FINDING DELIGHT IN OLD QUEBEC CITY
BY MICHELLE WINNER
T
o describe Old Québec City using
the words “quaint and charming”
is simply too trite. One must try to capture
the sound of the horse drawn carriage on
cobble-stone streets, the beauty of the
sculptured shop facades, the exuberance
of summer planter boxes spilling over with
geraniums and inpatients, the many
colorful painted shutters accentuating
mullioned windows on old stone buildings,
the order of angles of a mansard roof
line, the French street and business signs
announcing “rue” this and “table d'hote
saisonniere” (seasonal menu) that. One
must love the vowels and the syllables of a
French speaking city. One must see the
joy in setting out on foot on a lovely
spring day to shop and wander or in winter
and well bundled up, take a guided tour to
explore Old Quebec City as part of your
experience.
The walls built for defense of the city stretch
to over 4KM in length around parts of this
UNESCO World Heritage Treasure as the
wide and mighty Saint Lawrence River flows
nearby. The port, not far away is a place of
call for cargo, cruise ships and pleasure boats.
Standing as iconic sentinel is the most
noticeable landmark, the Hotel Fairmont Le
Chateau Frontenac while in the oldest part of
the city the elegant Auberge Saint-Antoine
beckons to visitors for a completely different
type of luxury stay.
For those wishing to stop whenever they feel
like it, there is a podcast tour of the city. Visit
mcq.org/place-royale for instructions to
download the “Place-Royale” points of
interest tour. You'll discover the place the
first indigenous inhabitants called home, then
the “discovery” by Champlain, subsequent
settlements and battles fought here with
anecdotes about the buildings events, points
of interest and even a costume work shop.
Something fun to do is hop the ferry at
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Place-Royal for a trip to Levis across the St.
Larwence and back. The round trip is about
45 minutes and gives you a different
perspective of the Old City.
If you dabble in food history and you like to
trace a city's evolution through its cuisine, or
if you just appreciate good food, there is a
perfect restaurant for that in upper town
called Anciens Canadiens at 34 Rue Saint
Louis, serving typical French Canadian fare
and hard to find traditional dishes like meat
pies and maple duck
Lovers of cigars should seek out J. E.
Giguere (61 Rue de Buade) It does not have
too many of the most expensive Cubans but
some very good ones ($50 for a single
Romeo & Julietta Churchill), some decent
mid-level cigars to an affordable range of
Puerto Rican, Dominican Republic,
Honduras, and others. There are a few other
shops from here to Quebec City, but this
one, the oldest cigar shop in Quebec
established in 1907, is open 7 days a week.
For classic dining, Cafe de la Paix restaurant