Is this the coolest summer hangout or what? Feet dangling in cool water while you eat, drink and chat at a table or while sitting on an Adirondack chair?
This is La Cale, located along the Saint Lawrence River on the edge of Quebec’s Old City. What I’m describing as an adult wading pool with a bar is part of the Port of Quebec… and it’s free. And late on a sunny Friday afternoon, kids are splashing, tables are filling up with adults of all ages and the bar is hopping.
Rapids! A waterfall!
Tempted as we were by the Adirondack chairs, we pass once we realize we can’t lean back without getting wet.
And we have too much food thanks to the Too Good to Go app (another adventure!) to even glance at the menu. Yes, you can bring your own food and drink, just not alcohol.
Imagine if you had this at home! Actually, I’m thinking maybe I should get a small inflatable pool and put chairs around the outside…..
We learned about it from our guide on our “free” walking tour (small registration fee, but the real payment is your tip). Together with Samuel and an unusually large group (Thursday’s tours were rained out), we traipsed through the Old City, entertained with snippets of history.
For starters, FDR and Churchill met here in 1943 to begin planning the invasion of France. You’ll find busts of the two near the Quebec parliament. They also went fishing at Lac a l’Epaule, and now the name is part of a slang term for team-building.
This fountain? A discard from Bordeaux, found in storage, bought and restored by a Canadian businessman as a gift to the city. When you have C$4 million to spare..
And why does Quebec remain so French despite the conquest by Britain during what in the U.S. is called the French and Indian War? After all, it ended in 1763.
Turns out that just over a decade later, Britain was worried that Quebec might align itself with those troublesome colonists to the south. And so the king said you can stay Catholic, you can still speak French, heck you can follow French criminal law as long as you stay true to us.
And this becomes one in a long list of complaints about the king that’s in our Declaration of Independence:
“For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:”
I had no idea.
Samuel also steered us to an old-school Quebecois restaurant for lunch. Large portions, ok food, easy on the budget. I should have skipped the dessert add-on.
What a deal
Which leads me back to Too Good to Go, this app aimed at preventing food waste at restaurants and grocery stores. You pick your deal, but you never know exactly what items you’ll get. We took advantage of it late Thursday, once from a highly rated bakery, once from a sandwich and coffee shop. So we decided to do it again.
The plan was to bike to St. Roch (considered the city’s hipster neighborhood), have a look around and pick up our surprise bag from another outpost of the sandwich shop. But we spent too much time at lunch, so the pickup would have to come first.
This is what happens when you pick a place that’s in the bowels of an office building and is closing for the weekend within an hour: you get a generous bag of baked items and one sandwich. Why did we not bring a pannier to carry it all?
And then the nice man loaded me up with a second bag as he cleared out his inventory!
All for C$6.89, tax included, or $5.02.
We walked our bikes back to the hotel, the other hand holding a bag. We never did make it to St. Roch. Or to watch the city’s minor league baseball team, part of an independent league — the game, incredibly, is sold out!
Well, the weather is perfect, and much of the province is starting a two-week vacation. The Old City is packed with people!
So much to do! Could we have a second day to play? Instead, we will be back on the bike for day 6 of our Route Verte adventure.
More photos from Quebec City:
Exploring by bicycle 
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