Quebec City: Day 2: Street Art, Food Tour and Observatory

Street parking is free after 9 pm so last night we parked on the street but we knew that we had to move the car to the parking garage this morning by 9am.  We had quite the challenge getting the car to the garage.  What was only a 3 block drive took us 15 minutes.  There are so many one way streets and there is a point at which some streets change their one way direction, and you can't turn right on red, and you can't turn left during certain hours and there was construction detours!!! Whew.  Well, we did succeed.   We will leave it there until tomorrow.  When we parked there on Sunday the parking structure was nearly empty so finding a spot was easy. This time, since it was a Tuesday (work day)  the lot was nearly full. We ended out on the roof top, 4 levels up.

After breakfast we headed out to walk to the Old Quebec Food Tour.  We walked under the freeway overpass.  There was a lot of art on the support walls.

We went by "our" grocery store. It is only a block away.  I think we have gone there every day. 

Pretty impressive art, though some of it is starting to peel. 

This looks like a newer work. 

This one has been painted over several times but we recognized the top pink and purple waves portion. It was done by one of the mural artists we saw on our street art tour of Montreal.

This was the one we saw in Montreal,

We walked under the over pass until we got to the stairs to hike up to the upper level of the city. 

Maybe, this is a turtle sculpture.

This rock has been carved all the way around.

The 79 steps

Most of the roofs are very slanted to deal with the winter snow.  A lot of the roofs have ladders attached to them so that people can climb up and deal with the snow.  They used to have wood roofs but after a major fire that destroyed a lot of the city they put a ban on wood roofs, wood houses and fire places.  They settled on copper because it looks pretty as it ages or tin because it does not rust.  

 

Weird building, round on one side and flat on the other.

Birds inside a glass room.  We could not tell if they were painted on the glass or maybe metal birds hanging from somewhere.  They had bird sounds playing, so it gave the impression that they were alive. It was hard to get a picture because of the reflections.

We had to scurry to get to the tour on time. We met Sam, our guide.  There were 16 people in our group.  They were from all over the US and one couple from Denmark and one from Australia.

First stop was La Buche 

We had yellow split pea soup and an upside down shepherd's pie. This place was the group favorite.

Sharon, rolling the maple taffy

Very interesting restrooms.  Unisex.  the tub is the hand washing station.

Just pull a handle and if it opens it is available.  First you have to find the handles.

Pretty  plant vase sculpture

Paillards was a busy place so we got our croissants to go

Yummy croissant

Boulay's for cream and maple sugar fudge

Inside of Boulay's. It was a small place so we did not go in but I took a picture.

The next stop was the BE Club Bistro for gourmet mac and cheese and wine.  Very rich and yummy.  This was a sit-down.

The nice nice thing about food tours is that you hear a lot about the location.  History, architecture, art, local stories.  It is fun.  Quebec city has been nearly distroyed by fire and by war several times.  There are many areas where you can see the old and the new.

The chapel in the Monastery of Saint Augustine.  Interesting seating arrangement.

Pretty stained glass in the monastery which has now become a wellness center.  I guess there are fewer people wanting to be nuns and monks. Also, since fewer people are going to church, many of the churches are being re-purposed into schools, hospitals, libraries, and apartments.  

Our last stop of tapas and gin was at Livernois.

Deviled egg, sliced celeriac (like cole slaw), duck comfit, and salmon tartare (I did taste it, but that was the only thing on the tour I did not like).  Also gin and tonic.

They mix their own gin flavors here.  

Old still that is now decorative. 

McDonald's really wanted to move in but Quebec City did not want them.  Finally after years of legal battles they were finally allowed in but they could not build new or put in the big arches.  They had to stay with the decor.

After the tour we decided to have a sit-down break and hang out at Livernois restaurant for a little while until we decided what we wanted to do.  

We decided to take an Uber to the Observatory.  We had a very nice driver.  So that worked out well.  We went to the 31st floor.  It was fun to look around to see if we recognized anything.  We found our neighborhood - mostly because we recognized where we parked our car.  :-) 

This is the church down the street from us.

Chateau Frontenac

The ferry

Close up of the chateau

You can sort of see the wall

The citadel

The revolving restaurant

Looking up, once we left.

We got an Uber back to our apartment.  It was a very sunny day and it was on the warm side. Not really hot except in the sun but we were tired. Quebec City is quite hilly.

We got home and relaxed a bit and then Sharon, Jeanne and I went to the grocery store to buy a salad stuff for dinner.  It was a very casual dinner.  I think that we were ready for that.  

We had a chance to do laundry.  We had our usual discussion of what time we would need to get up the following morning.