Our Quebec City Honeymoon
Seven months after our unforgettable destination wedding, Jessica and I headed off to Quebec City to enjoy a week-long honeymoon.
While most couples do something more local for their wedding and then fly to a destination for their honeymoon, we did things the other way around in that our destination wedding rationalized a honeymoon that was closer to home.
Granted, from our hometown Hamilton, driving distance to Quebec City is 8.5 hours non-stop so it’s not necessarily “local” but it would be novel and had the romantic vibe we were looking for.
After attending an amazing concert by the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan at the Budweiser stadium in Toronto the day before, we were pumped up and ready to take to the road.
Upon arriving in the city, we located our lodging for the first six nights. Given the length of our stay, we decided to go the route of renting a loft instead of a hotel for a more homey feel and the place we stayed at — Les Lofts St-Joseph — did a marvelous job at that. The building was constructed a century ago in 1918, and a recent 2015 renovation had repurposed some of its original elements such as window frames, locks, and elevator doors into mirror frames, door handles, and bed headboards. On top of this, our loft had sweeping ceilings and a combination of stone and exposed brick walls — it was super modern and we fell in love with the place instantly.
One of the most distinct features of Quebec City you’ll immediately notice is that the entire city is based on a large hill. Historically, this was done for defence purposes for the colony of New France and in fact the name Quebec itself is named after the Native word “Kebec” which means “place where the river narrows” in reference to the St. Lawrence seaway.
Our loft was located at the very base of this hill which meant everyday we’d have to walk up hundreds of steps through a sloping streetscape to reach the core of the city, each level up a different personality than the one before it.
Tired from a long day of driving and needing to refuel, we decided to celebrate our arrival to the city by ordering our first poutine of the vacation at PoutineVille, conveniently located across the street from our loft. This was the perfect way to end our first night in Quebec City.
DAY TWO
We awoke the next morning to find three pylons surrounding our street-parked car but no ticket was served — we wondered if this was some sort of prank on Ontarians and quickly hopped in the car before someone could grant us a fine.
Our first full day exploring Quebec City actually begins in a borough over a bridge outside of mainland Quebec in what’s known as La Cité-Limoilounektar. This area was far less touristy and walking through the street gave us a better sense of the community and people who call the area home. We stopped by a coffee shop and enjoyed some warm beverages and croissants, naturally.
We then proceeded to purchase groceries for our loft’s kitchen and ditched the car in a parking garage to work our way up the hill by foot. We discovered a baffling number of local shops and restaurants; everything seemed to have that vintage appeal with a hint of modern flair. The +30° heat had us sweating by the time we reached Rue Saint-Jean — only halfway up the hill.
We made our way to the city’s main drag known as Grande Allée E (which turns into Rue Saint Louis) and began to explore the Plains of Abraham next to it, but quickly conceited to being famished. Excited to have our first Quebec patio meal together, we decided on sangria and sandwiches at Taverne Grande Allée. As I ate my smoked meat on rye sandwich (which was phenomenal), looking out onto the street I noticed that this particular street appeared to have outdoor patios as permanent fixtures outside of their restaurants. While they may not be usable during the winter, the entire street has patios with wrought iron fencing. If that wasn’t enough, the city has gone even further by allowing patio extensions that effectively double the length of the patio space by taking away lanes from the street. What you’re left with is only two lanes of road for cars (which must drive slow out of necessity) and the rest is reclaimed by pedestrians and patio-goers. Now THIS is a model more cities should be taking example from!
Following this, we walked the boardwalk around the city’s signature building — Fairmont le Château Frontenac. The boardwalk, known as Dufferin Terrace, is actually elevated above a Parks Canada historical site known as Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux National Historic Site. We paid to do a tour of this area, which actually begins by walking down a set of stairs below the boardwalk!
It was during this tour that I learned the most about the founding of Quebec City and by extension, Canada itself. Having just celebrated the country’s 150th birthday in Ottawa the year prior, my interest in learning the origins of Canada continues to grow and I found this tour — among a few others I’ll soon discuss — very humbling. Following an underwhelming dinner at London Jack restaurant down the hill, we hit the sheets exhausted from trekking in the day’s heatwave.
DAY THREE
The next morning Jessica and I got up early to drive to Quebec’s premier water park known as Valcartier Vacation Village. The water park claims to have over 35 water slides and had great reviews online but I wasn’t mentally prepared for just how awesome this place actually was.
