Month: May 2026

On a day that we had nothing planned, it will be raining all day. We decided last minute to take a boat tour up the St Lawrence river to see the Montmorency Falls.

We shared a table with Leslie and Cici both from Canada ( via UK and Rhode Island). Uneventful trip but nice company. Leslie said he had an ancestor who was a surveyor and surveyed the highest mountain in India many years ago. The English decided to name the mountain after him. Mount Everest!

As we wind down, Quebec City is a place that can be a four day/three night visit for the most part. We did enjoy not having to fight the big crowds that the cruise ships will bring.

One local store owner told us Quebec City gets busy in June until September.

Still raining as we make our way to restaurant Simsemilla outside of old Quebec City.

The Montreal Canadians were playing the Buffalo Sabres tonight so it was only us and one other table at this rustic restaurant.

We chose the fixed four course meal with wine pairings and were blown away. At one point the server was explaining all the layers we had on our plate and I noticed the ingredients were moving. He explained the mixture of hot and cold was causing this. So frickin cool.

We will have fond memories of our Quebec City trip.

Today we toured the Citadelle. While waiting for the tour to start, I was the lone sentinel on duty.

They took us down to a place that had loopholes where they would fire from.

Sounds boring but got to reach the highest point in Quebec City. Nice views, glad we went.

We then passed through Porte St Louis where there were busts of Winston Churchill and FDR.

We walked outside the walls of Old Quebec City along Grande Allee to the Plains of Abraham. We went by a nice park where the flowers were starting to bloom.

From there we headed to Ave Cartier where we had some quiche at Les Cousins a neighborhood lunch spot. The area is known for its many local restaurants as well as the lamp shades they decorate their street lights with.

For dinner we went nearby to BEClub. The naming convention is short for Quebec-club. It was a small restaurant where the owner served the customers and was very engaging.

We ordered the”orange wine” which is a thing here and a specialty wine. There is nothing “orangey” about it but tasted nice.

At one point the owner wanted to take our picture for his restaurant’s social media account when our entrees arrived. He said being by the window, the orange wine and the fact that we were photogenic would be great. I can’t argue with the guy; we’re adorable!

Seriously, best meal we’ve had yet. Even better than meals we had in Paris.

Bon appetite .

Spent time doing what we like best which is just walking around Old Quebec City. Still chilly here so Beth went shopping for gloves.

Went inside Notre Dame church. It was nice ( and warm).

We continued our “walk n’ talk” down to the town mural.

Next was Place Royale which was a quaint plaza.

Beth at this point was in full shopping mode. She got a Christmas ornament and a bucket hat for gardening!

There were a few things I would have liked to do (like a private tour of Chateau Frontenac) but these were already booked before we got here and it’s not even crowded yet. Lesson learned.

Tonight we are going to take a 30 minute walk (actually it’s 25 minutes, the other 5 minutes is me looking at my phone trying to determine where we are) to restaurant le cocher Penché. It is outside the walled city of old Quebec City so it should be interesting walking the “mean streets of Quebec”.

Dinner was great. The restaurant has a Michelin star but not overly fancy. As we sat and had dinner, we watched the few cooks in the kitchen and a couple servers seamlessly handle everything. Merci.

Since Massachusetts is close to Canada, we decided to take a trip to Old Quebec City. We are staying at Hotel du Vieux Quebec. It’s one week before their tourist season begins so it’s not that crowded. Temps are still cool here 40 – 50 degrees.

We took a short walk down to Chateau Frontenac. Walked inside as well. It has such an old world feel to it.

For dinner, we will head down to le lapin Sauté restaurant in the Petit Champlain area. The restaurant is known for rabbit and duck which I had in a casserole. Not bad, first time having rabbit. We also had a traditional poutine (with rabbit added). Poutine is basically fries, cheese curds and gravy (we chose mustard) but is basically food you eat when it’s 3:00 in the morning and you’re drunk.

We walked down to the Petit Champlain area using the “breakneck stairs”.

After dinner we took the funiculaire back up instead of making the long climb back to the hotel. Hard to pass up on something that starts with the word “fun”!

Bonne Nuit.