Food, Farms, Falls, Fish and a Cracker

Today we decided to venture outside of the walls of Quebec City and visit some areas in the nearby countryside. We started off the day by visiting a Draegers-type market and picking up some baguettes, cheese, cold cuts and sodas for lunch. After that, we drove about 10 miles out of town to the Ile d’Orleans. The island is a relatively small farming community. We drove around the island (about 25 miles in total) and looked at some of the old houses and farms. There were a lot of apples and strawberry farms with fruit for sale. It was nice…and it was extra nice to be in the car since it was about 55 degrees.

After leaving the island, we stopped at Montmerency Falls. The falls is higher than Niagara Falls by about 100 feet, but the volume of water going over the falls is much less. There are gondolas that run from the base to the top…but there was no way I was getting on one of those. So we took our picnic food near the falls and had a picnic. We found a nice, sunny spot on the leeward side of a building. We sat there are ate our lunch listening to the pounding of the falls. After lunch, we decided to walk toward the falls…it was wet, windy and loud…but very neat. After leaving the falls, we looked at the map and figured out that we can drive up near the top. So we may the 5 minute trip and took a foot-bridge out near the falls. Rosie went down to a gazebo overhanging the falls for some pictures, while I clung on to the railing further back. Neither of us decided to walk across the bridge spanning the entire fall.





After our falls excursion, we drove east to the town of Saint Anne de Beaupre. The town has a real cool basilica that was built 300-350 years ago. The story is that some sailors were stuck in a bad storm and sea and promised that if they survived, they would come back and build a church…St. Anne de Beaupre is the result. This was also the sight of many documented miracles so there are many who come here every year. The church was beautiful inside with stained glass and historical painting. The demeanor of the staff we very nice and relaxed…visitors could pretty much go anywhere and take pictures of anything they wished to. We were also able to go down below the main level of the church and check out a couple of cool little chapels. One room underneath the church had hundreds and hundreds of lit candles. Walking into the room was like walking into a blast furnace…the hit just enveloped you. You could also smell the burning wax and see the heat rising to the ceiling and then getting trapped. I lasted about 30 seconds in that chapel. We decided to leave Ste. Anne de Beaupre and head back to Quebec City since we had a 6:30 dinner reservation at a highly recommended seafood restaurant called La Marie Clarisse. Before getting back to the hotel we stopped at a large farmers market (kind of like Pike Place Market in Seattle). We also stopped back by the food store to pick up Rosie some more bottles of the black cherry soda we purchased in the morning. She seems to be into the fruit sodas.

After relaxing for a few minutes, we hoofed it down to La Marie Clarisse in Lower Town. The restaurant was very quaint with stone walls and candle lighting. Before dinner was served, the waiter brought an order of periwinkles (small sea snails). Rosie dared me to eat a few, so I did. The main takeaway from the periwinkles was a very salty, chewy, rubber thing…not much in terms of flavor. Rosie started off dinner with a calamari appetizer; Rick had a bowl of vegetable soup. Both were good, Rosie thought the soup was too cinnamony. We both ordered fish stew for entrees. The seafood in the stew was excellent…very plentiful and fresh. This time I agreed, the broth was too cinnamony. Overall, I would say the fish stew may not have been the best thing to order. Vis-à-vis the cost of the dinner, we were both a bit disappointed….good but not great.




We then walked back up the steps to Upper Town. For our exercise effort, we decided to treat ourselves to a dessert crepe on the way back to the hotel. The crepe restaurant was really crowded so we sat at the counter. The restaurant was understaffed and it took about 45 minutes to get our banana and chocolate crepe. During the wait, we watched the girl making the crepes. Being crepe experts…having been to the restaurant the past 3 days, we both decided her cooking technique was flawed. She was supper messy and spread the batter too thinly. When we finally got our crepe, it was more cracker than crepe…extra crispy. The flavor and the banana and chocolate were still good…it was only the crepe itself that was lacking.

After getting back to the hotel, it was laundry time. The hotel has a washer and a dryer off the exercise room. We didn’t even know the hotel had an exercise room..ha ha. So here we are at 10:30pm on a Saturday night on our honeymoon, doing laundry…party times! About another 30 minutes and it will be beddy-bye time.


R&R