The first slide we chose to partake in was their scariest, aptly named “Everest”. Their website states that it’s the highest accelerating slide in North America and I believe them. It stands 33.5 meters high and leans at 70°, which appears much steeper in person than on paper. You ride head-first on a flimsy mat down a slide you can’t even see down until you’ve inched half your body over the edge. Talk about exhilarating!
Other favourites included the “Pirates Hideout”, “The Spiral”, “The Waterfalls” (which was a cascading tube ride we nicknamed Crazy River due to the insane buildup of riders bumping into each other), and “Amazon” (a Jungle-themed lazy river which slowly became more turbulent as it progressed). We were really impressed with the decor put into the rides and the perceived lack of safety compared to Ontario parks. Even though we were celebrating our marriage, a mature landmark in our adult lives, this day at the water park truly brought us back to levels of pure childhood delight.
Next, we drove back to Les Lofts to shower and change, then headed across the street again to PoutineVille, this time for hamburgers and cheap $5 cocktails. Round 1 was mojitos; round 2 was a piña colada for Jess and a Mai Tai for myself. Feeling refreshed, we climbed the hill again to see Jethro Tull, our first performance as part of the yearly Festival d’été de Quebec (Quebec Summer Festival) which happened to land during the time we had scheduled the honeymoon for.
This year was Jethro Tull’s 50th year anniversary as a band, so it was a special performance to witness. Throughout the show, there were tribute and shout out videos from various band members and other famous musicians who have been inspired by them throughout the years. Frontman Ian Anderson performed his iconic style while switching between guitar, harmonica, and flute throughout the show. We concluded the evening with cocktails yet again at PoutineVille, round 3: mojitos.
DAY FOUR
This day started out leisurely before heading up to Rue Saint-Jean for lunch at Bol et Poké. This was Jessica’s first time having poke and gave the spot two thumbs up; one for the food and one for the relaxing courtyard patio we were able to enjoy it in! For dessert, we walked a few doors down to Blender bar à Jus to share a brownie together. Wanting to explore as many food establishments as possible, eating meals at one restaurant and dessert at another would become common practice throughout our trip.
The next historical landmark we chose to explore was La Citadelle de Quebec. Led by our hilariously unkempt tour guide William, we learned that the star-shaped citadel is the only fortress north of Mexico and was built in 1820 on Cap Diamant (the place of high elevation overlooking the city and surrounding area), in anticipation of future attacks from the States following the War of 1812. Cap Diamant was misnamed because French explorer Jacques Cartier thought he found diamonds there, but turns out they were just quartz.
Before the War of 1812, the rulers of power did not see it necessary to build such an encompassing fortress structure due to the strategic location and protection of the high cliffs the military base and city sat upon. After proven wrong, they built the structure in a shape of a star, with points called bastions, allowing for visibility of all angles from the fortress. It encapsulates part of the fortification of Old Quebec City as well and in 1980 became a National Historic Site of Canada. Five years later, the citadel was named a World Heritage Site in conjunction with Old Quebec.
The fortress is still active today, housing the Canadian Forces’ Royal 22E Régiment. The regiment was established when the British troops left in 1871 shortly after the Canadian Confederation in 1867. It is law to refer to the regiment as 22E (vingt-deux) and not 22nd (twenty-second) because naming conventions state they must be referred to in the official language of the regiment.
After this informative tour, we checked out the citadel’s museum and then walked down to explore Old Quebec. Today was a little chillier than previous, so we warmed up inside of Pub D’Orsay for some spiked coffee, spiked hot chocolate, and crème brûlée. Next, we walked down Breakneck Steps to Rue de Petit Champlain, a narrow, pedestrian-only street located below Dufferin Terrace. The district around this street holds many touristy boutiques and bistros. The sound of beautiful and eclectic music caught our ears and we stopped to enjoy street-performer Philippe Gagne for some time before moving on.
For supper, we stopped at Sapristi and shared a bottle of rosé with our appetizer arancini, which is a fried mushroom-risotto ball with truffle oil and bacon — it was absolutely mouthwatering. I had the mac n’ cheese with 5 cheeses and bacon while Jess had the duck confit pasta. At the end of the meal, they gave us a postcard with the bill!
Instead of walking back up the stairs to Old Quebec, this time we took the Funiculaire (their working incline rail)!
From there, we headed to the main Festival d’été stage to see Neil Young perform! Overall, the show was slower than we anticipated, but highlights included “Keep on Rocking in the Free World”, “Hey Hey My My”, and of course the encore “Harvest Moon”.
