2 Best Shopping in Side Trips from Quebec City, Quebec

Belgian chocolate is combined with local ingredients to produce the handmade confections here: with a maple butter filling, for example, or framboisette, made from raspberries. In summer, try the 24 different kinds of ice creams and sherbets, or bring home some chocolate-infused jams. They've also opened a smaller counter in the presbytery of Saint-François, at the other end of the island.

This paper factory produces handcrafted stationery using a 17th-century process. There's also a small museum, which explains through photographs and demonstrations how paper is manufactured the old-fashioned way. Slivers of wood and flower petals are pressed into the paper sheets, which are as thick as the covers of a paperback book. The finished products—made into writing paper, greeting cards, and one-page poems or quotations—make beautiful, if pricey, gifts. Visitors can wander through the museum for free, and guided tours can be arranged for groups.