Things to do in Québec City
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Paillard Café-Boulangerie
This bright and buzzy space has high ceilings, huge windows looking onto the street and a long wooden table down the middle where diners tuck into tasty gourmet sandwiches (ham with green apples and brie; hot roast beef sandwiches with blue cheese, caramelized onions and horseradish), satisfying soups and fresh salads. The attached bakery with its displays of sweet temptation is too hard to resist. It’s a bit of a madhouse at lunchtime.
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Artillery Park
The French chose this location for their army barracks because of its strategic view of the plateau west of the city and the St Charles River, both of which could feed enemy soldiers into Québec City. English soldiers moved in after the British conquest of New France. The English soldiers left in 1871 and it was changed into an ammunition factory for the Canadian army. The factory operated until 1964 and thousands of Canadians worked there during the World Wars. Now you can visit the Officers’ Quarters and the Dauphine Redoubt where guides greet you in character (ie the garrison’s cook) and give you the scoop on life in the barracks. There’s also a huge model of Québec…
reviewed
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Le Hobbit
This popular and inviting bistro on Rue St-Jean has outdoor seating, a casual atmosphere and good-value lunch and dinner specials (check out the chalkboard). The classics are all nicely done, including French onion soup, juicy duck confit and steak frites – plus Québécois specialties like elk with sautéed apples and leeks. There’s a small but fairly priced wine list. Various fresh pasta dishes and salads round out the menu.
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Casse-Crêpe Breton
Tiny and unassuming, this perennial favorite specializes in hot, fresh crepes of every kind starting as low as $4. Some diners like to sit at the counter and watch the chef at work.
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L’Échaudé
This classic little bistro has a refreshingly relaxed and nonstuffy waitstaff. All the classics are on offer – including duck confit, steak frites (steak with French fries), fresh fish of the day and braised lamb shank –along with more daring options like Cornish hen with braised shrimp, and pan-fried foie gras with grilled mushrooms. All come beautifully plated to the table and bursting with flavor, which is why L’Échaudé is one of the rare places in the Old Town where locals regularly outnumber tourists. The terrific wine list favors bottles from France.
reviewed
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Musée du Fort
Not really a museum at all, the Musée du Fort houses a 30-minute multimedia show on the many attempts over the centuries to take Québec City. It’s all played out on a model/diorama that lights up in the middle of a minitheater. The breathless narration and anemic smoke-puffs that pass for special effects are a bit hokey but it does give a quick, enjoyable, easy-to-grasp audiovisual survey of the city’s battles and history, making a good introduction to it. English-language shows are held on the hour (French-language versions on the half-hour).
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Old Québec Tours
This tour operator has a variety of tours from three-hour walking tours (adult/child $22/11) to 4½-hour tours out of town that take in the Montmorency waterfall and Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré (adult/child $49/23) or Île d’Orléans (adult/child $65/38). There are also adventure excursions, including whale-watching from June to October and dogsledding and visits to the ice hotel in the winter. You’ll be given the rendezvous point when you make your reservations.
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Le Café du Clocher Penché
This café serves classy, classic bistro fare and proudly shows off local products like Québécois fromages (cheeses). What sets it apart are the one-of-a-kind weekend brunches. Brioche comes with caramelized pears, homemade crème fraîche, caramel sauce and almonds. An English muffin is served with veggie pâté, poached eggs, cheddar cheese, pesto vinaigrette, roasted potatoes and vegetarian chili. Reservations recommended.
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Ghost Tours of Québec
Local theater actors or storytellers lead you through the streets of the Old Town by lantern recounting the hangings and hauntings of Old Québec. The 90-minute tours are great fun and usually finish with a visit to the city’s most haunted building. Tours leave from the sitting area (98 Rue du Petit-Champlain near Blvd Champlain) in the Old Lower Town. Buy your tickets from the Ghost Tours of Québec office or from the guide 15 minutes before the tour.
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Le Café du Monde
This Paris-style bistro is the only restaurant in town directly on the St Lawrence River. Bright, airy and casually elegant, it has been a local favorite for years, swearing by bistro classics like steak frites and saucisse de Toulouse. The menu is authentic and there’s a great choice of other dishes like roasted pork rack with honey and lobster ravioli. The accent is on local Québec products.
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Ja Moisan Épicier
Established in 1871, this is considered the oldest grocery store in North America. The store is beautifully set up and fun just to browse – ever seen black-and-white, zebra-striped bow pasta? The products do generally fall on the ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ side of expensive but there will be products here you’ve never seen before along with heaps of local goods.
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Conti Caffe
Set on busy Rue St-Louis, the handsome Conti Caffe features an impressive selection of flavorful Italian classics. Start off with prosciutto and melon or the house antipasto, before moving on to penne with gorgonzola, apples and walnuts or the grilled halibut with mango salsa. The dining room is a warmly lit retreat, with exposed brick walls trimmed with art and big windows overlooking the street.
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Boutique Kettö
Illustrator Julie St-Onge-Drouin started up Kettö after her illustrative designs kept finding their way onto ceramic surfaces. Now at this big, bright and beautifully set-up boutique, they’re on everything from plates and mugs to ceramic jewelry and necklaces. Great gifts, her designs are sold in small boutiques throughout Québec, but here you’ll find the best selection.
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Chez Ashton
For a break from fine dining, head to Chez Ashton, a Québec City fast-food institution with dozens of restaurants across town. Some Québec City boosters swear it’s the best poutine in the province (Montrealers, of course, would quickly dismiss such an idea). Though poutine is the draw, Ashton also whips up burgers and roast beef sandwiches.
