When roaming around old town you can usually spot it from just about anywhere. If you don't see it, just walk down the the street, turn a corner and look up. There it is! We used it to get our bearings while exploring, although the town is quite simple to navigate.
Old Quebec City has two sections, upper and lower town. We were lucky enough to find a parking spot on the street just outside the entrance to the ferry. From there we started our exploration of lower town. The large parking lot down by the water would have been our second choice if we hadn't found street parking.
The city is built on a steep cliff so lower town is at the bottom (duh) and upper town...well you get it right? The cobblestone roads made comfortable shoes a must!
As we walked up the first street we saw the entrance to the Funiculaire, a very handy thing to know about if you want to get to upper town. There are many staircases you can use to access upper town, but we saved those for the trip down.
The first thing I noticed, besides the historic and quaint buildings and narrow roadways, was the fact that there are several well-marked public washrooms. You don't have to go into a restaurant and order a drink just to use their facilities. That kind of defeats the purpose of having to go!
And there is something beautiful to see around every corner. Like these colourful balls hanging over the restaurant terraces.
Or this amazing mural....it looks like you could just walk right through it! Or a luxury cruise ship peeking between to old stone buildings.
We stopped in at Spag and Tini for lunch and a little refreshment. Their pizza just hit the spot! (Oops forgot to take a pic of the pizza but trust me, it was good!)
After lunch we decided to take the funiculaire, or cliff railway up the hill. The lower town entrance is housed in Maison Louis Jolliet which was built in 1683 and the funiculaire itself was originally built in 1879. The ride only lasted a minute or two but the $3.00 cost was well worth it in energy saved and for the panoramic view!
When we reached the top we were on Dufferin Terrace right in front of Chateau Frontenac, a wide wooden boardwalk that extends around the hotel and along the edge of upper town allowing for fantastic views of Lower Town and the St Lawrence River below. We were surprised to see so many cruise ships in port with tourists from all over the world.
Walking around upper town we saw more colourful shops, vendors and bistros...
and the Quebec City hall.
Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral is in upper town as well, is open to the public and should not be missed.
Beaver bites or little mini beaver tails (fried dough), topped with ice cream kept us going until supper.
Then we hopped in the car and drove about 15 minutes north of old town to Le Dauphin hotel. (No we weren't staying at Chateau Frontenac!) What a great find! The room was very spacious with beautiful wood flooring. No smelly carpets here! The artwork inside depicted Quebec history and culture which I found charming. And the heated pool was actually heated!
We chose Le Cochon Dingue restaurant for supper. We had seen one location in Old Quebec earlier in the day but this one was near our hotel. With many craft breweries in the area my husband decided to try Le Trou du Diable's MacTavish in Memoriam pale ale. It was quite different...spicy and a bit tropical.
I had lemon and caper chicken cutlets and my husband had le steak frites. Both were excellent and my picture does not do my chicken justice. It was a warm night in mid-September out on the terrace, but not conducive for great picture-taking : )
The next morning we enjoyed an expansive breakfast, included in our hotel stay, then took the ferry from old Quebec over to Lévis on the south shore to continue our trip to Nova Scotia.
No comments:
Post a Comment