Quebec City

 29th September 2022

Breakfast this morning was a repeat of yesterday's paper bag edition with the only variation being the substitution of yoghurt for the old peoples fruit mush.

Before leaving Quebec we decided to have a walk back down the street that we dined in last night to see what else was there in daylight. 

Ave Cartier in daylight

Before travelling on to Montreal, we intend to call in to see the Montmorency Falls, which is sort of on our way. It is only 10 or so km from Quebec on the Northern side of the St Lawrence seaway, which is the path we have chosen to take to Montreal as it is more scenic than the Southern road.

Soon we were in the car park near the top of the falls and are pleased to report that the sun is shining, and today looks like it may be fine weather all day. T.he falls are quite spectacular with a huge volume of water flowing over them and many lookouts to get great views of the falls.

Map of the Falls Park

A suspension bridge crosses over the top of the falls giving a different visual perspective.

Looking back at Quebec City from the top of the falls

Our visit to the falls completed, we head back on to track to Montreal. We have decided to take a slower road that tracks along the Seaway as we are told it is a much more scenic drive. That is certainly the case, but it is also very slow. 

Driving along the roads here you are occasionally reminded that things are a bit different here, especially when you pass a ute with a mooses head on the roof racks. The rest of the moose appears to be in the back of the ute

By the time we got to Louseville for lunch at 1.45pm, we decided we would take a faster route to complete the journey after lunch.

Louiseville is a large agricultural based town along the seaway with a bit of a scarcity of lunch spots that were of interest to us, so eventually we decided on Restobar Brassette l'Ami, in the middle of town.

We managed to order our meal in broken French/English and were surprised with both generous serves and good quality food. I had the best hamburger I have had on tour so far.

It is still 2 hour to Montreal and the time is just past 2 pm, so we divert to a major road for the completion of our journey. We head to Montreal with mixed reports about whether it is worthwhile to visit. The lady at the last information centre told us that people currently avoid going there because of the massive road works, others have said there is little to see when you get there. Anyway, we have 2 nights booked so will make the best of it.

As we approached the city outskirts the traffic slowed to a halt. Our GPS offered a few different routes to our hotel to avoid congestion, but they we just confusing and of little help. Montreal is a huge construction site, there is hardly a road that we travelled on that did not have detours or several lanes closed and at peak hour on a Friday afternoon this was most unwelcome. John was driving and he was almost a nervous reck by the time we got to our hotel. Finally as we were approaching, we turned into the street where our hotel was located and were confronted with a roadblock, and our road appears to be a pedestrian mall allowing no traffic. We ended up parking in a side street and I took off on foot to try to find the hotel, how we could access it and where we could park our car. Eventually we sorted it out and checked in to Hotel St Denis in the Latin Quarter of Montreal.

Hotel St Denis

We temporarily park out the front to unload our bags and then have to park in a public carpark, not far away. Hotel St Denis is old, but renovated. the rooms are a bit bigger than the hotel in Quebec, it is typical of a European old city hotel. It is well located to take in the few highlights that Montreal has to offer.

This district is dominated by the University of Quebec and Montreal, with many annexes and campuses in the neighbourhood, including the University Hospital which is enormous. Students dominate the streetscape and restaurants and bars are focused on fast food and drinking.

Near our hotel, rue St Denis is wall to wall bars and restaurants catering to students

Our hotel with the barricaded mall just down the street.

Dinner is an approaching priority and John and I went for an investigation of the area to see if we could find somewhere to eat from a food perspective, and whether we would fit in, as we are just on the edge of one of the biggest gay communities in the World we are told.

None of the passed the food test, so after consultation with the front desk at the Hotel, we walked down to the old town around the Port area where we were told there were many restaurants better suited to our needs. Like all old towns, there are nice cobbled streets, lots of interesting old buildings and plenty of restaurants, as promised.

Old town

We chose the Pincette Restaurant at Auberge du Vieux-Port

The Scallop and Octopus appetisers were standouts

The streets were pretty quiet for a Thursday night as we left the restaurant and walked back to our hotel. One early impression we have of Montreal is the increased number of homeless people on the streets.

Tomorrow we looked like having more fine weather and therefore a good chance to really look around Montreal