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Buffet de L’Antiquaire
Tucked in among the bistros and the galleries is this convivial little diner with an old-school vibe. Locals and tourists alike crowd in for hearty breakfasts, steaming plates of poutine, savory meat pies and other tasty comfort fare. Grab a seat at the narrow counter or, if the weather is warm, slip into one of the sidewalk tables out front.
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Basilique Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré
The village of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré is known for the Goliath-sized Basilique Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré and its role as a shrine. Churches were built at this location since the mid-1600s but were frequently destroyed by fire. The awe-inspiring basilica of today was constructed after a devastating blaze in 1922 and has been open since 1934.
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La Citadelle
This massive, star-shaped fort towers above the St Lawrence River on Cap Diamant. French forces started construction here in the late 1750s leaving a gunpowder building and a redoubt, the beginnings of a defensive structure. But the Citadelle we know today was actually built by the British, who feared two things: an American invasion of the colony and a possible revolt by the local French-speaking population (that’s why the cannons point not only at the river, but at Québec City itself). However, by the time the Citadelle was completed (construction began in 1820 and was finished about 30 years later) things were calming down. Twenty years later, in 1871, the Treaty of Wa…
reviewed
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Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec
Anyone curious about Québec art needs to carve out at least half a day for a visit to this museum, one of the best in the province. There are expert permanent exhibitions that range from art and artists in the early French colonies to Québec’s abstract artists. There are also individual halls devoted entirely to the province’s artistic giants of the last century. The do-not-miss permanent exhibitions include one devoted to Jean-Paul Lemieux (1904–90) and another to Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923–2002), which includes L’hommage à Rosa Luxemburg (Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg; 1986), his largest work. The Brousseau Inuit Art Collection of 2639 pieces spanning 50 years wa…
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Hôtel du Parlement
The National Assembly building is a Second Empire structure completed in 1886. It’s home to the Provincial Legislature. Free tours are given in English and French year-round. The 30-minute visits get you into the National Assembly Chamber, the Legislative Council Chamber and the Speakers’ Gallery. The facade of the building is decorated with 23 bronze statues of significant provincial historical figures, including explorer Samuel de Champlain (1570–1635), early New France governor Louis de Buade Frontenac (1622–98) and battle heroes like James Wolfe (1727–59) and Louis-Joseph Montcalm (1712–59), the English and French generals who met, fought and received mortal wound…
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Québec Kebs
The city’s brand-new basketball team, the Québec Kebs play at the 5000-seat stadium of Pavillon de la Jeunesse. In the Atlantic division of the Premier Basketball League, the Kebs play from December through March. Incidentally, the logo of the Kebs (a jumping frog that goes by the name ‘Dunky’) is a still a sore spot for some locals. ‘Frog’ has long been a derogatory name the English have used for French-speaking people and some consider it racist. When the man behind bringing the franchise to Québec City, businessman Réal Bourassa, said the new team name would be either the Québec Jumping Frogs or Kebekwa (how Québécois is pronounced in English), the uproar was heard …
reviewed
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Cathedral of the Holy Trinity
Built from 1800 to 1804, this cathedral was designed by two officers from the British army’s military engineering corps and modeled on St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, England. This elegantly handsome Anglican cathedral was the first ever built outside the British Isles, with oak imported from Windsor Castle’s Royal Forest just to make the pews. Upon its completion, King George III sent the cathedral a treasure trove of objects, including candlesticks, chalices and silver trays. The elaborateness of the gifts heading toward the New World sent London’s chattering classes atwitter. The royal box for the reigning monarch or her representative is located in the upper…
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Musée des Ursulines
The fascinating story of the Ursuline nuns’ lives and their influence in the 17th and 18th centuries is told in this thoughtful, well-set-out museum. The sisters established the first girls’ school on the continent in 1641, educating both aboriginal and French girls. Marie de l’Incarnation, the founder, was one of the most intriguing figures from the order. Leaving a young son in France after she was widowed, she joined the Ursulines and moved to New France and lived well into old age. She taught herself aboriginal languages and her frequent and eloquent letters to her son back in France are held by historians to be some of the richest and most valuable material available…
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Parc des Champs de Bataille
One of Québec City’s must-sees, this verdant, cliff-top park contains the Plains of Abraham. This was the stage for the infamous 1759 battle between British General James Wolfe and French General Montcalm that determined the fate of the North American continent. The park, named for Abraham Martin, a Frenchman who was one of the first farmers to settle in the area, is packed with sites, old cannons, monuments and commemorative plaques. It also has a fine multimedia history museum and several impressive fortification towers (one with a small military museum inside). The park is also a draw for locals, who come for outdoor activities such as running, in-line skating and, …
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Martello Tower 2
Martello Tower 2 is open to the public only during staged events, like the Convict’s Last Drink. This lively interactive theater (in English) gives a taste of 19th-century justice. It features a mock trial of a soldier accused of a crime, and the audience will decide his fate while – and this is the important part – sampling homemade beers. Because alcohol is served, those under 18 must be accompanied by an adult; reserve through the Discovery Pavilion or by phone. A French-language version (La Dernier Verre) takes place at 6:30pm daily (mid-July to early September). Other shows include an ‘1814, council-of-war-style’ feast (adult/child $35/32), during which diners must…
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Onhoúa chetek8e
This Huron aboriginal reserve is only about 20 minutes west of Québec City (you’ll know you’re there when you start seeing the bilingual Huron/French traffic signs). The major attraction here is the Onhoúa Chetek8e, a reconstructed Huron village (the ‘letter’ 8 in Huron is pronounced ‘oua’ like the ‘wh’ in ‘what’). The guides are excellent (one is even a former land-claims negotiator) and take you round the village explaining Huron history, culture and daily life. It may be artificial, but visitors love this place and children go wild for the tipi, canoes and bow-and-arrow range. Several guides speak English but call ahead to make sure they aren’t already assigned t…
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