[travel] Quebec City

Back from a quick vacation to Quebec City. This is the third time we've been to the summer music festival and every time is wonderful. Good music, good food, good sight-seeing, good people. 

We stayed down around the Place d'Youville in Old Town this year, right across from one of the outdoor stages. Our hotel room was bonkers: two levels with the bathroom and sitting room downstairs and the bedroom upstairs.







The view from our windows:



Live music starts wafting in once bands start doing sound check around noon. But by then we're out and about. We love to have Boreale beer:



And there is no bad food in QC. Baklava:



Smoke salmon and salad for Dollar (I had beef tartare- so much yum):



And poutine (this is 1:30 am poutine after the Metallica show):



Duck confit tortellini:



Smoked salmon flatbread:



We did lots and lots of walking and sight-seeing. Down in lower Old Town:





To the museum of fine art:











But the main raison d'etre was the music. We saw The Who Thursday night but I really liked the opening band The Struts. They were en feu. Metallica was the next night- awesome but soooo crowded. Gorillaz was great the next night. And the last night was Muse. Some of the crowds:





All around the city were street performers and walking back to our hotel one night, we caught Transe Express. Six people making up a human mobile, suspended from a crane, singing and playing music live:





They were eventually swung over to a band that was playing on a flatbed truck (dressed like skeletons with a couple acrobats teeter-tottering over the drummer):



I can't really explain it. The whole thing was surreal.

Merci, Quebec. Until next time...

[travel] Montebello Rockfest, Quebec

Last weekend we went up to Montebello, Quebec for Rockfest. The lineup was too good to miss:

Those are just the big names- there were going to be another 100 metal and punk bands.

Our house for the weekend:

It rained Thursday night and sporadically through Friday. The festival grounds turned into:

And it was massively crowded. This is the middle of the day Friday, before things got crazy for Rammstein:

The Rammstein show was excellent (always) and we saw lots of other bands. Jello Biafra was great and he did some Dead Kennedys songs. The Offspring were a pleasant surprise. 

Saturday morning rolls around and we're like, "Should we stay or should we go?" The music had been great, all the people were awesome and friendly... but the rain, mud, sleep deprivation, porta potties (oh god, the porta potties), the traffic and carrying all our supplies a mile away to where the car was parked... the thought of doing that Sunday when everyone was going to be doing it as well? Nightmare.

We saw other people packing up their camp sites. So we shrugged and packed up as well. And I have zero regrets. We were back home in Vermont by 5pm on Saturday. I walked in the house, dropped my flip flops into the garbage and took a 30 minute shower. I made a nice supper (we had been living solely on beer and poutine) and watched a movie. By the time we were getting into bed, I was like, "Just think, we'd STILL be waiting for Iggy to go on right now."

And then we had ALL DAY Sunday to chillax when, if we had stayed, we'd be fighting crowds and traffic to leave. And presumably getting our car stuck in the field where we had parked. From what I've read, tons of vehicles were stuck in the mud and had to be towed out (at $50 a pop). The parking situation was probably the most f'ed up thing of the entire fest.

I don't know that we'll do the fest again. If we do, we'll stay in a hotel or something. If anyone is planning to go and wants some advice, I'm happy to talk your ear off. It was definitely a learning experience since we were first-timers. Yessir, Miller.

On to the Quebec City Summer Festival next month. That will be more civilized. We'll be staying in a hotel (indoor plumbing! air conditioning!) and Quebec City itself is so large with lots to see/do. We've been to this festival a couple times in the past and it's tres bien. The first time was to see Rammstein. The second time was to see The Rolling Stones. This year... Metallica!!

[travel] FEQ - art and shows

Yesterday I showed some pictures around Quebec City. Today I have pictures of the shows we saw. Saturday night, the same day we arrived, we went to see the Foo Fighters. It rained. A lot. There was a moment when it stopped after the first song and everyone was like, "Yeah! I'm wet but the rain stopped, so let's rock!" The rain started again for the third song. By the fourth song, I was drenched. Like, jumped into a lake fully clothed drenched. I ran for the exit, along with everyone else. They ended up canceling the show after just four songs.

I mean, there was a lot of lightning. No one wants Dave Grohl to get electrocuted on top of suffering a broken leg.

I won't go into too much detail about the main show the next night, because it was terrible, suffice it to say that it was worth attending just to see parents grabbing their kids and leaving when Iggy Azalea started "singing". We saw, with our own eyes, a girl covering her ears and running out. We should have done the same. 

Next night, Doobie Brothers and Boston. A few people came for that show:

I went to visit the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec the next day. Great works of art here.

That night, we went to catch a burlesque show down at the port. So much fun- Dollar got pulled on stage to participate.

The next night: The Rolling Stones. The show everyone came to see. The gates were opening at 6pm and we got into the queue at 5:45 pm. To say the line was "long" is an understatement. The line went down from the gate, across the street, around a rotary, down to the end of the block and wrapped back around to the gate again. It was the biggest line I've ever been in.

Here were are waiting by a fountain:

Here's an aerial shot with an arrow pointing to where we would have been standing in the above picture:

Who knows, that arrow could actually be pointing to me for all I know.

Once inside, it was just a scramble to get a spot. We had been sitting in the back, on the grassy slope, for most of the shows. We threw our blanket down and took turns visiting the bathroom and hunting for food/beer. This was my view:

No pictures from the show because I was that enraptured. And the stage was so far away, Mick looked like an ant from my perspective.

Just me and 93,000 of my closest friends enjoys the Stones:



We were sitting up by the FEQ sign.



Merci beaucoup. It was so much fun. We'll do FEQ again, I know.

[travel] Quebec City

Back home after two weeks away. We spent a week in Quebec City for the Festival d'ete de Quebec (FEQ)- an 11 day music festival. We went for 5 nights. It's only about a 4.5 hour drive. The city is awesome- so beautiful and old. Everyone is really nice and the food is exceptional. We went many years ago to see Rammstein. This year, we were going primarily to see the Rolling Stones.

It's a great city to walk around- as long as you don't mind trudging up and down steep slopes.

Love the old streets and buildings.

The food was good- I loved this charcuterie slate at Le Hobbit:

It was followed by beef tartare, which is one of my favorite vacation foods. We ordered poutine at one place- I think it is compulsory that you order it at least once while in Quebec. The beer we had at every place was great. Dollar has become such a fan or Boreal that I think I might pop across the border and get some to bring home for his birthday.

Speaking of alcohol- the vending machine in the elevator foyer of our hotel dispensed wine:

Best. Vending machine. Ever. I was actually a little apprehensive about the room we would get at the hotel. It was the same hotel that we staying in when we came up before but our room was the size of a matchbox during that trip. This time the room was so large. Very nice. (I'm sure we paid more this time around.)

Lastly, there was a Starbucks across from our hotel. I went in to order a cappuccino and was asked for my name. I gave it and they asked if it was spelled with an "i" or a "y". Fair question. Nice of them to check so they can get it right. I said "y". They handed me this:

I guess I should have also said that it starts with an "a".