DAY FIVE
Since we had missed the changing of the guards the day before, we decided to check it out at 10 am the next morning. It was a very elaborately choreographed ceremony that lasted just over half an hour. We enjoyed seeing the Vingt-Deux in costume and playing music, but perhaps most of all we enjoyed the goat. That’s right — it’s tradition that the regimental mascot be a goat named Batisse. They dress him up in ceremonious gowns and strut him about during the changing of the guards. The first goat was given to the regiment by Queen Victoria and they are currently on their 11th Batisse.
Next, we walked down to Old Quebec for a three-hour walking local and historical food tour. The excited and passionate tour guide, Sebastian, assured us that all the places on the tour use locally-sourced items in their dishes.
The first stop was Chic Shack, where we tried some poutine with ale-braised beef and parmesan. The word “poutine” means “a mix”. We learned that poutine might have originated from when Quebecers would go to their cottages on the weekends and stop by fry shacks along the way. One shack was situated on or beside a dairy farm and someone had the idea to combine the fries and cheese curds — voila! One thing that Sebastian was firm on was that you can alter the potato, you can alter the gravy, but you must have the cheese curds for it to be authentic. The squeakier the curds, the fresher!
The second stop was at La Bûche, which means “log” or wood, not to be confused with “bouche”, which means “mouth” (this is likely a deliberate play on the word). On theme, there were lots of wooden design features inside, including wooden toboggans and snowshoes hung from the ceiling. Dishes are based on the chef’s grandmother’s recipes, so it’s all traditional-style food. We ate pâté chinois, a deconstructed shepherd’s pie with a sweeter sauce, which was absolutely delicious. Then, pea soup made with yellow peas and served in a mug. This is a very traditional French dish and in fact, the British used to call French-Canadians “Pea Soup” because of how often they ate it, and also because it sounds a bit like a French word that means “coward”. The final course was beautiful smoked salmon on a stick. Then as we stepped outside of the restaurant, we were invited to roll our own maple taffy on ice; another traditional treat for young children in Quebec, and according to Sebastian, “Quebec children would be served this and then let run wild in the bush”. Jessica and I enjoyed La Bûche so much that we already decided it’ll be our first food stop the next time we’re in the city.
Our third stop was Paillard, an Italian-style bakery, for a classic croissant and much-needed water. After this, we headed to Chez Boulay Comptoir Boréal for sucre à la crème, which is a sugar, cream, vanilla, and butter mix similar to fudge but creamier. The interior of the cafe had hundreds of hanging paper trees from the ceiling, creating a magical atmosphere. Our fifth and final food stop was at Be-Club Bistro, where we enjoyed some red wine paired with mac n’ cheese with bacon. It was a beautiful venue with exposed brick walls, central hanging light fixture that was visible from both the first and second floor, and a suave basement wine cellar.
Along the tour we also stopped at some notable historical sites, such as Dufferin Terrace, an old prison, a restored monastery, an Irish church, and the Morren Centre library. We learned about Marie de L’Incarnation, whose statue resides at the Ursuline Monastery of Quebec City — home of the Ursuline Sisters who were the first Catholic nuns to land here. Marie was sent here to teach children the religious ways because as Sebastian noted, when the French came over, they noticed that “there was a pool of [native] souls … that were lost!”. This building became a national historic site of Canada in 1972. While at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, we learned that it was built by the British shortly after confederation so that if the monarch should visit, they would have a suitable place to pray. This church was also made a national historic site of Canada in 1989.
After the food tour, we walked up to the Plains of Abraham, and now that it was decent weather (not too hot and not too cold!) we walked around the greenery and pathways there. We found ourselves at Martello tower #1, where we learned about a 3-part tour that we would partake in later on in our trip (it was too late in the day on Saturday already).
So then, naturally, we went to another food venue, Le Sacrilège on Rue St-Jean, which was recommended by the food tour booklet we received. This time, we just sat in their gorgeous, central courtyard patio and enjoyed the chill retreat from the busy streets while sipping on a $12 pitcher of Boreal Rousse beer.
Next, we went to Le Project micro brewery, also recommended by the food tour. I had a beer and a pork flan confit with potato salad and quail eggs. Jess had sausage with homemade mustard and pickled veggies. This restaurant was crazy busy so it was really loud and the food was just okay, but that might have been our choice in dishes.
