Québec – Day 2 – Post 4 of 4

August 17, 2019

Here are more things I saw and did Saturday as I walked around “Old Town”:

I normally don’t post food pictures but I’m going to make a rare exception.  This is poutine, a Québec specialty.  You can get it lots of places but Québec’s is supposed to be the best.  I was planning to have it at a chi-chi restaurant in Old Town (because TripAdvisor said their’s was the best in town) but my Airbnb host, who has lived in Québec all his life, said just go to Ashton’s, a fast food chain.

Freedom Fries (take that Québec), brown gravy and cheese curds.  All three need to be quality but the real secret is the cheese which should squeak between your teeth as you chew it.  Seriously.

It was yummy!

Most people pronounce it poo-TEEN but my Airbnb host called it Putin – like this guy…

As I was heading for home I saw this frog sculpture outside a toy store:

In one of their display windows was this huge gumball machine:

And to give you an idea just how big it is here is a photo showing a conventional gumball machine next to it:

Before I left I stepped up briefly in the green base below the window pane to confirm my suspicion that the large machine was taller than me.

Finally, this is the spiral staircase leading up to my Airbnb which was on the second floor:

I was staying in the Limoilou District, the first residential area north of the downtown area.  The neighborhood reminded me very much of the one I lived in in suburban Chicago for the first 10 years of my life (although our stairs were indoors).  Here are apartments on both sides of the street where I stayed:

Each morning I would walk 10 blocks to a French bakery for pastries, then 10 blocks back home to leave some of them there as a reward for getting back home in the evening.  My Airbnb host walks downtown to work and many folks ride bicycles.  My car never moved the first two full days I was in town but I did use it the third day to visit some venues which were too far away to get to by walking.