It rained all night and into the morning. Once the rain began to lighten up we left the tent and went to check in at the office; since we arrived last night after the office had already closed. We got connected to the campgrounds wifi and got our directions into the center of Quebec City and were off to explore for the day!
When we got to downtown Quebec City we found a nice cafe to start at for our morning latte and crossiant.
After our morning coffee stop we spent a couple hours walking through the streets of central Quebec City. We walked up to Notre Dame and actually went in to see the inside this time; I think this was the third Notre Dame Cathedral I've seen but the first time I've seen the insides. There was a service going on at the time so we just stood in back for a bit (with the other tourists) to admire the architecture and design.
We walked down the hill through some small cobblestone streets (there's a lot of cobblestone in this section). At the bottom of the hill there is a wall and when we peeked over there was another town and river! It is a very nice view (see the first photo below).
Streets of Quebec City
After a couple hours of walking through the streets I found a nice microbrewery called Korrigane's. It is just on the other side of Rue Dorchester from the center of Quebec City and I highly recommend going! We shared a flight of their beers to try a bunch of them and got our first real Canadian poutine. The Poutine was amazingly delicious (better than many other poutines I'm sure we could have gotten instead). Their beer is very good as well. At the time when we were there (early August) they weren't selling it to-go or anywhere outside the pub. However, they had just managed to get their license to sell growlers so they may have started (or will start soon) to sell it to-go!
Poutine + a flight of beers (Mobile photo: Samsung Galaxy s5 + VSCO)
After our enjoyable meal/snack at the brewpub we went for another walk. First walking on the street the brewpub is on so we could see what this neighborhood section is like. There was a book shop that we looked in, and I purchased a book that has both the English and French! There was a bakery and another coffee shop. An old theater that look very pretty on the outside. And several other shops that looked interesting. We then decided to tackle the giant hill to go searching for a different coffee shop I found online. We had a very nice walk up the hill and through the residential streets, looking at the cute houses.
Unfortunately, after walking up the hill and up about 100+ steep steps we got the coffee shop just as it was closing :( So we decided to go back down the hill (and steps) to Cafe Nektar, the coffee shop we saw across from the brewpub. I liked this little cafe. I had a London Fog (Earl grey latte) and they sprinkled a bit of cinnamon on top in the form of a smiley face! No other coffee shop I've been to has ever given me London fog art!
Mobile Photo: Samsung Galaxy s5
While enjoying these lovely drinks we took advantage of having an outlet and reliable wifi to find a restaurant for dinner tonight. After doing some Google searches we found a place called "Le Billig" that look like an excellent place to eat. And it was definitely was delicious! (not just because of all the stairs and hills we climbed throughout the day either). Le Billig is a little creperie restaurant. I had a crepe with feta, spinach, olives, and a poached egg! While the dessert crepes sounded delicious as well, we opted to do something different for dessert (if any thing at all).
After eating, we went back to the campground to relax for the night. We have an excited day tomorrow so stay tuned!
Cheers!