Wanderlust: Lévis

Lévis is an island just to the east of the Old Quebec and you can get there by Ferry its just 10mins away.

We went down Petite Champlain in the Lower town and walked toward the Saint Lawrence river. Turning our heads, we saw the Chateau Frontenac behind us, basking in the last of the summer sun.

Stunning!

Spotted a cute bus there! This small bus runs within the walls of Old Quebec City. Its so short and small :) Like a mini cooper of the buses. :) There behind it is the Ferry that would take us to Lévis.

$6.50 a ticket

A model of the ship we were on

Beautiful Quebec City

My first impression of the island was that it was super laid back. And so very different from Quebec City. Gone were the hoards of tourists arriving on tour buses and souvenir shops. It was much quieter and seemed like a small town, with schools, elderly, kids. Few adults were spotted on the island; I guess they all take the same ferry I did but in the opposite direction to work everyday in Quebec City.

This island has tonnes to explore but its only doable if you have a car. I didn't so I stuck to the street called Av Begin, where there were many small restaurants and speciality stores. Friends of mine who came to Lévis with a car on another occasion visited an Apple Farm and it seemed so totally fun! I didn't spend much time on this island, barely a couple of hours so do google to see what other activities Lévis has to offer. :)

The first store we went into was a candy store! That's a school girl there buying candies :) The candies were really affordable, I guess the target audience are school kids around :) This is the western version of Singaporean kids going to 'mama shop' (provision store) to get sweets.

A friend who's been here told us to have lunch at Restaurant du Vieux Levis for their lunch sets are very affordable. I forgot how much we each paid but it was definitely below 25 CAD for a lunch set which consisted of an Appetizer, a main course, a dessert and tea/coffee. The staff were very friendly but couldn't really converse in English. But because of that, I could see they made an effort to tell us what items they have for lunch and how to go about choosing the appetizer and main course. The food was good for the price :)

THE BEST BANANA CAKE IN THE WORLD

This is the best banana cake in the world! Dined in so many awesome restaurants and I've tasted nothing like this. It tasted like something a grandmother would make for the family. Not too sweet, totally generous with bananas and walnuts and it was so so so moist; but yet not so moist that its heavy and clumpy. The sauce that went along with the cake complemented it so well; just the right sweetness overall. At the end of it, I was scooping up all the sauce I could with my dessert fork. haha.

While on exchange I didn't have much sit down meals in restaurants and this felt pretty unfamiliar. Was nice just having a quiet afternoon eating and talking. :) Yes. And not worrying about the price :)

After a heavy and satisfying lunch, I went to Chocolats Favoris, a chocolate speciality store which sold handmade chocolate and also ice cream!

The store sold ice cream in a cone and then you can go ahead to choose the chocolate you'd like to dip your ice cream into :) Awesome idea! I did find the ice cream pricey though. It was expensive because the chocolate coating was expensive on top of the cost of the ice cream.

There was a super long queue behind me because it appeared that a tour group just came in. I was pressured to just get my ice cream and go and I had so much difficulty reading the menu, which was in French. It was expensive and I wasn't keen on a large scoop of ice cream after that heavy lunch so I settled for the smallest cone. They don't have the cone on display at the counter so I was somewhat disappointed when the guy passed me my cone. :( I knew it'd be small but this is so tiny :( I went to the counter on the right and again, the chocolate sauce had their names in French x.x the girl behind the counter didn't seem too excited to explain what each of them were so I just got the 'Erable' one. Well that's the only one I knew cos 'Erable' means maple.

Though disappointed by the size of the ice cream, I found the chocolate coating to be a thick generous one. Maybe its because the quality of the chocolate is really good, or they dip twice just so the coating is thicker, either way, it was so yummy! Decadent chocolate infused with maple syrup with vanilla ice cream. YUMS!