It is very old, and the oldest part of the city has maintained a strongly European feel and the battlements that protected it initially from the Indians and other colonial powers trying to seize the location back in the 1600/1700s.
We stayed at the Hotel Cap Diamant in Upper Old Town, which was really more like a B&B than a hotel - each room was individually decorated, they gave us a key to the front door, and provided a full breakfast in the morning. The location was absolutely fantastic, on a quiet side street one block from the Citadel and just up the hill from the more commercial parts of Old Quebec.
When we first arrived in Quebec City we did our usual thing of wandering aimlessly to check out the general layout of the city. The Chateau Frontenac Hotel dominates the skyline of Old Quebec. It is huge and awesome.
There is a really steep hill separating the upper and lower parts of Quebec City. The lower part is older, and almost seems fake - it's extremely cute but I think what makes it feel weird is that it's also very, very clean, unlike the European cities I've been in which are grungy.
There is a funicular railway you can take up the hill if you don't feel like walking, but we are troopers and always took the stairs.
This is Place Royale in the lower town, which is one of the oldest parts of the city.
Most of the buildings around there date to the late 1600s.
There are cannons all over the place in Quebec City, lining the city walls.
Self-portrait by the cannons.
We got lunch at some random little place in Old Quebec, which was probably a mistake because all they had were these weird pizza roll up things.
They were good, but overpriced.
There were some more graffitied election signs across the street.
After lunch we walked back up the hill to The Citadel, which was built to protect the city from the invading English. By the time it was done, though, the war was over. It's still a functioning military base but the troops have never actually had to fight to defend the city.
The view from the Citadel walls is pretty amazing.
We walked over to see the Quebec parliament building, which was being refurbished. It seemed like there was a lot of construction going on virtually everywhere we went in Quebec, probably because they have to cram all that stuff in during the summer months.
I was starved by this point and once again our dinner reservation wasn't until late, so we stopped in at Le Commensale, which is a small regional chain of vegetarian buffet restaurants. I need them to build one of these places in Raleigh. This afternoon snack was so good that we decided to go back for lunch the next day.
Here is Ben reading a French newspaper. He picked up the local paper everywhere we went, which doesn't make much sense because together we know about 30 French words. I guess it's fun to try to figure out what's going on, though.
Quebec City is the only city left in North America with existing city walls and they were pretty impressive. You have to drive through gates to get into Old Quebec.
This part of the city wall overlooks the plain to the north of the river, and the old battlements and armories are still there. The white building is an old barracks for the soldiers.
Ben is the champion of the Chateau Frontenac!
We saw a double rainbow from the hotel room - it only rained for about five minutes. We got really lucky with the weather on this trip.
That night we had dinner at Le Moine Echanson, which was one of the food highlights of the trip. The menu was written on a large chalkboard and was all in French, but the waitress brought over a small version and tried to explain what all the things were. We basically had close to no idea what she was talking about, though.
We ordered a shared appetizer to start, which turned out to have a whitefish salad type thing, some incredible hummus, and a tagine of something?? I'm afraid it might have been lamb. I only ate a few bites of it.
I ordered this item because she said it had fish and no other meat.
It turned out to be a flatbread pizza type thing, with olives, anchovies, and arugula. I am a pretty vocal olive hater under most circumstances, but this thing was so great. The flavors all worked so well together and I just loved it. Amazing. I had read a bunch of reviews about how you can tell the people who run this restaurant really love food and care about putting together excellent dishes, and all those reviewers are absolutely correct.
Ben ordered BLOOD SAUSAGE. What.
I don't even know what all the other things are. He had a hard time with the first bite or so but he said once he got used to the idea he pretty quickly was able to appreciate that it was totally delicious.
The next day we decided to do the nature walk through the Plains of Abraham National Battlefield/Park just on the other side of the Citadel from our hotel. It was maybe an hour walk through the trees overlooking the river.
There were more cannons at the end. These were captured German cannons from World War I.
OH LOOK more cannons. This is at the edge of the Plains of Abraham, where the British and French fought in 1700s.
There were four of these towers built at one time, but one of them as been torn down.
We went to Le Commensale again for lunch!
Mmm, desserts.
So, uh, yeah, we had kind of a big lunch.
Then we walked back to the old city because Ben felt we had not adequately explored every single street. Here's another of the city gates.
He was right - there were some pretty cute areas we hadn't seen yet.
This is the deserted courtyard of the Quebec Seminary, which was very peaceful.
After this we went back to the hotel for some relaxation, but then Ben made me leave on a death march back across the Plains of Abraham to the art museum. On the way there we passed another of those defensive towers. This one is in a residential neighborhood today.
We also saw this black squirrel, who showed off for us for about five minutes while I took a bunch of pictures like an idiot. He was so fat!
Most of the art here in the Quebec City Museum of Fine Arts was Quebec-related, either historic stuff or modern art by Quebecois artists.
We sat on the patio for a while and had some coffee.
Half of the museum used to be a prison, which may still be under construction or something because there was almost nobody in there and we also couldn't find any information about why there were clearly what used to be prison cells in a museum. We had to google it when we got back to the hotel.
Can you spy what Ben wrote on the wall?
They were setting up for a Madonna concert near the Citadel the entire time we were in Quebec City. It was a huge operation - hundreds of people everywhere with heavy machinery and dozens of tents. I'm seeing Madonna in Charlotte in November and this got me all pumped up!
It is impossible not to take a million pictures of the Chateau Frontenac. It's one of the most picturesque things I have ever seen in my life.
For dinner, our last in Quebec City, we went to Panache, which is considered one of the top restaurants in the city. It was the fanciest meal I have had in quite some time. They gave us oysters as an amuse bouche, which we were both a little iffy on but ate because we are nice. They were interesting. I don't think I will ever order oysters on purpose, though.
I ordered the appetizer that said "Duck Egg: Corn, Coriander" and this is what I got. Kind of a soup or a foam or something? It was one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten in my life. The flavors were incredible. I have no idea how they made this, though.
Ben got the tomato appetizer, which was chilled but had been slow-roasted for ten hours, according to the waiter. He was pretty impressed with it.
So at this point, no more food showed up for about forty-five minutes. Our water was extremely professional and apologetic; apparently there was some kind of "problem in the kitchen." We didn't really care all that much, as we had nowhere to be, but I thought the American dude sitting at the table next to us was going to lose his mind after a while. Eep. Anyway, it finally showed up and was great. I got the arctic char with bok choy three ways, and Ben ordered Nova Scotia lobster.
Ben's lobster came out on one main plate, and then another smaller one with exactly the same items on it. For extra fanciness, I guess.
We decided to forgo the $15 desserts in favor of another ice cream cone, so we walked back through old town to find an ice cream shop. It was a blue moon! On our tenth anniversary!
I couldn't stop taking pictures of the Chateau Frontenac!
Quebec City is awesome.
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