trip report Quebec City and Montreal

Old Aug 30th, 2015, 01:40 PM
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trip report Quebec City and Montreal

Montreal and Quebec City trip report.

Hi my nubby and I ..a 60 year old SF. couple.. flew into Montreal ,stayed one night then drove to Quebec City. Sounds a little crazy but needed to do for conference invoice reasons.
We arrived late in the day.. at 4pm… 1’1/2 hours to get through a crazy line for customs immigration and find the rental place which alluded us. Finally on the road.. Saturday. And hit traffic so did not arrive and get settled until almost 6pm. Whew! We stayed at the Hotel Le Germain, which was very nice. We stayed later in the trip in the old section, so for the one night I wanted to be up by the park.
We ate dinner at Le Serpent , a good almost thirty minutes walk and thank goodness for Google Maps. It was very hip, excellent service and food. A nice walk back a different route. In the Am we had a nice included buffet breakfast at the hotel and then walked up,with everyone else, to the top of the park.This was not an easy walk, all a slight grade uphill the way up. But a pretty site. We then drove off to QC.. Im pretty sure I looked up buses and trains and they seemed to be a lot longer, plus I thought we might use our car in QC.. NO… it sat in the hotel garage for three days. The drive is trees trees trees and fast traffic. It took us almost three hours with a pretty quick driver. Might have opted for a four hour bus ride so we didn’t have the in the city driving. Im sure my husband might have liked that. Although I am the navigator so no napping on my end! We stayed at the Chateau Frontenac in a lovely room ,which they upgrade us to .nice surprise.
That night we had the best meal of the entire trip iX Pour Bistro. It has 9 tables ,reservations a must. Run by two guys. That’s it. It’s a 13.00 cab ride across the river in this funny little spot. But they are #1 on trip advisor.. and everyone in there was a definite foodie and had sought them out. Very fun. Our room overlooked the plaza, which is very bustling. And late.. so no open windows here.
The hotel is quite lovely, great breakfast.

tomorrow walking tour.. walking walking
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Old Aug 31st, 2015, 03:21 AM
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Good start boxcox. Looking forward to more.
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Old Aug 31st, 2015, 12:18 PM
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I am heading to Montreal and Quebec City soon so I will read your report with great interest
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Old Aug 31st, 2015, 12:53 PM
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The next day we did the walking Grand Tour. You can purchase tickets in the tourist information office. ,although we did ours before hand. These types of tours are really dpendent on the guides. I wish you really knew who was doing which one. I think there are some that you can find out. Our guide was Michael who was perfectly nice but we thought it was supposed to be a walking tour not a stand about tour. He would point out the Parliament that clearly we could have walked to. It wasn’t a free tour so with tickets and tip we didn’t think it was quite worth it, but entertained us nonetheless. We did learn where the one drug store was!
We walked around quite a lot after. Also saw the Musee du Fort. Quite fun and a really good way to learn the history. Great for kids. Had lunch at L’eschaude which was lovely, out of the touristy area. Dinner was at Ristorante Il teatro. This is outside of the walls and so again not with all of the touristy super busy street stuff. It was very tasty,not fabulous but nice… great music and lovely ambience.

Wednesday we did the Parliament tour our which was very nice, and walked the plains.We did some more walking. My thoughts are I thought it would be different. It was smaller than I thought. And aside from walking through all the touristy areas I didn’t find too much to engage me, although I do admit we did not go to two of the museums I thought we would have. And some else we knew was driving further afield. Perhaps that is what we needed to do.

But we did enjoy ourselves for the 2.5 days. Dinner last night was at Panache. Fabulous!! So pretty and the food was just lovely.

Off to Montreal! We stopped at Trois Rivieres , which is really just for eating and regular shopping. Nothing special to us, Perhaps there are times when things are on . But It was a good halfway point.
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Old Aug 31st, 2015, 01:07 PM
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Montreal. I was actually born there but I only lived there for five weeks. We traveled back a few years ago in January, so it was nice to see in the summer.
We stayed at the Auberge du Vieux –port in the old town .Great location. I had done a lot of research and was thinking of the Plateau , which would have been a mistake for us. We got in late afternoon on a Wednesday, dropped the hertz car off,which was pretty easy. Although I once again was questioning my google maps gal and we pulled over. I should have trusted her. One big illegal u turn and we were back on the road again. We alked quite aways and then finally took a cab up to Little Italy for dinner at Impasto. Quite hip and in. fully booked. Very noisy but very tasty and fun. It was nice to see other neighborhoods, but a long cab ride. We eventually conquered the subway which is super easy,but then you would miss seeing all the street life.

Thursday we did the am free old Montreal walking tour, they have the east side in the am west side in the pm. Peggy was our guide. VERY good. The two hours went by very quickly. The Notre Dame Basilica is amazing..but her chatting about it was so worth it. In the afternoon my hubby had business.. so yes I shopped. It is VERY touristy there but there are also are some interesting galleries and fine clothing shops. Our hotel has this great bar on the fifth floor outside. Im sure I was the oldest person there, but remembered I was hip once! A great dj mixer ..perfect music and champagne and a lovely view with great people watching. There are quite a few business conferences and meetings locally. Not too many tourists. I think you could also eat up top, the view would be great later. Dinner that night was…..??? ah yes just down the street Barroco. So good and fun!! Not very large.. Really great though…. And yes we really did eat and drink our way though. I am back to toast and peanut butter and not chocolate croissants for breakfast ☹
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 07:46 AM
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Friday am .. a lovely breakfast again at Tavern Gaspar. It is connected with the hotel and a full breakfast is included. A really fabulous one like eggs Benedict etc. This day I did try to be a little netter as we were headed out for the Mile End Food Tour at 11. Very fun three hour walking tour and we ate so much!! Really good food too. It was a long walk which was great and included history about the neighborhoods. Back on the subway late and then just walked around Old Town and watched some of the street performers for awhile, of which there are many!!
Dinner that night was at L’espress which is up I the Plateau area I think it is. A three stop subway ride. It is like a busy French Bistro, very full . The service was great, a perect Martini, the steak frites wonderful, the rest nice ,but not outstanding IMHO..It was still very noisy and bustly and fun to be in .


Saturday our last day. Breakfast outside ,lovely, then we packed up. We then walked an hour to find the ‘old’ Royla Victoria hospital where I was born, only to find out it had closed and moved. Just some things still there. I did get a photo though. A ternty minute cab ride anticipating 40.. so super early and no on ethere. I can see if it were really busy you would need that 90 minutes or two hours as we went through customs immigration there. Bummed that there were no first class lounges as I have two passes to use up and was planning on it!!


I will never fly Air Canada again if I can help it. I booked these tickets 6 months ago and we ended up both flights in the last row.. and it took three hours to get a drink coming hime. And then out of the snack I wanted. Needles to say sitting in the middle seat last row listening to the toilet flush for five hours.. without food or drink.. I was not a happy camper..Next time I would know to call right away. They were booked through United.

End of trip.. a fun time. Good to see it all. Most outstanding things were the food (cant emphasize enough though about doing your research ,as with anywhere) and the nice people.
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 10:33 AM
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Good post. Did you not like the Maple Leaf Lounge? I agree about Air Canada. Hate being near the toilets! Will have to go back to Montreal sometime soon just to try some of those restaurants you mentioned and will look into that food tour.
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 08:02 PM
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I must have missed the maple leaf lounge
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Old Sep 2nd, 2015, 07:13 PM
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sorry reading back my post ...really bad typing!!! needed my glasses
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