Quebec is Canada’s largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, it is the only Francophone-majority province in the country, being home to Québécois French. It shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border with the territory of Nunavut. In the south, it shares a border with the United States. Quebec has a population of around eight million, making it Canada’s second-most populous province behind Ontario.
Wikipedia
Québec City – 2 Nights
Reader Note: The city of Québec is the capital of the Province of Québec, so in order to avoid confusion I have tried to always reference the city as “Québec City” and the Province of Québec just as “Québec”.
We arrived the day before the trip officially began as we wanted more time to explore Québec City, and there was a restaurant that we wanted to try. Luckily the three of us all arrived at Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport within a couple of hours of each other, and we could take a taxi to Hôtel du Nord together. I had been practising my French but it failed me during check-in, so much for looking like the sophisticated world traveller. This hotel is a little outside the tourist areas of the city with not much around it but I was very pleasantly surprised by how clean and quiet it was. We did find a wonderful little bar beside the hotel, Duck Taverne, that was full of locals and even had a band playing. It was a great way to start the trip and catch up with a couple of friends.
It had been a number of decades since I was in Québec City and although there had been many changes, the old town still had much of its old-world charm despite the heavy influx of tourists. Darn all these tourists getting in the way of me being a … tourist. 😉 After wandering around a bit, it was time for dinner at Le Lapin Sauté for some tasty rabbit dishes. It’s a small cozy restaurant in the heart of the tourist area but once inside they keep the atmosphere casual and calm. Luckily being the tourist area, we had no language issues with everyone speaking English. After dinner we wandered around the old town some more before heading back to our hotel.
The next day, Sunday, is the first official day of our trip and we would meet the other fourteen guests, two guides and driver for the week. We packed up and headed over to Hôtel Le Germain Québec and explored the area before having lunch at Louise Taverne & Bar à Vin. I am not a foodie so I really have no idea what I ordered but it was good. OK, time now to head back to the hotel and meet everyone. A good group of people, mostly retired, and from the USA. After introductions it was time for a walking tour of old Québec. There is so much history in the city with numerous conflicts between the French and the English. Being that I was brought up with an English Canadian history, it was interesting to hear how French Canadians had some different understandings of historic events.
Our first dinner with the group, I honestly was not expecting anything too fancy, usually the best meal is at the end of the trip, so going to Chez Rioux & Pettigrew, which is Michelin Recommended, was a wonderful surprise. I believe it was a five course meal, and although the fancy names and preparation are lost on my culinary ignorance, I really enjoyed the meal … and the wine. 🍷
Making sure that we leave a good first impression with our guide, after dinner we asked his recommendation for some place for, uhmm, after dinner refreshment and he walked the three of us down to Pub L’Oncle Antoine, which was just down from the hotel. It was a beautiful evening and no better way to end the day than with a 🍺 pint with friends on an outside patio watching the world walk by.
La Malbaie – 2 Nights
Time to leave the city and into the Charlevoix region and a picnic lunch in Les Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie National Park. After lunch it was time for our first walk, ok, it wasn’t a walk, but a hike. It definitely got the heart pumping but being in a forest is one of my happy places. This was a good test for the group but everyone made it to the submit and enjoyed the views.
After the hike we headed to the Hôtel Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu which was our base for the next two nights. I always like these magnificent Canadian Pacific Hotels as they have such a rich place in Canadian history. This location has beautifully landscaped grounds and wonderful views of the St. Lawrence River. For dinner that night we went to Auberge des 3 Canards which was another fantastic meal. At this point I started to detect that this trip is going to be torture on my diet but who can say “no” to wonderful food?
Day 3 is whale watching day in Tadoussac and we got to dress appropriately. Instead of being on a tour or fishing boat we would be on a small fast boat, so we were supplied with bright orange rain paints (coveralls) and jackets. Ya, I’m not posting those pics. 🙂 Croisières AML appears to be the only company in town that does the whale watching tours. We may have looked funny but as we raced out onto the open water the extra layers really helped keep us warm. It was a beautiful day and we were really lucky to spot many different types of whales: beluga, minke, fin, and humpback whales, along with a number of grey seals that kept an eye on us – sorry we didn’t bring any fish for you. I have been lucky enough to go whale watching a few times and, on this occasion, we saw many varieties of whales, but none too close. The marine biologist on our boat could identify the different species by the fin on their back, so I will trust her whale identification skills. It is always an awesome experience to see these impressive animals in their natural habitat.
Note: Although the GPS elevation says we were underwater at times, I assure you we stayed on the surface. Although it would have been awesome to dive down deep with the whales. 🐋
We stayed in town for lunch and surprise, we found a microbrewery, Microbrasserie Tadoussac, where I tried a few of their creations and enjoyed a healthy serving of poutine!
