Quebec City and Montreal 2024

September 8 to 14, 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

• 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.

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.

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.

Musée de la civilisation (Museum of Civilization)

This was in Québec. I’m sure we’ve been before, but I don’t really remember it that well. This time I was struck by how much technology and interactivity it incorporated.

The exhibits on gladiators in Rome and wrestling in Québec included video, holograms, and life-size models. There was a section on Québecois rap where 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!

Ile d’Orléans

After two days of ambling with a bit of museum, we decided it might be good to drive over to Ile d’Orleans (Orleans Island). We’d been before, but this time did hit upon one new discovery we really enjoyed: Du Capitaine—Ferme, Vinaigrerie, Distillerie (the captain—farm, vinegars, distillery). We were the only clients, so got to speak at length with the owner and try various interesting vinegars and liqueurs. We bought a number for home use.

We also stopped in at one fromagerie (cheese store), where we made a lunch of cheese and bread, and one winery: Vignoble du Mitan. They make a lot of wines with the Vancliche grape that is native to the island. We did a tasting and found that we enjoyed quite a few of them, so they got patriated, also. Our final stop was at the popular Cassis Monna et Filles, where had ice cream on the patio.

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 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

After the bike tour, Jean commented on how just many restaurants we’d be able to bike to if we lived here—a reference to the fact that we quite enjoy biking to uptown Waterloo after work for dinner. But here we have three, maybe four restaurants we like? In Montreal (or Québec City)… the mind reels.

(Not that living in a place is ever like visiting it. But one can dream.)

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! For breakfast there, having failed to find the local cafe we were seeking, we stopped in at the Van Houtte, which is a Québec chain. But it was such a lovely cafe. And the lattes were so good. As were the breakfast sandwiches.

In Québec the first morning, we admittedly ran away from La Maison Smith because it was just too crowded. Then we stopped in at Cafe Buade, a cool historical location with very good service, but also a rare instance of disappointing food. However, on the way out we spotted Baguette et Chocolat, which then became our go-to for lattes and crepe breakfasts for the remainder of the trip. Delish!

Mornings were one time when outdoor eating wasn’t a great option, because the temperatures were pretty cool, so nobody was serving outside. But we had the back seating area of Baguette et Chocolat to ourselves, with other clients not venturing far from the order desk at the front.

In Montreal we did more Van Houtte, to as much success, but also tried Columbia Cafe, a just beautiful place with excellent lattes and more.

The fancy dinner

Tuesday evening was also somewhat cool in Québec, which made patio options a dodgy prospect that day. Plus, 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. Bluefin tuna was out for both of us, because they’re endangered. So was beef, because neither of us like it enough. The squab looked good, but $72? Seemed like a lot for pigeon.

But yeah, in the end, we went, early, sans reservation, and they were able to accommodate. 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.

And 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. (The lamb entrée sounded good, but it was an early dinner, and I was afraid it would be too heavy.) Jean did pick a main course, of lobster.

And we both had room for dessert. I don’t now remember what those were, but they were fantastic. The whole meal was fantastic, the room still beautiful with its natural light and high ceiling (excellent CO2 readings!), the service perfection. We hadn’t done the fine dining thing in a while, and it was nice to get back to it.

Best discovery: Bistro La Fabrique

Our last dinner of the trip was selected and booked just a couple hours before we went. It was at a French bistro on St-Denis called La Fabrique. Though a street-facing patio, it was off the sidewalk, and they had decorated it nicely 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), which 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.

Patio moods

It was a good week of eating, mostly done on patios, each of which had their own “feel”.

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

Le Lapin Sauté: Cozy and casual. Located in lower town, Le Lapin Sauté has a popular “first come, first serve” covered patio. They specialize in duck and rabbit. The waitress steered us toward the main course platter that included several specialties along with veggie sides. All good, with amazing confit in particular. The desserts were also nice. We talked to people at the neighbouring table here, who were stopping in Québec enroute to PEI (and wanted a picture of our dinner, but we don’t have one!).

L’Echaudé: Joie de vivre. Another discovery of the trip, L’Echaudé is also in lower town, with a patio on warmer days—Wednesday definitely qualified. Getting boring to repeat this, but the food was fantastic. We were both excited to see tarte au sucre (sugar pie) on the dessert menu, but had it in the form of a dessert platter with other delicious things.

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

Boqueria Tapa Bar: Bustling. After our bike ride, we needed some nourishment, so we stopped at this busy tapas bar on rue de la Commune. Being able to order drinks and some smaller plates was just the ticket at this point. The first picture on this blog post was taken there. Those are two of Sangria, one red, one non-alcoholic.

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.

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…

Covid precautions

We took some of those! Covid projections for that time weren’t great:

But, you’ll notice, were quite a bit better for Quebec than Ontario. (Though what that meant for areas full of tourists, I’m not sure, but…) This was the toolkit:

• Mini HEPA filter, set up in each hotel room we stayed in. To hopefully remove any lingering virus from whoever had stayed in the room before us.
• Antihistamines, H1 (Allegra) and H2 (Pepcid), taken daily. Because some studies have shown a modest reduction in infection risk from doing so.
• Nasal sprays, Betadine (me) and Viraleze (Jean), used before and after more crowded maskless activities, like eating on busy covered patios.
• Respirator masks, worn in the museum, on the Montreal métro, in Ontario Enroute locations.
• Laminar personal air purifier, set up on table to blow clean air into my face when indoor dining. Pointless on patios (due to air flows), but less obtrusive than I was worried about indoors, because it’s quiet, and doesn’t require much surface area. (You can see it in the pictures of the St Amour.)
• CO2 monitor, which is merely informative, not actually protective. Still, for the record, the hotel rooms all had pretty poor ventilation (but you could at least open windows in some of them). The indoor restaurants we went to and the museum had good readings. The Montreal métro stations and trains, to my surprise, also had really good readings, even though often quite crowded!

We did not test upon our return, but unless we’ve both been completely asymptomatic, the mostly outdoor activities combined with the above did the trick.