For dessert, we went to Crêperie-bistro Le Billig (also recommended by the food tour). Jess had “La Tatin” crepe which consisted of caramelized apples and vanilla ice cream. I had “La Brûlée” crepe, with apples and crème brûlée chunks. You don’t need us to confirm how delicious these choices were.
Absolutely stuffed from the day’s intake, we walked back to Les Lofts, had some beers on the rooftop patio of the building, played Bananagrams, and watched the movie Coco on Netflix before drifting off to sleep.
DAY SIX
After being in the hot sun for the past few days — especially at the water park and on the food tour — the first thing we did on Sunday was walk four doors down to the Metro to pick up some aloe vera for our slight burns. We also grabbed some provisions for lunch, since we were planning on visiting Montmorency Falls.
Montmorency Falls is the famous waterfall just outside Quebec City that claims to be taller than Niagara Falls. We drove here and walked along the falls, across a suspended bridge, and down a large set of stairs that grant you many opportunities to snap a picture. You can actually get quite close to the falls (and quite wet) at the bottom.
Some more Canadian-defining history: During the Seven Years’ War, a battle in July 1759 was won by the French General, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, at this site against the British. The French’s height advantage with the falls as well as British General, James Wolfe, being somewhat misinformed about the layout of this area contributed to the French victory. Both Generals would perish later on in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September 1759.
There is a zip-line option across the falls at the top, but we opted to spend our money instead on the cable cars back up to the parking lot instead of climbing all the stairs! Pro tip: park on the streets outside the park and walk in if you want to save $12–15 and time navigating the lot.
Next, we drove to the nearby Île-d’Orléans, which is a large island right across the St. Lawrence from Quebec City. We took in the sights and drove a loop around the entire island (which takes about an hour). There’s mostly foliage, cottages, and little shops along the main roadway. For lunch, we stopped at a lookout point at the southernmost point of the island, looking toward the city, and ate the sushi we bought earlier at Metro.
After this, we stopped at one of the many, many strawberry stands and picked up a basket of fresh, juicy berries to munch on. Then, we pulled over to a local artisans’ sidewalk sale and while we couldn’t afford any of the artwork, I did pick up a small card depicting a larger painting I took quite a liking to.
At the northernmost point of the island, we climbed another lookout tower that overlooked some farmland and the river toward Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area.
Our final stop of the island self-tour was at Les Fromages de d’Îsle d’Orléans. This shop hand-makes cheese the traditional way, using the method that was first made here circa 1635! We got some cheeses, strawberry butter, and apple syrup, but no cheese curds today because they were in the process of making up for another batch that didn’t turn out well due the hot weather! After this, we drove back to the city and relaxed for a bit at the loft.
For dinner, we walked to Chez Boulay in the old city, which is the sister restaurant to the cafe that we visited previously on the food tour. Sitting outside on the patio, Jess enjoyed a glass of red wine while I had a white, both from Quebec. We shared an appetizer plate of smoked seafood: smoked salmon with balsam fir, smoked eel lacquered with birch syrup, smoked herring from the Îles de la Madeleine, salted dip, and tapenade of violin heads and garlic flowers — this was all served on a picturesque glass serving board with greenery underneath. Finally I got to try what real eel should taste like!
For the mains, I had the roasted farm chicken breast, roasted cauliflower with sage, cauliflower purée with camelina oil, and skin crumble (I don’t know why I continue to hope that cauliflower can be tasty, even in the fanciest of restaurants). Jess had the braised beef cheek with organic red currant vinegar, mashed potatoes with hazelnut butter, and glazed carrots which she reported was beyond expectations.
When we asked our server why the top part of the B in the Boulay signage is chopped off, he explained that it’s likely because all of the restaurant’s ingredients are sourced above the 46th parallel (i.e. the latitude where Quebec City begins and contains most of Canada).
For dessert, we walked across the now pedestrian-only Rue Saint-Jean (the road was closed during festival event hours) to Paillard again, this time for gelato and sorbet. Jess had pistachio and banana flavours, while I had pistachio and raspberry flavours.
We walked down the street with these in hand, enjoying the views and bustling atmosphere. We ended up on one of the Old Quebec City walls (which were really high up and WAY too accessible for public safety), watching one of the festival music stages from afar. It was a French performer and this was an incredible view of both the stage and the audience in front of it!
Satisfied with the day’s adventures, we headed home to bed.
