Day40 - je suis parti mon coeur à Québec

I made the decision to stick around for another day last night.  Quebec City is just tool cool to rush away after only one day, and I've still got a lot to explore.  Really, I could probably spend a full week here easily.  I slept in, chatted with the concierge about what to see and do, and was off for a tres petit petit dejeuner.  It was 11:00 already, and I didn't want to spoil my lunch.  :p

I wandered down past the walled part of Old Town to Petit Champlain and Place Royale, and then out to Vieux Port.  This part of town is pretty much all retail, but it's less of the "crappy tourist trinket" stuff and more of the "upscale artesianal" tourist stuff.  Local artists hawking their wares, boutiques and galleries, loads of restaurants, etc.  I had a goal for lunch - le buffet de l'Antiquaine.  The concierge had told me that this was an inexpensive place where they served traditional Quebequois food - "like grandma would serve".  Sounds good to me.  He was also a big beer fan, and pointed out a few different options where I should stop for various brews.  Lunch was decent.  HUGE, and while not anything magnificent, all in all not bad.  After lunch I found a really cool kitchen store that was actually two stores - a large, beautiful, open "traditional" type of store with pretty displays and overpriced celebrity branded junk, and a cramped, hot, sweaty, dusty "professional" store where restauranteurs go for supplies, etc.  I spent a good chunk of time in the latter store and scored some great stuff for next to nothing.  I'm sure such a place exists in Vancouver - I just have no idea where it might be.  (and being in Vancouver, it's probably much pricier)

On to the Marche de Vieux Port where I picked up some other stuff to send home (I'm not going to carry all this stuff with me...), and then back to the post office - where I was reminded that off-the-cuff literal translations don't always go over.  I asked the lady: "s'il vous plait, donnez mois une pistol ruban" and she looked at me as if I'd just asked her to change my diaper.  So I switched to English, and she was happy to lend me a tape gun.  :p  I don't think it was purely a language barrier however, as when I went back and asked (in English) for scissors, the guy at the counter (another customer) had to help her understand what I meant - and it's the same damned word.  By the time I had packed up my box and was ready, the gal from yesterday was there in her place - and she remembered me.  She's a real sweetheart and asked (en Francais) if I hadn't just shipped a box yesterday.  This was a little over my abilities en Francais, so she switched to English and I replied - "ah, ouis".  Then she asked "en Englais, ou Francais"?  I sort of shrugged and said "je parle un peu Francais, tres mal".  To which she gave me a smile that could have convinced me to join the army and said "en Francais"!  We continued the rest of the transaction en Francais, with only a little difficulty on my part.  Pat mentioned that they ship all the ugly women in Trois Rivieres to New Brunswick, but this does not account for the rest of the province.  I really can't understand what's going on here but (tourists aside - they're ugly everywhere) all of the women under 40 are at least somewhat attractive.  It's really quite odd.  I'm not complaining, but it's somewhat eerie...  Anyway, no sonnets will be written about my unrequited love for this lovely post office agent - but she was extremely pretty, very friendly, and had an incredibly warm and engaging smile that could turn around anyone's day.  C'est tout.

It was hot, humid, and raining - so I went back to the hotel to take a shower and relax for a bit before souper.  This will very likely be my last night in town, so I left the "tourist district" and went down to "new Quebec" (where the locals hang out).  On the recommendation of the concierge I hit up "Joe Smoked Meat" for the best smoked meat in Quebec City (remember that sad excuse for a smoked meat platter I had in ON?  This was redemption.  As Seb would say, it's like GoBots vs Transformers) - and then wandered down to a local microbrewery called Korrigane, for a couple of pints of their "biere noir" - a rich, heavily coffee flavoured stout.  One last stop at a little depanneur that specilizes in microbrews for the road, and back to the hotel for a somewhat early night.  Tomorrow I'll (try to) get up early for a nice breakfast and then hit the road at a reasonable hour.  It's ~300km to Van Buren, Maine where Karen and Max are supposed to be spending the summer.  If I can get hold of them I'll cross the border and hang out with them for a bit, otherwise I'll head North to Dalhousie and skirt the coast for the final leg of my journey.  2+ weeks and counting...

More buildings & stuff...

One bad-ass kitchen store...  (yes, that is a wall of immersion blenders)

Tres petit, petit dejeuner

dejeuner

souper

gras - the ONLY way to order smoked meat!

la glace!

biere