A Quebec Adventure – 1 day chill itinerary

Quebec – such a beautiful French-Canadian city! I’ve been here before as a kid, but I really only remember it now. When we first touched down, my immediate thought was, oh it’s like Lille – the French town I studied in for a few months. Exactly the same feels!

Anyway, I’ll just give a quick rundown of the sights we saw here in Quebec – by no means exhaustive as we were on a tight schedule – but nevertheless a great experience!

First order of business, breakfast at Cochon Dingue! This was my fave breakfast in our trip to date!

☀️ Charlevoix Plate: Half waffle with fruits and maple cream. Raclette of scrambled eggs with wilted spinach and Migneron de Charlevoix cheese.

☀️ Country Duo: Scrambled eggs tartine, mushrooms, bacon and hollandaise sauce. Crepe with caramelized apples, cheese mix and maple cream.

☀️ Lile d Orleans French Toast, served with caramelized apples, cinnamon and maple cream

☀️ Sugar Pie (basically maple syrup pie)

Everything was delicious! If I had another day here, I would come back here for breakfast again! This is high praise coming from me as I hate repeating restaurants 😅

Next up: La Basilique Cathedrale Notre Dame

Nothing too extraordinary, especially because construction works was happening. I did enjoy the inner sanctum where the history of François de Laval was depicted. Very fascinating, and super impressed with this man who loved God and the people so much that he really made every effort to spread God’s word and to help out the natives.

From here, stroll through Rue de Buade, which has a lovely set of stores. I particularly enjoyed these two:

• La Boutique de Noël de Québec: a Christmas store that is open all year round. Super beautiful ornaments and decors. Very pricey though. I don’t know if it’s pricey even for Canadians or if it’s just pricey for me, since I come from the Philippines
• Boutique Stadacone: it’s this HUGE souvenir shop that had pretty much everything you want to buy from Quebec. The prices are quite competitive – obviously, buying maple syrup from the supermart is still cheaper; and Rue Saint-Jean had cheaper stuff also (although a lot of them were on fire sale) – so if you’re short on time, I highly recommend doing your shopping here.

Moving on, it’s time to check out the Canada Post – beautiful exterior! I always buy a postcard and mail it wherever I travel, and this time around I was super pleased, because when I mailed my postcard, they offered to also stamp (using their Chateau Frontenac custom stamp) my passport as well! So nice – especially since Canada Customs doesn’t stamp passports anymore, so this was a nice reminder of my time here.

Afterwards, it’s time to check out Escalier Casse-Cou (Breakneck Steps) – so named because you really can break a neck climbing down these steep stairs. They do make for a beautiful photo though, since it overlooks Rue de Petit Champlain.

Spend some time exploring Quartier Petit Champlain as it’s filled with artisan stores. I also love the vibe here, with street musicians playing whimsical romantic music wherever you turn.

Here’s my dad taking a wacky photo with this stone building!

We also saw this mural which all the tour guides stop at and discuss, so we figured it must be important haha! I took a shot just in case.

Then it’s time for lunch! I recommend Le Lapin Saute, mostly for the novelty of eating multiple types of rabbit dishes. Ironically, my favorite dishes here were NOT the rabbit dishes, which makes sense, because I’ve tried rabbit before and always thought it just tasted like chicken haha. It’s a beautiful location though – I recommend sitting outdoors overlooking the courtyard, and enjoying the music.

What I would recommend:

•  Quebec Discoveries (smoked duck breast, salmon gravlax, rabbit rillettes, country pate, Quebec cheese, roasted garlic and marinade): I’ve always prided myself in my willingness to try out new food. But I think my current food trip has shown me that while I might be willing to try new food, I have a very specific taste profile that I prefer, and that’s Asian 😂 Hence my fave here was the salmon gravlax and the smoked duck breast haha
• Rabbit saddle: this is the cut of the meat that runs from the rib cage to the hind legs. It’s said to be extra tasty and tender. It… tasted like tasty chicken to me hehe! Well, good to try!
• Rainbow trout fillet: so yummy! Tastes like a lighter salmon. Yumyum!

After lunch, make your way towards the Royal Battery for a quick photo op. Nothing much to see here.

Then it’s time to go up Escalier Casse-Cou again, and make your way to Chateau Frontenac! This hotel was made famous because of Goblin. Honestly, I didn’t know that, despite having watched this kdrama haha! But well, apparently, Goblin fans flock all the way here to take photos of this hotel and its interior.

From here, we made our way to Plains of Abraham. This was where the French lost to the English, and forever lost their rights to Canada. Poor frenchies. Anyway, there’s a museum here which my cousin was super keen to check out. I wasn’t keen though, so I just walked along the rampart (which is free) and came upon this beautiful view of the St. Lawrence River. So stunning! Quebec is the first port of call from St. Lawrence River, which is why it was so critical to win and hold this land. But gazing out at the calm waters, one would have never thought that this place used to be the place of bloody battles. Now it just seems so idyllic!

In fact, you can bring a picnic basket and blanket here, and just chill. Sounds like a wonderful plan and something I would definitely do as a local!

From here, the Parliament Building is just a hop and a skip away. You can actually avail of a free parliament tour, but we got here too late. Ohwell. We decided to just take nice pictures outside instead.

To wrap up the day, we then had a lovely dinner at Aux Anciens Canadienne. This restaurant showed up in every blog I read so I knew I wanted to eat here! It’s apparently the oldest restaurant still operating in Quebec. Was it worth it? Yes naman! Very good value for money. For CAD 40 + tax, you get a drink (beer or wine), an appetizer or soup, a main course, and a dessert already. Ambiance super quaint too. Feels like I’m in an old school French bistro

APPETIZERS

☀️ Pea Soup Grand-mere: they’re famous for this because they use yellow peas instead of green peas. But tbh, it just tasted like regular pea soup to me hehe

☀️ Quebec Meat Pie with fruit ketchup: this was SUPER GOOD and also what they’re famous for. The pastry was delectable and chock-full of meat. The ketchup then cut through all that meaty flavor

☀️ Garlic Escargots au Gratin: this was my fave! But this will boil down to personal preference

MAINS

☀️ Quebec Meatpie and Meatball Ragout: This was the same as the appetizer but with added meatballs. Tbh you don’t need the meatballs, the meat pie on its own is amazing

☀️ Coulibiac style salmon with lobster sauce: Love the puff pastry, but the salmon was literally mashed salmon. Sakto lang

☀️ Bison Bourguignon: Bison was tender BUT there was this.. gamey taste? I don’t know, I still prefer beef to bison

DESSERT

☀️ Maple Syrup Pie: Damn so sweet!! Very good but only in small doses

☀️ Blueberry Pie: Yummy! Real blueberries were used

☀️ Maple Bread Pudding: this was my fave. Not too sweet, chunky bread pudding

DRINKS

☀️ Blonde beer: my fave

☀️ Dark beer

☀️ House wine

On the way back to the hotel, you can see Chateau Frontenac beautifully lit up.

Ahhhh. And that’s a wrap! Although, if you’ve still got energy to go shopping, do check out their supermarts for some local produce as well as Rue Saint-Jean for cheaper souvenirs!