Quebec City - C’est merveilleux!! - Cherry Picking North America

August 18, 2019 to August 21, 2019

Quebec City - C’est merveilleux!!

Programming note: I am trying something different for the moment. When there is any cycling involved in a part of the journey, I will post the same blog about it both here and over on thepricesofwandering. When, for example on the Gaspe, we are not cycling at all, I won't post here. Hope that doesn't end up being too confusing!

We rolled into Quebec City early enough, and quickly found out that it is truly a large city! Looking for a Tourist Information centre, we followed signs off the highway, only to get ourselves lost in the outskirts of the city. Feeling a little frustrated, we decided to stop for coffee, and thankfully found a fantastic little coffee shop that made us begin to fall in love with Quebec City. Of course, the great coffee, yummy pastries and interesting décor were helped immensely by the very friendly and helpful young woman who allowed us to once again butcher her language. We love the many people we have encountered so far in Quebec who have (for us at least) made a lie of the statement that Quebecers are not welcoming to us poor non-francophone folks. They are always abundantly helpful and make a point of listening carefully to our attempts at French, never making us feel bad for any misuse of the language. What absolutely delightful people! Merci beaucoup, nos amis! And, of course, merci beaucoup to Google Translate as well. Even though the translation is often awkward and not totally correct, it allows us to get the idea across, lol!

Our little coffee stop finished, we decided that we should first check out a place to stay for the night. Again, using iOverlander, we headed for a location on the river not too far from Old Quebec. As it turned out, this little spot was right along the Corridor du Littoral, a 50 km bikeway that goes along the St. Lawrence and ends in Old Montreal. Having located a great place to stay, we headed into Old Quebec to check out the Citadel for the remainder of the afternoon. There are so many places we want to see while in Quebec City, it will be hard to fit it all in!

I sure woudn't want to have to stand there for hours on end on a hot and sunny day!

Looking over the Plains of Abraham, where some very important battles were fought many years ago that helped to determine how Canada would end up.

Sightseeing for this day done, we needed to do one very important thing before we could even think of dinner and settling down. SHOWERS! One of the tricky parts of this lifestyle is managing to have a shower. As you may or may not have noticed, we don’t shower every day. I know, I know. This is probably getting into that TMI area, but, I am trying to keep it real for anyone thinking this way of living is so totally glamorous. There are some little things that you just have to give up – like having a shower every day. So, it had been a few days, and we were feeling very grimy. Luckily, someone had posted on iOverlander that at Parc de la Plage Jacques Cartier, they had free showers! Well, this was not to be passed up, so we headed over, not really thinking that it was a sunny Sunday afternoon and the park might be just a little busy. When we arrived, we found that the parking lot for the beach area was full. We ended up parking in the overflow lot, which was above the beach, requiring us to hike down a fairly steep hill (15% grade!) to get there. Undaunted, we packed up our towels and soap and headed down. It was when we were about halfway down that we realized we should have brought snacks and water with us so we could actually enjoy the park, but by then it was too late. Neither of us wanted to hike back up only to come down again. So, we pushed on, arriving at the bottom knowing that after our refreshing showers we would have to redo the climb. We did go for a little walk, which convinced us that we would have to return to this park later in the week, not only for a free shower, but to enjoy the park as well.

Great little park - too bad we didn't bring some water and snacks down with us!

Clean and happy, we trudged back up the hill, putting a new and fresh layer of sweat on our clean bodies. We didn’t want to go to our parking lot camp spot too early though, so we opted to hang out along La promenade Samuel De Champlain, which is part of the bike route along the river. This large green space had parking for vehicles along the road and was being well used by all sorts of people on this warm Sunday afternoon. We wandered up for quite a ways, enjoying the atmosphere before finally settling down to eat our dinner and then setting out the chairs to just relax, read and soak up the late afternoon sun. What a blissful place!

An interesting art display of old light fixtures

A nice misting station. Interestingly, it didn't go right across the bike path. You would think that's where it SHOULD be!

What a great way to relax at the end of our day

In the morning we knew there was some rain in the forecast once again, but thought we could get in a short ride before it showed up. We headed north along the bike route and were so impressed with this really great bike corridor. This is what we had hoped to find when we decided to cycle the Route Verte -a separated bike route lining the river. Coming to the old part of the city, we missed the signs which would have taken us further north and ended up on the route along the St. Charles River, which ended up being just absolutely delightful. We did end up being caught in a bit of a shower, sheltering under a bridge as it passed, but we managed to return before the heavier rains came.