What could make this day even better? Well, after the drive back to the hotel we had time to clean up before heading to Auberge Chez Truchon, another Michelin Recommended restaurant. I have never eaten this well on a trip and I did not expect such great restaurants in these small towns.
Baie-St-Paul – 2 Nights
Day 4 we move to another hotel, the Hôtel & Spa Le Germain Charlevoix for the last two nights of the trip. However, we have a number of fun stops before we get there. Our first stop was the Saint-Gilles Papeterie Artisanale, which is a functioning 17th century style paper maker. It was interesting to see how sheets of paper used to be made but I was really fascinated by how they put watermarks on the pages. This was one of those stops that I wish we had a little more time at but the farm awaits us.
A farm, who visits a farm on vacation? Well, I would, and this was a lavender farm, Lavande Azulée, which sits in the middle of a crater valley, known as the Charlevoix impact structure. We were given a tour by Louise (owner) and encouraged to touch the plants. How often do you visit a garden and are told to touch? However, for lavender, and many herbs, the real joy is the smell and feel of the plants. Both our stops this morning showed that small business’s can be successful, they just need the right people to operate them and the public to support them.
A quick trip into Baie-St-Paul for lunch and then a pleasant walk along the St. Lawrence river with a local naturalist. I must say this woman was really passionate about nature. The excitement in her voice whenever we came across a different type of mushroom or tree was contagious. The time with her was much too short but that might be as I enjoy being out in nature as much as possible.
Dinner was on our own this night, but as it was raining and our culinary palates had been feasting on wonderful dinners throughout the trip, we decided to share a large charcuterie board at the bar. As it turned out many of the others from our tour group decided to stay at the hotel for dinner as well.
Day 5, the last full day of the tour and they are going to make us work for tonight’s dinner. We stopped at a local bakery to pick up lunch sandwiches and then straight into Grands-Jardins National Park for a good hike. The La Chouenne trail may be short but it definitely gets the heart pumping as you ascend Mont du Lac des Cygnes and that’s even before you get to the beautiful views at the top. A wonderful 360-degree view of the crater rim and surrounding lands.
After a nice picnic lunch by … we took one last nature walk. A short segment of the Le Brûlé trail was all we had time for but hopefully it helped burn off some of the many calories I had gained during this trip. Did I mention the fantastic food?
Our farewell dinner was a short walk from the hotel, Le Mouton Noir, is right on the water, rivière du Gouffre, and the look and atmosphere gives you that casual, relaxed feeling. However, once again on this trip, the food was fantastic. Too bad it was only a three-course meal. 😉 I am so glad that we walked back to the hotel after dinner, I could have been rolled back, so much wonderful food. I could not start to tell you what much of the food on this trip was, but it was all exquisite.
Day 6, departure day is here and time to make our way back to Québec City and the airport but we had a few stops along the way. A wonder of nature and … more food! 😮
Our first stop was at the top of Montmorency Falls which gave us great views of not just the waterfall but also of Québec City. You could zip-line in front of the falls, but given all the food on this trip, we opted to walk down the stairs beside the waterfall. Seeing and hearing the power of Mother Nature is always inspiring and why I enjoy getting outside as much as possible. We need to do more to protect nature so people can enjoy it for generations to come.
Ohh what’s our next stop, Ferme Francois Gosselin, a strawberry farm, well, that’s what they want you to believe until they start giving you fresh strawberry ice cream, and some of their fresh berries. My stomach is going to rebel once it has to deal with my cooking after this. 🙁
Let’s just put a bow on this culinary adventure, our last stop on the trip was, La Fudgerie Boutique, yup, a fudge store. Going in, I decided that I had eaten enough on this trip and I was not going to buy any fudge. Those mean, cruel people, made sure we all had plenty of free samples to try. I could feel my waistline rolling over my pants belt, the airline is going to charge me for bringing excess weight (my stomach) on the flight!
What a wonderful trip. I got to spend time with some friends I had not seen since last year, got some nice hikes in, saw more species of whales than I ever had, and gained more weight than I should have. So … where to next year?
Logistics
The trip was organized by Classic Journeys and is their Quebec & Charlevoix Cultural Walking tour. This was my first time with this company and their slogan is “The World’s Finest Walking Tours” and they limit this trip to eighteen people. For this trip they had seventeen guests, two guides and a driver. This was a good trip and had a couple of pleasant surprises. A couple of the “walks” were more what I would consider hikes which I enjoyed but some other guests had difficulties with these, but the dinners were the biggest surprise. On this trip we had dinner at three Michelin recommended restaurants and they were fabulous! My waistline is still trying to recover.
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