Stop Over: Quebec City

We drove into the province of Quebec and made a pit stop to explore Quebec City. I always find it a little bit disorienting to venture back into urban areas after spending so many days in rural places. It feels odd to have so much abundance again, like grocery stores just minutes from camp, stocked with anything you might need, google maps offering all kinds of restaurant options at your doorstep, and arriving at places with crowds.

It was also a little disorienting to find ourselves in French-speaking Canada, where the street signs suddenly changed to French while we were navigating the roads, and where everything still feels Canada-ish, but also France-ish at the same time. 

We took a full day to have a stopover in Quebec City, stopping first at Montmorency Falls. The falls are just a few minutes from the city and are taller than Niagara Falls. The park features a suspension bridge that you can cross over the top of the falls, and a gondola option for easy accessibility. You could say that we accidentally did the circuit backwards – we started at the top, crossing the bridge and taking the gondola to the bottom of the falls.

So, this meant that to complete the circuit, we needed to climb 487 stairs back to the top.

Maybe, this was accidentally, exactly right. Toby led the way and we conquered the steps pretty effortlessly, snapping a few pictures as we climbed.

From the falls, we drove into the Old City where I had put together a loose, dog-friendly, walking tour, that would allow us to wander the old town streets and see a few highlights. We made a croissant pit-stop and walked along the old city walls and checked out the preserved city gates before passing by the Citadelle.

We looped around to meander the Dufferin boardwalk, where the beautiful Fairmont Chateau Frontenac dominates the scene.

From here, we caught the funicular down the hill into the heart of the old city and continued walking and admiring the buildings that date back to the 1600s.  

Ray and Ben were booking it to a cat café that I had spotted on google maps. But, when we arrived at the café, we found anti-social cats and a backed-up kitchen, so we ditched the plan in favor of seeking lunch elsewhere.

This was a moment where everyone was feeling hot, and hungry, and disappointed, and crabby and it could have been a disaster.

But, Eli made a good call to split our party into two groups: Ray and I had an elegant Parisian-style lunch of smoked salmon, fresh salad with mustard vinaigrette, and a glass of rose at a breezy café. Ben, Eli, and Toby went to a pub for cheese pizza, topped off with an order of churros served in a giant glass of chocolate mousse.

Everyone was extremely satisfied.

At this point, Toby, who had logged 14,000 steps and climbed 35 flights of stairs with the rest of us, declared himself unwilling to move another inch. We carried him to the car and made our way back to camp.

As we were walking around, Eli said, “I didn’t realize we were making a day trip to Europe in the middle of our camping trip” and that’s exactly how it felt.

Now, we make a short-ish hop to Montreal, where we’ll spend a day exploring too.