The old streets in lower Old Quebec City

Not sure what this building is, but wow! Pretty cool!!!

A good place to take cover from the rain

Some beautiful plantings we saw along the way

These were a series of horses that were donated to Quebec City from Calgary as part of their 400 year celebration

As we couldn’t very well spend the afternoon in a parking lot (well, not this one at any rate), we drove to the Maguire neighbourhood were we found Maguire’s Bagels. Enjoying hot, fresh bagels (which we will assume would pass the Grampies’ test of a good bagel) and our coffee, we whiled away as much time as we could. From there, as the weather was improving a bit, we headed back to the park Jacques Cartier, where we put up the blinds on our windows and actually took an afternoon siesta! Later, we went for a delightful walk before making dinner. This is where we ran into just a little trouble. There are signs posted in the park (complete with pictures for those of use who don’t read French), telling the rules. We checked and there wasn’t anything about fires or cooking, but there was a clear sign about no alcohol. Ok, so, we got out the stove and were, thankfully, done with most of the heating up part when a lady in her official looking park high viz vest same over and let us know that no, no, there was no cooking allowed. Hmmm…..well, since we had already heated up what we needed, we put the stove away and managed to eat our not quite hot enough dinner. It was a little unsettling to see her stay near where we were, trimming some bushes. I’m not sure if she was really trimming or just watching to see that we didn’t start up the stove again, but whatever. We finished our dinner (not bringing out our wine, since the signs clearly indicated this was not allowed) and as we walked back to the van to put things away, we once again checked the signs. Yep, there was no indication that fires were not allowed – how odd. We decided to take the chairs down near the beach and read for a while, and as we walked over, we couldn’t help but notice some folks with their wine glasses out on their picnic tables. Although it was tempting to go over and suggest to our guardian that these people were clearly not following the actually posted rules, we decided instead, to go with the flow and bring our wine down with us – after all, when in Rome, right? And, of course, no one even batted an eye at this infraction. Ah well, lesson learned. Fires (which are not posted) – no! Wine (that is clearly posted) – yes! Go figure!!!

Late in the day, we headed back to our parking lot for the night. We were actually parking on a quiet dirt road behind the parking lot, behind which was a tennis court and a boat yard. When we arrived, quite late, people were still playing tennis, so we parked down the road a bit, next to the boat yard. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as very very early in the morning, workers were banging and grinding away at the boat yard (at 6:30 in the morning for Pete’s sake!!!). Oops!

For our second day here, the sun was supposed to shine all day and even though it was tempting to go for a ride, we decided to get into Old Quebec early so that we would a) have enough energy to walk endlessly around and b) get a place to park! We parked along the water, thinking that it would be easier getting in and out by car from here – a good call, as it turned out. We arrived when there was plenty of parking and took the Funicular up the the Chateau Frontenac, a fantastic (and pretty expensive) old hotel that is a must see on the serious tourist’s agenda. After our morning coffee, (Starbucks – I know, I know, sacrilege!!!), we wandered along the Dufferin Terrace where we came upon the toboggan slide which is open during the winter. It has been in operation since 1884!!! What a cool thing to be able to do!! Almost makes it worth spending the winter (almost!).

We spent a very enjoyable rest of our morning and afternoon meandering around the beautiful streets of Old Quebec, stopping here and there to take pictures. If you ever come here, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to just wander. It is truly just so delightful and we were so happy to have made the time to do this. Eventually, we needed some sustenance. We thought briefly about stopping at the Aux Anciens Canadiens, which features authentic Quebec cuisine and had come highly recommended by my friend, Judy, who lived in Quebec City for a number of years. However, the menu was a bit heavy for this time of day for us, and so we chose instead to head over to Le Casse Crepe Breton, for some very wonderful crepes and coffee – thanks, Julie, for the suggestion! Of course, there is probably nowhere in this town that is not good to eat in, but we really did enjoy this place, not only for the food, but also for the extremely friendly staff.

Our light lunch finished, we headed towards the steps that would take us back down to the lower city. Quebec City was a fortified city, with the upper part protected by a wall and the lower part (where we were parked) out of luck if there was any attack. Lucky for us, the days of attacks (other than being mobbed by tourists) are long gone and instead, the many many shops along the stairway made it an enjoyable trip down. Along the way, I even managed to stop in and purchase a new chapeau! I love my hat, but in the sunny weather I wear it continually, so a second hat seems like a good idea – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Lol!

