The fourth day of my trip was dedicated to Quebec City. The historic part of Quebec City (Vieux-Quebec), is divided into to parts... Upper Town (Haute-Ville) and Lower Town (Basse-Ville). My hotel was in the upper town portion, so I explored it before heading to the lower portion later in the day.
Basilique Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Québec was my first stop
Then I stopped at a Christmas store located just across the street where I selected the QC ornament that I was buying for my travel tree.
I wondered around the curvy and very hilly streets
The Historic District of Québec is a UNESCO site.
Fairmont Le Château Frontenac is the most photographed landmark in Québec City.
I really wanted to join the esteemed list of guests who have stayed here including: The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, QEII, Prince Grace, as well as FDR & Winston Churchill who met here in 1943 and 1945 for two wartime conferences, but I never really found a price less than $400+ a night.
There is a boardwalk around the hotel and you get some great views
After walking around the Château, I headed toward Lower Town. You can take a funicular up and down to lower town, or take a set of stairs. I headed down the stairs known as L'Escalier Casse-Cou, which translates to "Breakneck Stairs". I haven't always been known to navigate stairs without doing injuring myself, so I was very happy to make it down without breaking my neck (or anything else).
This is the first part of lower town you come to, and it is filled with lots of stores and boutiques.
I walked through the Place Royale, which is the quaintest cobblestone square you will ever see.
I ended up making my way to Cafe Saint Malo for lunch. It's a small restaurant, and didn't really seem to draw lots of tourists like other Cafes you see in the area, but they had a pretty good crowd of locals. I think that is always a good sign. I had read about CSM prior to going on the trip and made a note in my travel book to look for it.
I ordered a warm goat cheese salad that was SO good.
I also ordered an omelet & frites. It was very good.
I walked along the Antiques district, but a lot of the shops were closed since it was Sunday. I then made my way to the Marché du Vieux-Port (Old Port Market). You can get all sorts of things there, from Candy...
to flowers...
beautiful fruit...
and vegetables. There are lots of cheese, meat, wine, etc. too. I bought another basket of strawberries because I had already almost plowed through the ones I bought the day before.
I backtracked through lower town and back through Place Royale
I wondered back to the Funicular for a ride to the upper town
I lucked out and was the last one to load onto the car, so I was able to get great pics as we went up the hill.
Once I was back in upper town, I went inside the Château to look around.
I walked through a little market by Cathedral of the Holy Trinity where I found a Crepe stand.
I got a lemon crepe.
For dinner, I went to Chez Boulay Bistro Boreal. The cuisine is all inspired by northern Québec. It was the most pricey meal of my whole trip, but everything I had was amazing.
I started with a cocktail of Ungava gin, raspberries, grown cherries and ginger ale.
I'm not 100% sure what was in this salad, but it was very good.
I had the seared scallop and monkfish wrapped in bacon, barley risotto with corn and seaweed, sauce vierge with organic blackcurrant balsamic for my main course.
For dessert, I had the Sea buckthorn and meringue pie, pine forest spikenard crème anglaise. It was very good! I had no idea what sea buckthorns were, so the waitress brought me some to taste before I ordered. They are tart, so kind of like a lemon pie.
I really enjoyed my first day in Quebec City. This 17th Century city is very well preserved and I love walking through history. Stay tuned for my last two days in Quebec City!
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