted to see the fall colors here - and Quebec delivered.
Yes that’s me —the teeny figure against such tall trees in the first shot.
They say Isle d’Orleans - an island 30 mins from Quebec City is foodie heaven and yup , gotta agree.
This was my first time seeing a forest of maples being tapped for maple syrup. The whole section of woodland has these thin cables (pipes for sap) criss- crossing it.
Also worth a visit - Montmorency Falls ( last shot), supposedly as tall as Niagara. Those lines you can see across the shot? A zip line!! Ugh! Maybe next time?
E-Bikes as our wheels
Hubby and I have done rental cars, scooters, trains and planes and this is how we got around town in Quebec City this month.
You download the à Vélo app and pay as you go, or it's $30 for a monthly pass on the ebikes here. And you can make as many 30 minute trips as you like.
Take a ghost tour
In town - recommend the nighttime ghost tour. Yes, it’s a teeny bit cheesy but still fun and great value. The guides are well versed and friendly, and the route chosen is charming. The last stop inside a church was super memorable and creepy! You start down below at the port and end up in the old town near Chateau Frontenac. Just dress warm.
The Bookstore at Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
How’s this for a to-die-for bookstore layout? Totally worth a visit.
Like many museum stores it has cute artsy and literary gifts, and a wide range of art, tourist and other books in French and English. But that architecture and layout... swoon.
Visit a library in a converted church
The Bibliotheque Claire Martin is named after a local feminist writer who won several prizes in the1960s and 1970s. It’s located inside what was Saint Matthew’s church and still has the original confessionals (now used as book stands), altar area (a reading zone), and baptismal font. It’s gorgeous and worth a quick (or a long) visit.
Chateau Frontenac
You can’t really miss it - it’s just there. Over a month we saw it from every angle! (same level, below, from the water).
Just strolling around town is so much fun and so picturesque (and you could easily spend an extended weekend doing only that). So many cute bookstores, several along on Rue Saint Jean.
So much history here, one of the oldest North American / European cities (the Saint Lawrence River was the original route to most of North America).
Lots of folks do city walking tours (we didn’t but seems like a good idea) and there is a tour that takes you inside the chateau and tells you more of the history, too.