Quebec City, Quebec, Canada - Day 2

Friday, September 15, 2023

Today was the first morning since we left Wisconsin 10 days ago the we didn’t rush off to a new location. It felt like a breath of fresh air to sleep in a little bit, blog, and take a shower in the morning. Andi also went to a local cafe around 8:00am to work for a bit.

Tory and Aden played so nicely together this morning. They got dressed around 8:30am and rode their bikes all over the campground. There’s a playground on the KOA campgrounds and a chicken coop, so they had lots of fun playing with the chickens, too.

Around 11:00am, the four of us hopped in the Jeep and set off to explore more of Quebec City. Several of the small cities and suburbs surrounding Quebec City are idillic towns to spend an afternoon. The hardest part was choosing which one to visit. The charming architecture of the city spills out along the St. Lawrence River.

We’d heard a lot about the town of Rivière-de-Loup on the southern side of the St. Lawrence River, but that was a two-hour drive away from our campground in QC. Instead, we picked to visit Baie-Saint-Paul this afternoon, a touristic town on the northern side of the river. Fun fact: the tiny town of Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec is where the Cirque du Soleil originated.

Driving through the city of Quebec City is busy, but not difficult to navigate. It helped having Andi behind the wheel and myself navigating from the passenger seat. We guided ourselves along the St. Lawrence River toward Baie-Saint-Paul, marveling at the cascading Montmorency Falls and the Île d'Orléans suspension bridge which connects Quebec City to the island in the suburb of Beauport.

In Beauport, Andi picked a restaurant called Radio Cafe for lunch. It wasn’t the charming French bistro I had in mind, but it was a perfect restaurant choice for the kids. It’s important to make selections for food & entertainment while traveling that appeals to all of us; not just Andi and I. We were seated inside the restaurant and ordered our food. The kids each got kids meals (Tory picked pepperoni pizza and Aden ordered chicken tenders). Every restaurant kids meal in Canada seems to come with complimentary juice (grape, apple, or orange) and ice cream for dessert.

Smoked meat seems to be a popular menu choice in Canada as well. Andi ordered the smoked meat sandwich with skinny fries and a side of soup for his meal. It happened to be corned beef with mustard. The sandwich bread was soggy from the meat; I’m not sure if it was supposed to be that way or caused from the juice of the meat, but the sandwich still tasted good. I went with the chicken club sandwich for my meal which was fine.

It still feels so funny to us that people are speaking in French in Quebec. Everyone we’ve encountered kindly switches to speaking English the minute they realize we’re American, but I still think it’s important to try to communicate with them in their native language if we can. Our waitress at Radio Cafe spoke perfect English, but also threw in a few French phrases like “wala” and “merci boucoup.”

A few days ago when we arrived in Quebec, Spanish words kept spilling out of our mouths whenever we’d hear someone speak French, so at least that urge has worn off. The four of us were talking over lunch that if someone was interested in traveling internationally, or wanted to learn French in a low-stress environment, visiting Quebec is the perfect place. Everyone speaks French here and all the signage, menus, etc. are written in French, but it seems like people also speak English fluently and aren’t offended when you can’t communicate in their primary language.

After lunch at Radio Cafe, the four of us continued our drive to Baie-Saint-Paul. This town of about 7,000 people is located on the northern side of the St. Lawrence River and has a beautiful, sandy beach along its shores. We headed there first to check it out.

Today’s weather was 70 and sunny, but unfortunately not a day for relaxing at the beach. The air felt like a cool, fall day and the wind was blowing. We walked along the beach, people watched, and admired the water.

It was difficult to remember that this is a river, not a lake or the ocean because our gaze over the water stretched on for miles. The water was freezing, I’m sure, but we did see one kite surfer taking advantage of the windy day.

Next, we drove to the downtown area, and parked our car there. The four of us walked along the pretty town sidewalks, window shopping various art galleries and clothing stores. Andi led us into a shop called Fraicheur et Saveurs, and told the kids they each had $5 to spend on candy, but their selections had to be something they’d never tried before. Tory and Aden went nuts when they heard this, of course, and spent the next 20 minutes pouring over the store shelves making their selections.

Tory picked fudge, a salted caramel taffy, and a new flavor of Nerds she’d never tried. Aden chose a can of Warheads sour soda.

The four of us continued our walk along Main Street in Baie Saint Paul before making our way back to the Jeep. Somewhere along the way, Tory challenged Aden to a plank contest. Maybe it was all the sugar talking?

It took us about 90 minutes to drive back to our campground in the suburb of Levis. Along the way, we stopped at an IGA supermarket to grab something quick for dinner. It turned out to be the nicest grocery store we’ve visited in a long time! Who knew? IGA?? This store was four levels with groceries, a frozen yogurt shop, a vitamins/health food section, and more shopping.

Andi and I each selected poke bowls for our meals, and Tory and Aden picked pre-made spaghetti dinners. During our shopping, both Tory and Aden said they needed to use the bathroom. We walked all over the store trying to find the restrooms & eventually found one at the top of a side staircase. Except, we figured out it was actually the employee locker room. Just as Aden opened the door to go inside, a teenage employee walked out. “Toilette?” I said in my best French accent. The guy smiled and said in English, “Sure, go ahead.” I’m so glad everyone has been so friendly in Quebec.

We paid for our meals at the grocery store check-out, and then drove back to KOA. The pink sunset was breathtaking over the St. Lawrence as we drove.

At camp, the four of us ate our dinner meals and hung out inside the camper for the rest of the night. The neighbor’s fire ring happened to be right next to our RV’s front wheel, so Andi did go outside and chat with the couple from Michigan for a while as well.

Before bed, the kids finally did the Canadian Kit Kat taste test they’ve been talking about for weeks. Apparently, Kit Kats in the United States are produced by Hershey’s and Kit Kats in Canada are made by Nestle. Some people say the Canadian chocolate is much better than the USA version. Tory and Aden decided they needed to do an official taste test to see for themselves. We traveled here with a Kit Kat bar from home to conduct this very experiment.

Our results ended up being somewhat of a tie. Andi said he far preferred the Canadian version because it was more chocolatey. Aden liked the American version, and Tory said she liked both the same. She couldn't tell a difference. I guess the answer is that both Kit Kats are worthy of eating.

We’ve been watching Hurricane Lee closely as it is set to make landfall along the eastern coast of the United States and Canada this weekend. Our original plan was to leave Quebec City and drive to the coast of New Brunswick, but we’ve scrapped that idea now because of the weather. Luckily, we didn’t have anything booked so our plans are flexible. Andi and I are hoping the storm damage isn’t too severe, and that we can still visit Maine and Acadia National Park next week.

Our new plan is to drive to central Maine tomorrow. From there, we’ll watch the weather and decide if it’s safe enough to head to the Atlantic coast, or if we need to turn toward New Hampshire.