Quebec City - Day 2
On day two of our vacation, we started with breakfast at Café La Maison Smith René-Lévesque. Café La Maison Smith is a chain café with several locations in Quebec City and at least one in Montreal. For my fellow Americans, think of Starbucks, but actually good—very good. Pastries, quiches, coffee, lattes, everything we tried was great, and their chai latte was the best I’ve tasted anywhere!
Feeling extremely happy with breakfast, we walked to the Citadelle of Quebec (La Citadelle), headquarters of the Royal 22e Régiment (R22R), the only French-speaking regiment in Canada. Even though La Citadelle is a working military base, it is also open to the public, provided you are part of a paid group tour. Non-military personnel are not allowed to walk freely around the installation.
We spent a fair amount of time touring the Citadelle, and if you arrive early enough, you can watch one of the ceremonies held on the parade grounds, like the one depicted below.
Click or tap photos to enlarge them.
The goat in the photo above is Batisse XII, the regiment’s mascot. The soldier holding the leash is the Goat Major. The original Batisse was gifted to the regiment by Queen Elizabeth II in 1955. Batisse XII is reportedly a direct descendant of Batisse I. Given how bad male goats smell, I have to wonder if being the Goat Major is a privilege or a punishment. Given the look on the Goat Major’s face, I think my question is justified.
While you’re visiting La Citadelle, don’t forget to walk through the onsite museum for an interesting walk through history.
The citadelle’s strategic position at the highest point provided a great vantage point for taking photos of Quebec City. I found this group of buildings quite picturesque.
Click or tap photos to enlarge them.
Quick Tip: After leaving the citadelle, you can walk up the earth embankment surrounding it for even more photo opportunities!
Click or tap photos to enlarge them.
After exhausting our time at Le Citadelle, we stopped for lunch at Les Trois Garçons, where we shared a Nordic Salad, which was terrific, and tried our first traditional Canadian poutine. The food was delicious, but what really stayed with me was being surrounded by lively conversations in beautiful French. I don’t understand a word of French, and that was the glory of it. It wasn’t difficult to close your eyes and imagine you’ve been transported to another continent.
After lunch, we visited Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec at the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion, where we enjoyed several exhibitions, including two decades of work by Niki de Saint Phalle. Her work is controversial, but I imagine you can’t be a renowned artist without being so. In addition to exhibiting her art, the museum also taught you about the artist and her fascinating life story.
Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002). Official website: https://nikidesaintphalle.org/
One of the other exhibits at the museum that I found interesting is a rooftop exhibit of sculptures generated by mathematical formulas. Moving around the exhibit, I loved how it mirrored the spires of the surrounding buildings.
Entering an upper floor of the pavilion, I was immediately struck by the quality of light streaming through the hallway windows and around the exposed structural supports. I’ve taken some artistic license and emphasized what I saw in the high-key black-and-white photo below.
Entering the doors out of frame on the right, we were treated to an exhibit of local, indigenous art carved from natural materials, such as bone.
Of course, there was much, much more to see, but these are the kinds of pieces that I found most interesting.
Leaving the museum and embarking on a hunt for mid-day pastry, we headed down Cartier Avenue to see the lampshade public art exhibit. There are 34 giant lampshades in total.
Heading a little further down Cartier Avenue, I thought we hit pastry gold at Café Les Cousins. As you can see from the photos below, everything looked great. However, this was hands down the worst food we had while we were in Canada. I don’t know if we just ordered the wrong thing, ordered at the wrong time of day, or if they were “thumbing their noses” at the tourists, but our food was old, dried out, and tasteless, and our drinks were thin and tepid. Because coffee and I do not always get along, I made it a point to try a chai latte at every patisserie I visited, and at Café Les Cousins, it was terrible.
After our disappointing mid-day stop at Café Les Cousins, we started the long trek back to the hotel for some rest before dinner at La Bûche.
Below are a few snapshots taken on the walk back to the hotel.
Click or tap photos to enlarge them.
The weather was perfect for dining on the outside patio at La Bûche Restaurant. My lovely wife (below) had salmon, and I had a meat pie. La Bûche offers a pleasant atmosphere and touts a “new traditional” Quebec cuisine. We had a delightful evening.
