Quebec, Quebec

Andrea and I went to Quebec City this past weekend. There was no particular reason for our trip - we just felt the need to get away for a few days. I took care of the hotel arrangements, and booked us into the Hotel Port Royal, in Old Quebec. It's a boutique hotel, and reasonably well appointed. My favorite part was the lobby. it made you feel as though the concierge might turn to you and say, "We've been expecting you, Mr. Bond." Neither of us had a licence to kill, but they did opt to upgrade our room to a suite free of charge.

Parking was $15, and you could elect to order an a-la-carte breakfast each morning for $7 p.p.. I like to sleep in, and don't usually order breakfast at hotels, but the ajoining restaurant (Le 48) served breakfast until 1:30 pm, and had a very respectable selection. A small premium was required for some of the brunch items, but the signature breakfast included two eggs, sausage, bacon, fresh fruit, hash browns, coffee, ham, jam, and baguette. If you need more food than that, then pay the two extra damned dollars.

We'd made our travel arrangements before we found out that it just so happened to be the same weekend as St. Jean Baptiste Day. For those of you who don't know, St. Jean Baptiste is the Patron Saint of French Canadians, for reasons unknown. In practical terms, it means that there are a lot of Quebecois getting absolutely tanked on the plains of Abraham. Good times.

My French isn't exactly stunning, but I had enough to get by. Most of the French you need on St. Jean Baptiste Day can be found in the following phrases:

"Bon St. Jean!"

"St. Jean! St. Jean! St. Jean!"

"Oh-LAY OHLAY OHLAY OHLAY! OHLAY! OHLAY!"

"Cessez d'uriner sur mon bagage, s'il vous plait."

Seriously, though, it was a great party and everyone was very polite, despite my lack of French language ability. Aside from the plains of Abraham, we spent most of our time wandering around the Old City, trying out restaurants and looking in galleries. I think I'm starting to develop a taste for art, even if I don't have the budget for it quite yet. If anyone ever wins the lottery and wants to buy me something nice, an original painting by Denis Nolet would definitely win some gratitude.

Andrea arranged for reservations at L'Echaude, considered by Frommers to be the best bistro in Quebec City. I was a little taken aback by the scallops (never been a big fan of cold seafood), but quite enjoyed the Stag medallion. Their chocolate pie was very well done, as was their signature champagne cocktail, champagne and creme de cassis.

Later that evening, we visited a random Jazz bar near the Chateau Frontenac. Not sure what the name of it was. Not entirely sure where it was, or how to get there. But they had great music. And they served Leffe Brun. Always a winning combination. (My Google Sense is telling me that it's the lobby bar of the Hotel Clarendon.)

We stopped in at Aux Anciens Canadiennes the next day for their maple syrup pie, which was quite a delicacy. The other thing we really enjoyed was the fact that almost every restaurant had a cheese plate of some description or another. They also had reasonably priced wine and some quality locally-brewed beers, which means that there's not a hell of a lot else that I remember from this particular trip.

I do, however, remember Charbon, which is the steakhouse that we went to the last night that we were there. It's out by the Via station, and they serve some of the best steak I've ever had in my life. I'm sorry, Cattle Baron. We can still be friends, can't we? I had the escargot as a starter, then moved on to the ten ounce New York, with two massive U10 shrimp (I don't know why they're called U10s... probably something to do with the fact that they're nearly big enough to be submarines). Andrea had the Beef Tenderloin, which was smaller, but well flavoured and very tender. We were too full to make it to dessert.

After Charbon, we checked out La Boudoire, a martini bar located a few blocks away. Upstairs was pretty dead, but there was a dance bar downstairs that played some pretty solid music (latin dance, while we were there) and made for great people-watching. The gin and tonic was good, but I ended up getting bits of mint from my mohito stuck between my teeth. We didn't go into any of them, but there were a number of similarly-styled bars in the area. It seemed to be more of a place for locals, rather than tourists, which made it a valuable addition to the itinerary of any self-styled traveller that hates to be lumped in with drawling, butt-pack wearing, camera-toting, tiny-tipping, McDonald's-dining, Coors Lite-ordering tourists.

It only took about 4.5 hours to get there from Ottawa, and the highway was clear for most of the way. Getting to Old Quebec was a little bit tricky, but would've been easier if I'd slowed down once we got to the hilly bits. Google Maps provided directions, Expedia the hotel bookings. Beautiful city, had a great time,