DAY SEVEN
To start off Monday, July 9th, we packed up our things from Les Lofts, checked out, and went next door for coffee, hot chocolate, and banana bread French toast at Stat Café. After that, we perused through some furniture stores on the street that had previously caught our eye, one of which was Artemano.
Here we learned about the Suar tree from Indonesia and how it grows so fast that you cannot trace any concentric lines to tell the age, unlike most trees. They source most of their wood from Asia, but do have Canadian pieces as well. As stunning as the tables were, we settled on three bronze-coloured geometric candle holders for our dining room table as a Quebec memento.
Next, we drove to the Port de Quebec to take some photos of the old city skyline before heading over to the Aquarium du Quebec. Highlights here included plenty of amazing jellyfish (there was one particular tank with humongous ones that were simply mesmerizing), seahorses, fresh and saltwater fish, a walrus show (lots of clapping, high-fiving, spitting water, rolling over, etc), and two polar bears trying to shade from the sun (one was sunbathing his bottom half only!).
After eating some Beavertail desserts while cooling down inside from the sun, we drove back to the city and dropped off our luggage at the Fairmont le Château Frontenac for a luxurious two-night stay. They upgraded us to a king suite on the 9th floor because it was our honeymoon! This would allow us to have a view of the hotel courtyard facing the river. When we arrived at the room, there was a letter greeting us as Madame and Monsieur Cekan, celebrating our special occasion with a bucket of maple-themed items and a gift certificate for two free cocktails at the hotel! The classical decor of the hotel was in stark contrast to the modern theme of the loft.
Not much younger than Canada itself, 2018 was the hotel’s 125th anniversary. We learned that this “castle” has always been a hotel and never a place exclusively for governors or royalty. The reason it’s so extravagant (and important) is because it was the start of the Ontario railway that would connect those entering Canada from the St. Lawrence to the rest of the country. The Château Frontenac is also a world heritage site (is everything in Old Quebec City a world heritage site?!).
Jess and I took some photos around the hotel and made our way down to the hotel’s Bistro le SAM, named after Samuel de Champlain, the French “discoverer” of New France (aka the one who decided to set up a trading post that would become Quebec City and eventually the launch point of Canada).
We sipped back two free cocktails as per our VIP hotel status for the night. I had a negroni for the first time, the contents of which were served on a wooden slab in tall glass containers (resembling test tubes) for me to mix personally. Jess had a drink with coconut milk, gin, and rum, which tasted similar to a mojito. For dinner, I had the duck leg confit and Jess had the salmon filet confit.
After our meal, we walked back to the festival main stage for our final concert of the trip — Foo Fighters! Armed with a mini bottle of a sweet alcohol given to us in the hotel gift basket and caramel popcorn in Jess’ purse, we made our way up as close to the stage as we could manage and quickly realized that we had made a grave mistake… we did not check the weather report.
As ponchos started popping up everywhere in the crowd Roller Coaster Tycoon-style, it began pouring down on us for the 30–40 minute period before the show was scheduled to start. Thankfully, right as the Foo Fighters began to play, the rain stopped for the remainder of the evening. Dave Grohl said that the last time they played in the city three years ago, they got pelted with rain also and then had to cancel the show half way through because it started storming, but he wouldn’t let that happen tonight.
They had so much energy, switched up the song performances from the recorded versions, gave us plenty of solos, Queen covers, and cheeky commentary… it was everything you wish a Foo Fighters show to be. Grohl even played the drums for one song.
They opened with “All My Life”, followed by “Learn to Fly” and “The Sky is a Neighbourhood” (featuring backup vocals). They also played “The Pretender”, “Monkeywrench”, and many other favourites… there were hardly any songs that we weren’t familiar with. Taylor Hawkins (the drummer) played and sang one song while his drum set was elevated into the air on a hydraulic crank! During “My Hero”, there was a period of time where the band stopped playing and everyone just sang along. During another song, they demanded everyone to put on their cellphone lights (much like lighters) and sway… that really lit up the crowd! Their closer was, of course, “Everlong”. What a show.
It was then time to hit the hay for our first night at the Château Frontenac.
DAY EIGHT
We slept in Tuesday, got ready, and took pictures around the hotel (both inside and on the boardwalk), before making our way up to Grande Allée E to have lunch at Bar L’Inox. Sitting on the patio, we wanted to taste some of their advertised maple beers, but these were unfortunately out of season or out of stock (either way, none for us). So instead, Jess had a blonde stout and I had a black current sour beer (both from Quebec). We shared a “parmesan fondue” with locally smoked salmon, which ended up being more like cheesy scones rather than liquid fondue (they were still tasty though). We also shared nachos with sweet pulled pork.
