Autumn | simplygiselle

Quebec City

If you didn’t get the hint by now, I will just be blunt, I love to travel. (gasp!) So when it came down to my birthday this year, I wanted out; out of the country that is. So pack up the SpiceGurl Mini and off to Quebec City for some Maple Sugar Pie and all the poutine my stomach can handle. You haven’t had Maple Sugar Pie OR poutine before?! I am not sure we can be friends. Imagine the most perfect pecan pie, without the pecans just melting in your mouth… not sugary, but sweet, smooth, with a hint of butter…I can’t believe I fit into the Mini for the ride home after these four days….

Although not new to Quebec City, walking for me, is the only way to see everything a city has to offer (or public transportation if the city is just too spread out). As you can see from the photo above, this ‘joker’ jumped out at me in the alley and I had to get a photo. He didn’t seem to mind.

Although the Frontenac Hotel is plush, and if you are able to obtain a room facing the St. Lawrence, the view is indeed beautiful, but I prefer the cozy-homey feel to a small hotel. We had a great room on the main road just inside the ‘wall’ and with an amazing price. Open brick walls, wonderfully comfy bed, super clean, and the ceiling to floor side-by-side double window that open to a small courtyard – that’s for me! (I really wanted to just throw them open and start singing as if I were part of a movie, but the howling dogs would have given me away…)

Shopping is always a must so I bought a cute tunic dress in my favorite boutique found on the very lower level of Quebec. If I lived in the area I would be completely broke, as I love every piece of clothing in the shop and it all fits perfectly!

Lower Quebec City for shopping!

I had to take my hot boyfriend down the funicular because I do not know of too many places where you can have the opportunity to ride a ‘sideward elevator’ as I call it. As you can see this is no joke, its a rapid decent from upper to lower city, but the view is beautiful.

funicular to lower Quebec

Headed out to dinner one evening we found a Halloween scene and I thought this mummy was very creative! (Halloween seems to follow me wherever I go!)

It’s a light post that is covered as a mummy so it is much larger than it looks.

Sadly, I did not get to practice any of my French (sad face) although who knows, I may have spouted an insult and wound up in jail, so just as well.

If you have a chance to visit Quebec City, go…do it! Historical, romantic, food that will wake up even the sleepiest of taste buds, shopping….it has something for everyone.

This year experiencing the New England autumn is more flavorful than years past. Why? Well as the old adage states, be careful what you wish for, had come true; I took a vacation to the beach, only it was so beyond hot it was not fully enjoyable (it’s the beach, it didn’t suck). I longed for the cool nights, cracking a window and piling on the blankets, the shades and hues of colored leaves that only Mother Nature can create, the pumpkin spiced everything (whether it needs it or not), and the comfort foods I love to make in the kitchen which is not used in the summer because it’s just too damn hot.

I am very happy to be back, the hour drive to work getting cut off, swearing at almost every driver that goes by and then cuts me off, even the rain today cannot bring me down, because of the colors…. the amazingly beautiful colors….I wish you could see them now.

Ready, Set, Done

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