Snow, Snow, Snow

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Walking Tour #3

That is the opening line from a song in “White Christmas” when they are all on the train headed for Vermont. I title my blog that for today because we woke up to a few inches of snow and a continuing snow storm. We are headed to the lower town today at the base of the old city. The Funicular will save us the walk down and up the hill. I am especially appreciative of the funicular today because of the snow and brutal winds. It was 25 degrees at 11 and not sing of getting any warmer any time soon. We thought we were prepared for the cold, but we were wrong. The winds off the river made it seem even colder, much colder than the winds off the Hudson back home.

We headed from out hotel to the funicular, I thought I was going to become a popsicle before we ever got there, the wind cut right through my long coat and my 180 ear protection was not enough as my forehead was getting an ice cream headache without the benefit of the ice cream. Jerry was equally as cold, his hat was to thin is cloves not warm enough and did not have the right socks. The wind was so gusty that it nearly blew me over, and that is not an easy task.

We managed our way to the funicular without freezing to death and spent too much money buying warm hats, and what a fashion statement they make as well. Once we got to the lower town, we were protected by the buildings lining the narrow streets. It was very beautiful with the snow, Christmas lights and decorations. We first walked through Quartier Petit-Champlain a narrow pedestrian only street. It was actually saved by a group of merchants wanting to protect it from development and American investment. They formed a co-op and purchased the entire area. It is now a thriving area with shops, restaurants, etc. Yes, it is geared toward the tourists but you can still manage to find some off the beaten path places even here. In fact, at the very end of the street is a small two story building that had a restaurant in it. The prices were very reasonable and the food good. I joined Jerry in his quest for the best soupe l’oignon gratine as we both has a piping hot bowl. It was the best we have had so far. Jerry had a BFLT (Bacon Fromage Lettuce and Tomato) sandwich. Also very good and the bread was nice and crispy. I took my first stab at Poutine. For those that have no idea what Poutine is and I really didn’t either until our trip to Main last summer, it is fries and cheese curds covered in gravy. I know it doesn’t exactly jump off the plate at you, but it is actually very good. Great Canadian comfort food. It comes in numerous varieties and we will be having more once we get to Montreal.

After lunch we just walked through the narrow snowed covered streets of lower town. We went in to a few shops, bought our refrigerator magnet and looked for a place for dinner. We have reservations at the Hobbit, but it is about a 15-minute walk and given the snow and cold we decided to get something closer. We walked by several good places and found all three of the restaurants the guy at the front desk recommended to us the night before. They all looked good, but we finally decided on SSS, my only hesitation was the description of the place in our Fodor’s travel guide. In the description they used three words that almost always turn me off to any place especially when used in the same sentence. Those words are hipster, chic and trendy. We left Portland to escape the hipster movement and chic and trendy have never been our thing. On the positive side the menu looked great, the had a Poutine that sounded delicious especially instead of gravy it had béarnaise sauce, and what doesn’t taste better covered in béarnaise?

We continued our snowy walk all the while Jerry was looking for a shop to buy new gloves and wool socks. He finally found them in a store back in the Quartier Petit-Champlain, right next to the entrance to the funicular. It was of course a pricy store, but he was happy with the gloves and socks. He immediately put the socks on right in the store. With our tour of lower town complete we headed back up to upper town. At the top the wind was again gusty and biting. But we had to walk over to the toboggan run to get pictures of the kids taking a ride down. From there we ventured back into the streets of upper town. We were checking out places to have lunch before we left tomorrow. What we found was a better place to have dinner for tonight, so we went in and made reservations. Across the street was a combination Boulangerie and Patisserie. Here we bought some treats for wine thirty. It all looked good and fresh croissants just came out of the ovens. Jerry went for the Jesuite, an almond cake like pastry filled with cheese I got a choclatine (chocolate croissant) and Chausson Pommes (basically a really good apple fritter.)

As we made our way back to the hotel we took several small streets we had yet to explore, very quiet and a few interesting potential restaurants should we return here in the future. When we arrived at the hotel, I was pretty cold, but they had a hot chocolate machine so we got a couple of cups and went to our room for blogging, chocolate-thirty (wine-thirty will still come).

Steak Frites

After changing reservations twice, we finally decided to just go with steak frites at a place that has been doing it for over 30 years. Lucky for us we had already made reservations because it was packed and they were turning tables furiously. The place was just a simple restaurant with no frills, but knew what they were doing. It reminded me of a place in New York, that serves nothing but steak frites and it is all about their sauce. While this place does more than just steak frites it is what they are known for and that is pretty much all any one ordered. Here it is also all about their sauce and it is a better sauce than that found in the New York restaurant. We did their 4 course steak frites dinner, starting with a good tomato soup, followed by a nice butter leaf salad with a very good vinaigrette. Then it was the main event the steak frites. Dinner ended with chocolate profiteroles. For the price it was a great meal.

Now I do have to make one comment, well maybe two, about the table next to us. It was an 8 top of four couples, the men were all basically meat heads, dressed like slops and ate like pigs. But the difference between a French Canadian meat head and an American meat head is 1) they drink wine and 2) when they open their mouth and French comes out they gain some level of sophistication, that the American meat head cannot obtain.

This ends our Quebec City portion of the trip. We have one final meal in the morning before we head for the train station. We will arrive in Montreal around 6 pm tomorrow night and have three full days to explore the city.

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Comments

[andrea vaughn]

a winter wonderland!
How very beautiful! what a feeling just looking at all the pics! yum, yum...all of it! so glad yous are having such a beautiful time, makes me know all is good with you two, all i want! Just showed me abode for a third time to the same folks. We are planning to close next Sunday. feels good. So carry on living it up! will pay better attention to me inbox and follow yous around at least, in spirit! xo