Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
Sep 22nd 2019, 10:40 pm
#1
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Location: A Briton, married to a Canadian, now in Fredericton.
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Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
So finally after 7 long hot and cold years in Fredericton, my son can look after the house and my husband finally popped to visit us, and he and I are on holiday in Quebec City. What a bloody revelation! It felt like coming home. A more wonderful city I haven’t visited...for the last 7 years! There are beautiful boulevards...with trees in the middle...the architecture is upmarket, downmarket, and just wonderfully eclectic! It feels like a ‘proper’ City...albeit a small one.
It was faster for me to drive here than go to Halifax...but it was like going to another country... Oh dear heaven the food is fantastic, the supermarkets are incredible...and they aren’t even trying to be.
We have good products in NB, but it’s an adventure to get them. Here, it’s very nearly like France... people want good products and they won’t be fobbed off with rubbish...even Costco had local cheeses and Confit of Duck...and I can’t get that in Fredericton. In the supermarket tonight we spotted Lamb shanks in Red Wine and Rabbit and Rosemary sausages...I may have died and gone to heaven
This is definitely going to be on my couple of long weekends away per year list!!! Just getting away has been good.
A couple of random thoughts...the squirrels here are black? I looked it up and it’s a generic mutation, but odd, it just isn’t squirrel coloured!
I think that the weather must ultimately be better overall as the plants and trees are far long term more healthy looking than those in my bit of NB, and people seem to have beautiful house plants in the windows, and we just don’t get enough light.
It was faster for me to drive here than go to Halifax...but it was like going to another country... Oh dear heaven the food is fantastic, the supermarkets are incredible...and they aren’t even trying to be.
We have good products in NB, but it’s an adventure to get them. Here, it’s very nearly like France... people want good products and they won’t be fobbed off with rubbish...even Costco had local cheeses and Confit of Duck...and I can’t get that in Fredericton. In the supermarket tonight we spotted Lamb shanks in Red Wine and Rabbit and Rosemary sausages...I may have died and gone to heaven
This is definitely going to be on my couple of long weekends away per year list!!! Just getting away has been good.
A couple of random thoughts...the squirrels here are black? I looked it up and it’s a generic mutation, but odd, it just isn’t squirrel coloured!
I think that the weather must ultimately be better overall as the plants and trees are far long term more healthy looking than those in my bit of NB, and people seem to have beautiful house plants in the windows, and we just don’t get enough light.
Sep 22nd 2019, 10:45 pm
#2
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
If I could speak French, I would try living in Quebec somewhere, seems overall not a bad place.
Quebec City is on my list of places to visit, seems like a nice city from what I read and the photos I have seen.
Glad your having a nice vacation.
Quebec City is on my list of places to visit, seems like a nice city from what I read and the photos I have seen.
Glad your having a nice vacation.
Sep 22nd 2019, 11:05 pm
#3
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
Sep 22nd 2019, 11:45 pm
#4
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Location: Moncton, NB, CANADA
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
The overnight train journey puts me off. Not sure I could sleep well enough. The fare is just over $400 for two.
The viarail website invites you to look at the cabin prices because "it might not be as much as you think."
And they're right. I certainly wouldn't think $400 would turn into $1600 for a cabin both ways. That's $600 a night. It's cheaper to stay at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.
The viarail website invites you to look at the cabin prices because "it might not be as much as you think."
And they're right. I certainly wouldn't think $400 would turn into $1600 for a cabin both ways. That's $600 a night. It's cheaper to stay at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.
Sep 22nd 2019, 11:48 pm
#5
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
Sep 22nd 2019, 11:59 pm
#6
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
Based on an afternoon studying clouds, on my back in the grass, there are less chubby children and far fewer obese adults than in NB.
Sep 23rd 2019, 12:10 am
#7
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
Definitely noticed that here after 9 months in Montreal.
Lamb Shanks with a rosemary sauce is what I miss from Sainsburys. I just have to do my own thing with the frozen ones here.
Have you done Dolma Foods here? Not sure if you've been since they reopened. Or Les Gourmandes?
Some of the stuff there is expensive but they do things not really available elsewhere. The fishmarket shop near Dolma is pretty good too.
Sep 23rd 2019, 12:13 am
#8
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
The overnight train journey puts me off. Not sure I could sleep well enough. The fare is just over $400 for two.
The viarail website invites you to look at the cabin prices because "it might not be as much as you think."
And they're right. I certainly wouldn't think $400 would turn into $1600 for a cabin both ways. That's $600 a night. It's cheaper to stay at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.
The viarail website invites you to look at the cabin prices because "it might not be as much as you think."
And they're right. I certainly wouldn't think $400 would turn into $1600 for a cabin both ways. That's $600 a night. It's cheaper to stay at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.
I am a light sleeper and can't generally even sleep on airplanes, but I slept well on Via, I think the movement of the train helped. It was honestly not bad at all and I would do it again.
Sep 23rd 2019, 1:21 am
#9
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
Quebec City and Montreal are both incredible cities, would heartily recommend visits.
Weather-wise, I'd be concerned about the summer humidity and winter cold for living in either (and my partner's refusal to contemplate learning French beyond "Je nerrr comprendiez we're-in-Canada-speak-English ooooh-I-know-'flocons'-is-on-the-side-of-cereal!" is something of a dealbreaker for long-term
)
Weather-wise, I'd be concerned about the summer humidity and winter cold for living in either (and my partner's refusal to contemplate learning French beyond "Je nerrr comprendiez we're-in-Canada-speak-English ooooh-I-know-'flocons'-is-on-the-side-of-cereal!" is something of a dealbreaker for long-term
)
Sep 23rd 2019, 7:38 pm
#10
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
So glad you made it there Millie. I've always wondered why you didn't explore a bit more of the Great White North.
Sep 23rd 2019, 7:54 pm
#11
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
I'm toying with the idea of here to Halifax at some stage. At least I could try it for comfort for a bit.
Sep 23rd 2019, 8:23 pm
#12
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
The overnight train journey puts me off. Not sure I could sleep well enough. The fare is just over $400 for two.
The viarail website invites you to look at the cabin prices because "it might not be as much as you think."
And they're right. I certainly wouldn't think $400 would turn into $1600 for a cabin both ways. That's $600 a night. It's cheaper to stay at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.
The viarail website invites you to look at the cabin prices because "it might not be as much as you think."
And they're right. I certainly wouldn't think $400 would turn into $1600 for a cabin both ways. That's $600 a night. It's cheaper to stay at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.
Sep 23rd 2019, 8:31 pm
#13
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
So finally after 7 long hot and cold years in Fredericton, my son can look after the house and my husband finally popped to visit us, and he and I are on holiday in Quebec City. What a bloody revelation! It felt like coming home. A more wonderful city I haven’t visited...for the last 7 years! There are beautiful boulevards...with trees in the middle...the architecture is upmarket, downmarket, and just wonderfully eclectic! It feels like a ‘proper’ City...albeit a small one.
https://goo.gl/maps/WBrC6sBUZE3jFoTx5
There must have been a sale on above ground pools
Restaurant Aux Anciens Canadiens - Dans le Vieux-Québec - Gastronomie québécoise et gibiers This restaurant is good value, albeit full of tourists.
Sep 24th 2019, 12:18 am
#14
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
Sep 24th 2019, 1:31 am
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Re: Quebec!!! It’s wonderful!
Yes, Nice Airport is very close to the City and now the tram line that was u/c when I was there parallel with the Promenade d'Anglais extends to the airport.