I’m going on a school road trip and we have one free day in Quebec City. I’m looking for fun things to do that won’t require:
[ul]
[li]a car[/li][li]fancy dress[/li][li]lots of money[/li][li]anything other than very rusty high school French[/li][/ul]
I’ll be staying in Vieux-Québec, and I was told the walled part.
Any ideas? I’ll more than likely want to be alone by that point in the trip, so safe areas/activities for a female to do alone would be nice.
I enjoyed the tour of the Parliament. The Lower Town (Basse-Ville) was interesting too.
Oh man, just get out and walk around. There’s so much going on and so many shops to see. Just get out and drink it all in. It’s like an old European town smack dab in North America. The old village is not very big and just immersing yourself in it would be the best idea.
Bon chance!
Gotta second the walking around - especially if the weather is nice. Make sure you have a camera! Have yuou ever been to Europe? It has a very European feel with lots of little narrow cobbled street, etc, so there’s lots to see just by wandering around.
The* Chateau Frontenac* is really cool, and you can see it from all over town. IIRC you can climb up a huge staircase to see it up close and get a nice view. The *Musée de la civilisation *was pretty good, if your into museums.
I was there with a friend who spoke fairly good university-level French, but we were still treated rudely in some places for being Anglophones. There isn’t much to do about it but roll with the punches and try to pick restaurants/stores/etc that seem English friendly (menu up in English, signs in English, etc.). While people could be rude, I never felt scared or threatened and I would have no qualms about walking around the city alone.
That’s interesting. I was there in 2002 and I didn’t get that impression. The Québécois seemed very friendly, despite my fairly basic French. I remember that there was a convent, the chapel of which I wanted to have a look at because it was glowingly described in my guidebook. I knocked on the front door of the convent and asked to see it. The sisters asked me in, let me stay while they sang Vespers and then offered me dinner.
I’d second the idea of just walking around, inside the walls, and then going down to the lower town. Lots of little shops and a historical centre.
If you’ve got time, weather is fine, and the inclination, I would think about walking the Grande Allée, which takes you out Porte St. Louis and up toward the National Assembly - don’t know if you want to walk all the way out to the National Assembly, but it’s definitely worth a tour, as Cunctator mentions - Belle Époque architecture and plenty of history. There’s also the federal historical centre on the Plains of Abraham, focusing on the events leading up to the conquest.
And if you don’t want to go all the way to the Assembly or the Plains, there’s plenty of restaurants with terraces on the Grande Allée, like the Louis-Hébert.
My favourite restaurant is Aux Anciens Canadiens, back in the old city near the Chateau and the Governor’s Garden. It’s a bit pricey, but it serves traditional québécois country food and is a lovely spot for dinner in the evening.
Well, two things occur to me:
My friend and I traveled from Montreal to Quebec City and then on to the Gaspe peninsula - honestly the whole thing blends together a bit, and while I think we got some rudeness in Quebec City, it may have been more pronounced elsewhere.
I get the impression that that the type of Quebecois who would be rude to Anglophones specifically believe that Canadians should have to learn French. Maybe if you have an Australian accent they exempt you from this expectation? This is just a theory and of course, if you don’t have an accent I have no explanation.
Boscibo - You’re headed to one of my favourite places on the planet. Lots to do there, and almost all of it within walking distance of the walled part of the old city.
Fair weather - Walk around. The old city, the lower city, the Plains of Abraham, Grande Allée are all lovely parts to walk through. All of the above are within the same 3 square kilometres.
Foul weather - A big second for the Musée de la civilization. There are also tours of the National Assembly, the Citadel, the Château Frontenac. If aquariums are of any interest, there is a good one in Québec, but it’s a taxi ride from downtown.
Québec is full of great restaurants, I won’t even try to list them all. The Hobbit is a cool little coffee shop on Rue St. Jean, (which is one of my favourite streets there), if you can reserve about $100 - $150 for the evening, there are several places that are worth a couple of pages in your diary. There are also restaurants much cheaper than that where you will find truly remarkable cuisine. You may wish to have lunch in the revolving restaurant in the Concorde; it’s beautiful on a sunny day.
Oh, oh - check for concerts that might be happening while you’re there.
If you like, two films - I Confess and Le Confessional were both shot in Québec.
I’ve seen Anglos treated well and badly by Francophones. In general, Québec is enough of a tourist spot that they are very understanding, particularly of foreigners. That being said, it’s a great place to work on your French, even if you have almost none. People always appreciate that you are making an effort to speak their language.
Bon voyage!
Incidentally, it’s not widely known, but the restaurant in the Assemblée nationale (provincial parliament) is open to the public. You need to call and make a reservation, and go through security when you get there (same as for a tour), but otherwise you are as welcome as the flowers in May and it’s actually fairly inexpensive (and, obviously, good quality).
If you have time and want a really fantastic view, take the ferry from Quebec City to Lévis and back. There’s even a special fare if you don’t get off the ferry in Lévis.
They’re a sinful lot, aren’t they? 
I don’t wish to hijack this thread but I must mention that I have never met anyone who held this view. If there are any, they would have to be P.E. Trudeau-style federalists, not xenophobic unilingual francophones. I’ve touched on this before, but many if not most francophones will switch to English if they hear even a tint of an English accent. I can assure you that they think they’re doing you a favour. A lot of anglo-canadians take it as an insult, though, which is one common source of perceived rudeness. The proper way to handle these situations is just to keep on speaking French.
Le confessional is set during the filming of I Confess. The second is supposedly not one of Hitchcock’s bests but the first movie, by theatre director Robert Lepage is worth watching. I have no idea if it’s available in English but Les Plouffe is also set in Québec. It’s a great movie that offers a good glimpse into the life of regular Québec-city folks in the 1940s.