Outside the walls
Sep 25, 2022 | Quebec City, QC
We set out to explore on our first full day in Quebec City without any real plans. But we are so smack in the middle of a bustling tourist district that we knew it would work out fine (or even better) that way!
Quick note on the name of the city: we came here thinking of it as "Quebec City", but it turns out that there are a lot of names the city goes by. In French it's Ville de Québec (trans: "City of Quebec", or pretty much "Quebec City") but actually its official name is simply Québec and pretty much everything we see here calls it as such. So I guess it's kind of like saying "I'm flying to New York" when you mean NYC. But another thing is that Quebec is pronounced kinda like "Kabek" or "Kebek" in French. Which just adds to the list of places we've been to where we don't say their names right until we learn otherwise. Other examples include Albany, which is pronounced "All bunny" not "Al (short for Alan) bunny", and Montreal, which for local English speakers is pronounced "MUN tree all" and for the French... well I can't actually type that one out for you, sorry. Just know that the "nt" part basically disappears in french. There was also Roanoke, but we knew we didn't know how to say that one long before we even arrived, so we looked it up. It's not "row nohk" but rather "row uh nohk".
In the walking tunnel that goes through the city walls.
This interesting "sign"(?) of sorts lights up at night with little twinkles. Still not sure which business it's attributed to because this building is an odd conglomeration of a few restaurants/bars and I think there's a hotel.
Our friend Poutineville has a location just outside the old city walls
Interesting weather vanes decorating the median.
I think they maybe represent the local cathedrals?? I won't show them all but I thought this one was especially fun because of the bizarre chair situation at the bottom.
Cathedral + clock = I will definitely take a picture
It seems absurd that this sign would be shaped like a guillotine accidentally, but all it says is "Welcome to the Saint Baptiste neighborhood". Still not sure what to think.
We walked all the way to the Montcalm neighborhood where they put these weird lampshades on the streetlights
First meal in Quebec: breakfast at Café Krieghoff
Breakfast comes with free coffee here, and at most places in QC we've learned. And at least at this place "espresso" comes as a "long espresso" which is where they run extra water through the extraction making it less concentrated and bitter. It comes out kind of like an Americano but smaller.
Tell em, sister
This is apparently some kind of history/art exhibit featuring humankind's longstanding relationship with the toilet. It's at the main museum here, so I imagine we're going to find ourselves in face to face with it at some point.
The street crossings don't run automatically, but they are no-touch
This upscale Asian restaurant is called BO
An outside shot of Porte St Jean (St John's Gate) on the city fortification walls near our place. This time of year it's not super useful to drive in through this one though because the road is blocked off for pedestrians very shortly in.
Got a dipped cone at Chocolats Favoris right around the corner from our place
Not sure what this wall is, but I thought it was interesting
This "flame" is looking to catch fire soon
Some fruity art outside the church