With some time still left in the day, and the sun shining warmly on us, we decided to drive out to Montmorency Falls, a very short 5 kms from where we were. If we had stayed on the original path we were on yesterday, our bike ride would have taken us here! We drove up the incredibly steep hill to the top of the falls where we were able to walk across on the suspension bridge, watching people do the zip line across the falls. It would have been a pretty neat thing to do, but at $27.00 per person, it was not in the budget. Well, actually, if Jim had wanted to wait in the long long line to do it, I would have totally waited for him, but for some reason, he also chose not to partake. I, of course, was simply not dressed for such an adventure on this day – lucky me! Later, we parked at the lower parking lot and were able to walk up to the bottom of the falls, getting soaked by the spray and totally loving its cooling effect.

Going across the suspension bridge - it was a looooong way down!

Finished with our tourist bits for this day, we again drove over to our now favourite spot, the Jacques Cartier Park to eat the cold dinner that we had planned (along with some nice cold white wine). What a pleasant way to end the day, and a popular one as evidenced by the very full parking lot that we found! We stayed until the sun went down, only then heading to our parking lot camping spot – this time staying in the actual parking lot to avoid the noisy boat yard!

Our final day in Quebec City was supposed to begin with a bike ride heading south along the cycleway. We were up, dressed and eating a light breakfast when the rain, which was supposed to hold off until later in the morning, began to fall – rats!!!! Once again, rain had foiled our well laid cycling plans! With nothing else to do (don’t even suggest that we should have cycled in the rain – nope! No way!!!), we changed into street clothes and headed up to our now favourite bagel shop, which just so happened to be right down the street from the library. Well fed and warmed up with coffee, we spent the bulk of the day working on what you are reading now, plus getting the blogs for the past few days up and ready to post. I am thinking that some of you are going to say that we spend far too much time working on the blog and Youtube videos, but you have to understand that we enjoy working on them both - well, most of the time, that is – I have to admit to a few “tabarnak”s out of frustration from time to time. Eventually, when this trip is long over, we will forget the details of our journey and so reading this blog and watching our videos will be as much fun for us as we hope they are for you now.

Pretty fun to see how they make them too! Steve, is this authentic enough?

This day is a wash, and tomorrow may bring more rain, but we are heading off to the Gaspe Peninsula, so the rain won’t bother us. Hopefully we will get some sunshine in while we explore yet another place that we have long heard about! Can’t wait!!!

Post script

Well, funny things that happen! After we finished up at the library, we picked up a pizza for dinner and went back to our little parking/camping spot. We decided to have a double feature night, so watched a movie while we ate the pizza. Afterwards, the rain had finally stopped and it was quite nice out, so we went for a nice long walk along the cycleway. As we were walking, we were amazed at the hundreds of little snails that had come out along the edge of the walk – I’d never seen so many like that!

Our refreshing walk done, we climbed back into the van for the second half of the double feature (a Harry Potter movie). As it was now pretty warm, we left both side doors open and amazingly, at about 10:00, we saw fireworks! Apparently they do fireworks over the month of August in Quebec City. So, we stopped the movie while the show went on. We couldn’t see everything, but it was pretty nice to be sitting all cozy in our little van, watching the night sky light up. Speaking of lighting up, it occurred to us that quite possibly what we thought was an electrical storm the other night down in Trois Rivieres might have been fireworks. I looked it up, and yep, Saturday night there had been fireworks – how funny was that?

Fireworks from our cozy little home - how nice!

We slept well and woke to not rain, so we took the bikes out for a little spin before heading out. When we return to Quebec City on our way back through, we hope to have more time to check out the awesome cycling in this city.

A quick note about cycling in Quebec City and in the province of Quebec. First of all, the cycling in QC is just wonderful! There are many many off road cycling paths that can take you all over and we highly recommend spending time here, both on and off your bike.

After driving around the Gaspe, we can report that we saw many many cycle tourists doing this 1000 km ride. It is breathtaking and challenging (there was one hill, coming out of Perce that was probably 2 km long and a 17% grade!!!). While a lot of the road had good shoulders, as with many cycle routes, there were sections of little to no shoulder and these always seem to coincide with sharp turns - go figure!!! However, the scenery just cannot be beat, and if you are looking for a great place to bike, you might want to give it a look! To find out more about the Gaspe in general, you can check out our blog at thepricesofwandering.com - the post for the Gaspe will be up soon. For now, we are heading to PEI where we hope to catch a few days of sun in between days of rain to cycle.

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 308 km (191 miles)

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