We woke up in Montreal set for a long day of driving...but first, breakfast in the lobby! The hotel was in Chinatown, and so was decorated appropriately. The whole middle part of the lobby was a huge pond with bridges running side to side, and there were goldfish in the water. (I made J take a picture...)
The breakfast was pretty good - I mean, it was hotel breakfast buffet food, so how good could it be, right? Fun times though, there were quite a few Chinese dishes along with the eggs, waffles, and sausages.
We then drove a route out of town that took us past the stadium built for the 1976 Olympics. The stadium has the tallest inclined tower in the world (more than three times as tall as the Leaning Tower of Pisa!) We didn't get out and look because we had a TON of mileage to go, but
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| It really didn't look that tall, but when you imagine how tall the tower is, just think about how large that stadium is! |
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| On the road again... |
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| Tunnels out of the city |
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| Back into the Canadian countryside |
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| The weather started clearing up as soon as we left the city |
As we got nearer to Quebec City, we saw more and more signs...and billboards...and EVERYTHING in French. Really. No English at all. (In Montreal, at least there was a chance of some English on the signs. Here? Nothing.)
This sign cracked me up, as I had read about the lawsuit that had been in the news in 2012 about Nutella being sued for advertising as being a item good for breakfast. Translated, this sign means "breakfast loves Nutella" (In Canadian French, 'dejeuner' is the word for 'breakfast', as opposed to France, where 'breakfast' is 'petit dejeuner' and 'dejeuner' means 'lunch'). Just personally, I think suing the company that makes a product because they're trying to market it to you is bunk. It REALLY gets me going when people try to sue food companies for stupid things because let me tell you, there is some seriously scary shit that ISN'T getting prosecuted that should be. I can get all sorts of worked up about this - believe me.
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| so idyllic |
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| weird angle from the panoramic photo, but this is the St. Lawrence River |
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| I couldn't resist. There was grass. My shoes immediately came off... |
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| Quebec from the banks of the St. Lawrence |
Quebec City is one of the first European settlements in North America, and as it is on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, there was a citadelle built to protect the city. J and I walked all over on top of it, taking in the views of downtown from the grassy top, and we walked a little bit down into it, but we didn't want to pay to get in, so we took in the guards at the entrance, and turned around to walk around a little bit more.
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| At first I just thought these were pretty red pots, but there were actual tomato plants in them! Edible walkway! |
We were almost done randomly exploring - I had two things on my to-do list...
1. Find, and buy something from the oldest grocery store in North America - J.A. Moisan
2. Find, and eat the hell out of some POUTINE!
Well, first things first - I located a map, and found the street that J.A. Moisan was on. This was all me and my sense of direction, since I had approximately 2 more years of high school French than J did. We ended up down some tiny alley ways with tiny apartments lined up. It immediately felt very European, just like when we went out into Old City Montreal.
Right at the corner where I took this picture -
- I took one sniff and the air was filled with the delicious smell of chocolate chip cookies. I could smell the sweetness in the air, and whirled around to James - COOKIES! He kept me from breaking into the nearest tiny apartment to eat fresh from the oven baked goods, and very soon after, I found the grocery store.
I was super excited. I also had no idea what to expect from this store. J and I went in, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a fully functioning store, a bit touristy, but fun. I really wanted to buy something, but mostly just needed change for a $5 Canadian bill so we could feed the meter for the car. I picked out a nectarine - my favorite food ever in the entire world, and had an entire interaction with the cashier IN FRENCH! Madam Steele of River Ridge High School's French language classes would have been so proud! Haha, ok, I'll be honest - I just handed her the bill, and said a gracious "merci beaucoup" when she gave me my change back - but still, it was French and I was proud!
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| with my victoire nectarine |
Task number two - find and eat poutine. Poutine is a food of the gods - french fries with cheese curds covered in brown gravy. That's three things that I love to eat, all in one container. Yum. We found some (though honestly, it wasn't quite as easy as I thought it would be...although, with no confident French speakers between the two of us, it's no surprise that we couldn't find a divey restaurant with Quebec City's finest poutine.) We settled for the first place that had a poster in the window advertising it.
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| OH MY GOD YES GET IN MY BELLY |
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| J was amused by my enthusiasm for poutine |
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| It took all my willpower to not start eating this before J took the picture. |
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| And that is how I do. |
Chez AshTon was where we ate. Now, I'll give you this. The poutine was good. But it was a bit of a gut bomb. And this was definitely NOT a fancy place. Not even a kind of fancy place.
Once I got back, I yelped this place. This review from 2009: "Chez Ashton is like the McDonalds or maybe Arbys of QC. The poutine is the french fries drenched in gravy and cheese curds - famous in Quebec. It was amazing! I mean I have had better. But this is open like all hours of the night and its legit and its like $3. I mean its like when tourists come to the US and are like i need a Big Mac from an American McDonalds - well go into Chez Ashton and eat some poutine comme les Quebecois."
Love it.
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| Our trusty steed - Canada looks good with our PA plates in it! |
Until then!
-Bethy
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