(June and I in Old Quebec City Enjoying Crepes)
Bonjour mes amis! We have arrived in Quebec after our first successful flight with Baby June. She ate, slept, cooed, squealed, and ate again. We couldn't have asked for a better traveller!
Thursday morning, Derek had a business meeting so while he went for lunch, June and I were off to find a cafe for lunch. We found a cafe and had a turkey and brie sandwich, pasta salad and a bowl full of cafe au lait...the most delicious cafe au lait I have had. No sugar required. Now that I think of it, maybe it was so delicious because usually when I go to order a latte, I ask for multiple modifiers. Non-fat! Decaf! Half sweet! When I ordered in this cafe with my broken french, the fact that the waitress understood "cafe au lait" was good enough for me.
Now that I have June with me when I go out, I find that I have more people stopping to talk to me (or June). Usually, this is fine, except when people come up and start talking to June in french and then ask me a question about her, which I am unable to answer. I end up smiling and apologizing for my lack of comprehension.
To Old Quebec City we went, walking down the picturesque streets, along the narrow sidewalks. We stopped at a cafe with June for a crepe coffee break, and continue on discovering this city that feels very Eurpoean. It's quite amazing that this, the oldest city in North America and the only walled city north of Mexico has been so well preserved. There are souvenir shops, bars, cafes, clothing stores, and bakeries...ahhh, the bakeries. I saw a cute bakery, Paillard, and stopped in to see what kind of pastries they had. The inside was beautiful. To the right, a gelati counter featuring flavors such as maple, fraises lavande (Lavender Strawberry), poire gingembre (Ginger Pear), to the left a pastry counter with cookies, brownies, tarts, pastries, croissants touted as "voted best in Quebec City", and macarons. The back featured a sandwich counter and lovely long tables for patrons to sit and enjoy their food. So back to the macarons. I have looked high and low in Winnipeg to find French Macarons. Not the coconut and chocolate cookies we are used to, but the meringue cookies with a flavoured filling. I picked out a few to buy. Who could resist with flavours such as Apricot Black Tea, Almond, Banana Chocolate, and Passion Fruit. Add in classic vanilla and chocolate, and I was set. The crispy exterior, the slightly gooey interior, the flavors....oh sorry, I was just taking a moment to dream about them! We went down to the water and saw the beautiful Chateau Frontenac, now owned by the Fairmont.
(French Macarons from Paillard)
Our second day in downtown Quebec led us back to Paillard for lunch, where we tried sandwiches, some gelati, and picked up some of those croissants for later. Derek has a thing for croissants. They were indeed delicieux! The service was very friendly including a waiter escorting me to the 2nd floor bathroom after June's diaper exploded while I was nursing her. We then wandered around, catching a pair of street performers and more of the scenery.
Our last foray into Old Quebec took us to
Aux Anciens Canadiens, a French Canadian Restuarant that Derek found in order to satisfy my desire for tourtiere, or Quebec meat pie. The place, we discovered after after the fact, is actually a very well known restaurant. We enjoyed French Pea Soup, Tourtiere with a delicious chutney, finished off with Maple Pie and Maple Creme Brulee. The place was an old stone building with exposed stone in the interior, that is a part of the city's history. Even the waitresses were wearing traditional clothing. We then went near the Promenade to an alley with artists selling their art. I picked up a screenprint over line drawing of a horse and carriage, and a bronze plate stamped print of the restaurant where we had just eaten.
We the drove to Chute Montmorency (Montmorency Falls) just outside of Quebec City. The falls are 1.5 times higher than Niagara Falls, although not nearly as wide.
We then drove to Montreal. After a quick prayer at the beginning of our journey, June slept the entire way! We went to our hotel and then walked through downtown Montreal to Dunn's. Montreal smoke meat sandwiches and poutine awaited us there, followed by more walking to only minutely justify all the food we had eaten. We stopped of at Paris Crepe and enjoyed a Strawberry Banana Crepe as we walked the rest of the way to our hotel, checking out the plethora of shopping options on the way. So let's see... toutiere, french pea soup, maple pie, creme brulee, Montreal smoked meat sandwich, poutine, crepes...is there any french food we missed?
