We started very early Wednesday morning leaving for the train station in Ottawa at 5:30pm. The train left on time and it was an really easy way to travel to Montréal. There is not really much to see out the window but flat plains and the odd village. The trip took a little under two hours and was blissfully stress free.
We found our way out of the Gare Centrale which is very conveniently under the Queen Elizabeth 2 Hotel. Next door was a big mall called Ville de Marie. Where I found Chassures Ecco but it was closed. We were dragging our bags around as we had not picked up our rental car and we must have been looking a bit bewildered as every few steps people were asking us if we needed help. It was very kind of them but for once I knew where we were going.
Since I could not get my shoes we decided to get the car and put our bags in them and come back to do the shopping. It proved an excellent choice. The car we were given was a Chevrolet Cruze. Bigger than we had ordered but it looked fine. The man asked whether I wanted any insurance and I looked confused and he explained there was only 3rd party insurance. My travel insurance did not cover that and it meant that the final cost of the car was nearly double the initial quote. Clearly Thrifty make their money from the insurance.
On our return to the Ville de Marie I successfully bought my walking shoes. Of course there was the taxes on top of the advertised price. It is so irksome to find that the cost of something is more than you initially think it is. Such a different way to that in the rest of the civilised world.
On our way back to the car we found an Information Centre who had to be the most informative I have been to in a long time. Lots of free maps and useful tips including travelling the Chemin du Roy which became on our intended route but off the motorway.
It was around 1pm before commenced our journey. Having the Navman made it easy getting out of the city and then it was an easy run along the motorway. We had intended to join the Chemin du Roy near Trois Rivieres but we went over the St Lawrence instead and then needed to backtrack. Because I had put in Trois Rivieres as a way point we ended up doing a circuit into the city through an interesting lot of houses which included a rather fat man sitting on his doorstep in a singlet in a temperature of about 12 degrees!!
We had to be in Quebec City by 5pm to meet the host's flatmate so we had to give up trying to do the Chemin du Roy. The road itself has to be the most boring road ever and even as driver it was soporific. Only the road in Australia that I drove on between Adelaide and Coonawarra is more boring. Straight and with the only interesting part being the occasional river that interrupted the vast flatness that is part of the Canadian Shield.
The Navman took us to the AirBnB which is in an older part of the city, on the flat below the promonotory that the older part of Quebec is built. The houses were quite old although new ones had been built in the orginal style.
The host provided us with some places in whcih to eat and Peter the flatmate recommended a place called Le Cercle, which was described as hip and young, While we are neither we thought we might at least experience what younger people are doing and at least feel young for an evening. The choice turned out to be great. A server who was in charge looked after us. He spoke in English for Bev and after establishing I wanted to practice my French he spoke in French to me. My French is very rusty and I really do need to get back into some study. I can read it all right but that is about it.
The food was interesting and we were recommended to have three dishes, one to share and one each as he said they were smaller than usual. Two would have been sufficient as they were what I would have thought was the proper size for a main.
There were lots of young business people at the restaurant and we were surprised to see how early they were eating. It seems like they start much earlier than their European cousins.
It was rather cold when we left the restaurant and wandered back to our accommodation. Like our winter at home.
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