Next we went to the Plains of Abraham Museum, intent on catching the 2 pm tour bus. The attendant remembered us from the other day when we popped in to Martello tower #1. Unfortunately, the 2 pm tour bus was booked full and the next English tour bus would be 4 pm, so we bought tickets to that instead.
Meanwhile, we viewed the museum exhibits as per the attendant’s suggested route of attack. There was a mini theatre where we saw a pretty good half hour movie recap of the war between Montcalm and Wolfe. Then we voted on some high-school students’ re-creations of historical artifacts (Jess chose the dogsled and I chose the tambourine).
Throughout the museum there was a lady dressed in traditional French-Canadian attire who wandered around the exhibits and chatted with us in full character. She asked if Jess was British because of the red dress she happened to be wearing, then asked if we were married. Since we were indeed legally wed, she stated it was okay that we were holding hands. Next she asked Jessica how old I was and demanded to know why, as someone between the age of 18–60, I was not serving in the army like her own noble husband was. This conversation made us giggle and really added to the museum experience.
The lap of the museum brought us right to 4 pm, catching the tour bus around the plains, where another in-character employee acted as our tour guide. She proclaimed herself to be Abraham’s wife and said the plains were called so because everyone would always ask her where to find her husband and she would say, “He’s in the plains! Abraham’s on the plains!”.
She also showed us some trinkets of the time, including a spoon made of cow horn, playing cards that were used much in the same way that a cheque is used today, and a stack of sticks roped together used to clean dishes with.
We were pointed to some statues along the plains, including where General Wolfe died on the field, “pompously in the middle of a roundabout”. The tour guide then said that Montcalm died as he was shot in the back, insinuating that he was running away like a coward.
She said that her and Abraham’s eldest son was the first child of the New World, a feat she was quite proud of. She was also elated that the French were the original designers of the Citadelle’s Bastian design and of the Martello towers, which the British copied from Europe and built in Quebec.
For the third leg of our Plains of Abraham tour, Jess and I hopped off the bus and went back to Martello Tower #1, now ready to explore inside it. Included in our ticket was a virtual guided iPad tour which allowed you to scan the QR codes of certain exhibits to experience “virtual reality”, which was really just a crummy 2D image that the iPad would hover over top of the thing you were looking at… we had a good laugh at this feature.
Anyway, as I said earlier, the four towers were built in preparation for future American attacks. Unfortunately, within about 10 years of being built, their 1–3 metre-wide stone walls were deemed obsolete by new cannon technology; cannon balls were no longer round spheres, but shaped more like bullets and shot out at twisty angles for a more powerful punch. The towers also had built-in cisterns underneath them, collecting rain-water, intended to cool down weapons after use… but the towers were never actually tested in battle. One of the towers has been torn down completely at some point to make room for another building, a familiar story of many historic structures in our hometown of Hamilton.
After the Martello Tower tour was complete, we went back to Le Sacrilège for a cheap pitcher of beer in their beautiful courtyard. Then, knowing that we were leaving the next day, we raced against the remaining daylight to capture photos of our favourite streets.
This led us to back down to Rue du Petit-Champlain, where I bought Jess a Little Prince-themed cookie jar from a boutique (a fitting French souvenir of her favourite book).
We walked further through the streetscape than we had before and saw the oldest church in Canada (or at least, it was the oldest church still standing with its original stonework), Notre-Dame-des-Victoires. Built in 1723, it’s also one of the oldest churches in North America and is of course a National Historic Site of Canada. Apparently it’s also in the film Catch Me If You Can!
We found a swanky restaurant to eat supper at, l’Échaudé. Here, we shared a bottle of white wine and an appetizer of three different tartars. For mains, Jess had the gnocchi with lobster and I had beef flank steak.
After this, we walked back to the Château Frontenac for our final night’s stay and discovered some complimentary chocolate-covered strawberries with another note left by the hotel!
DAY NINE
On Wednesday, July 11th, we sadly packed up our things and checked out of the hotel. During the morning sunrise, we decided to take another walk about Dufferin Terrace and take some more photos of the magnificent castle-like building we had the pleasure of staying in. Then, we bought some last-minute souvenirs (a magnet for my collection and a Quebec City-themed picture frame). By 11 am, we gathered the car and took off for Ontario! It was sad to leave, but wow what a trip it was.
