A Look Back at Our June Trip to Quebec City

Here I am, with stitches in my mouth after periodontal surgery for a gum graft.  It's not fun--and it's not painless!--and it's definitely a reminder that not all of sabbatical/gap year(s) would be adventure, travel, and yummy food.  (I sipped some chicken broth for lunch and will heat up some beef broth for dinner...)  However, this is a good opportunity to reflect on the past year of more frenzied activity and back-fill some gaps.

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I'd like to take this blog post back to the end of our first 2-month stay in Quebec.  After our classes were over in Montreal, Will and I stayed in Canada an extra week to do some more sightseeing.  Probably the most memorable part of that week was a short jaunt to Quebec City.

We'd visited Quebec City before and absolutely adored it, so it was on the top of our must-do-again list for the week off.  While Montreal is a more cosmopolitan city--bigger, more diverse, more options for dining and entertainment, etc.--Quebec City has a prettier and more concentrated old quarter that is stunningly gorgeous, as you will see in these pictures.

First, on our 3-hour drive from Montreal, we stopped for a short lunch break at a McDonald's and sat outside on a picnic bench with Katie, who really enjoyed being able to sit next to Will and attempting to steal some of his food.

Then, we checked into our charming hotel (just blocks from the old part of town) and made a bee-line to a rooftop deck

which afforded us a wonderful panoramic view of the surrounding area.

A short walk from our hotel soon had us entering the stone-walled outskirts of the old town.

Once there, we walked around the ramparts, sightseeing sometimes through picturesque peepholes.

From a hill-top perspective, we could see famous Chateau Frontenac to the left, and the port to the right.  (The picture at the top of this post also comes from our hill-top saunter.)

Then, on our way back, we found some highly rated Breton-style galettes (savory buckwheat crepes) for dinner: Will's duck confit with caramelized onions on the right, and my Merguez sausage and ratatouille veggies crepe to the left.  (We were sitting outside, so Katie was under the table.)

We finished our al fresco dinner just in time to avoid a brief pitch of rain, and we returned to our hotel.  Soon enough, the skies cleared again, and we enjoyed a glorious, late (very close to summer solstice) sunset on the rooftop again.

Next morning, after a made-to-order breakfast at our B&B, we took another walk into old town so that we could appreciate the magnificent Chateau Frontenac again...

and to sit on the benches along the gracious wood promenade along the port in front of the chateau.

We also took a leisurely amble along the quaint-looking (but no doubt commercial) side streets within the gated old town.  (Ok, yes, I did have another Tim Horton's donut...)

Then we checked out of our hotel and headed to Montmorency Falls,

where we all got nicely drenched,

before heading back to our Montreal home again.