Quebec City, QC | March 2012 by Camille

Quebec City

Why the 404-year-old capital is now hip and young

A . Quebec City Convention Centre

 tel: 011-41-22-908-0488; kenes.com/ICAO

21st World Congress of Asthma August 18-21 Quebec City Convention Centre

 tel: 011-30-210-321-5600; wca-2012.com

Cirque du Soleil provides free, hour-long street shows from June to September.

Saint-Roch’s Le Clocher Penché features a short menu that changes often, and can include black pudding or venison.

geneviève boivin

3rd International Congress on Abdominal Obesity July 9-12

s late as the 1980s, the district of Saint-Roch made many Quebecers think of homeless people and prostitutes. Nowadays, it makes them think of artists and 30-something entrepreneurs. Originally a 19th-century shipbuilding and timber-trade neighbourhood that, later in the 1970s, included a covered Saint-Joseph Street or “mall,” this more recent no-man’s land of empty parking lots 20 minutes’ walk west of Old Quebec has been completely overhauled. Since 2000, $380 million has been invested into the neighbourhood, converting neglected factories into cool restos and chic boutiques. Departments of the Université Laval and the Université du Québec are now here too, as are heavyweight tech companies like video-game maker Ubisoft. Some say that Nouvo Saint-Roch (quartiersaintroch.com) is poised to become the downtown central business district; reason enough for you to make it your working vacation home base, now. The Delta and Hilton hotels are next to the Centre des Congrès, but they’ve got nothing on number 22 from Trip Advisor’s 2011 Traveller’s Choice list of the Top 25 Hotels in the World and, no, it’s not Fairmont’s Le Château Frontenac. The Van Gogh-inspired Auberge Le Vincent (tel: 418-523-5000; aubergelevincent.com; $199 to $279 May to September) consists of 10 rooms in a 100-year-old Saint-Roch building. The six-year-old inn was also the number one

Traveller’s Choice for Best Service in Canada in 2011 and 2012. Its rooms include high-speed cable Internet, a refrigerator and an espresso machine. The inn is a 15-minute walk to the convention centre. Not a problem. The average temp is 20°C in July and August, and your commute east will familiarize you with some of Saint-Roch’s most famous residents. Like Le Clocher Penché (tel: 418-640-0597; clocherpenche.ca). The “Leaning Steeple,” as the name of the bistro translates, has an extensive wine list and a short menu that changes often and can include everything from black pudding to an assortment of venison; January’s menu du soir featured seven mains including a root-vegetable ratatouille with locally made goat cheese ($21), and lamb cooked sous vide (vacuum sealed then slow cooked in a water bath for up to 72 hours) with mushrooms and organic veggies from Charlevoix, QC ($26). Cirque du Soleil also got on the Saint-Roch bandwagon in 2009. The company signed a five-year, $30-million deal with Quebec City to provide free (yes f-r-e-e) street shows Tuesdays through Saturdays from June to September until 2013. Les Chemins Invisibles (cirquedusoleil.com/en/events/chemins-invisibles/show.aspx) is an hourlong “urban cabaret.” It’s performed rain or shine in Îlot Fleurie, an open-space below the Dufferin Highway overpass, unless the weather is too dangerous for Cirque’s up-in-the-air antics. If you’re conferencing with the kids, keep Benjo (tel: 418-640-0001; benjo.ca) in your back pocket. Modelled after NYC’s FAO Schwarz, the toy store features 15 departments and an arts-and-crafts atelier. The store is so big that robot Monsieur Bidule has to help banjostrumming Benjo the frog greet guests. There’s even a train that gives tours. Kids will love the candy department where they can make their own sweets. And what would summer be without ice cream? I scream, you scream, we all scream… well, you get the idea. Its parlour is open April through September.

At the conference

Going to Quebec City and not combing its Old Town is akin to going to New Orleans and paying no mind to the French Quarter; doable, yes, but also dumb

Going to Quebec City (quebecregion.com) and not combing its Old Town would be akin to going to New Orleans, say, and paying no mind to the French Quarter; doable, yes, but also dumb. Some of your post-conference evenings should be spent pounding the cobblestones of the Old Upper and Lower Towns, five walking minutes from the convention centre, before heading back to Saint-Roch for dinner and downtime. Together a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, the Upper Town sits atop Cap Diamant (or Cape Diamond) and is encased by 17th- and 18thcentury fortress walls constructed in case of a coup via the Plains of Abraham in Battlefields Park; the Lower Town hugs the Saint Lawrence River. Both are so compact that a plan of attack is hardly necessary. What is, is a camera and a good pair of walking shoes. The Upper Town’s 19th-century, 618-room Le Château Frontenac and the Terrasse Dufferin boardwalk with views of the Saint Lawrence might be one evening, say, and the Lower Town’s shop-lined Quartier du Petit-Champlain and Place-Royale square, home of North America’s first permanent French settlement in 1680, another. A third might include the Musée de la Civilisation (tel: 866-710-8031; mcq.org; adults $13, students $9, kids 12 to 16 $4, under 12 free). Samurai: Masterworks of the Collection of Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller, April 4 to January 27, 2013, will include more than 150 pieces of Japanese warrior armour on view for the first time in Canada. The museum closes at 6:30pm in summer; 10pm on Thursdays.

Spring • March 2012

Medicine on the movE

A good Old walk

From Samurai, a late 16th-century Sujibachi Kabuto helmet and Menpō mask.

camirand photo

Even historic sites like the Lower Town’s Place Royale feel more up to speed than ever.

… and after

The Cap au Saumon Lighthouse near La Malbaie is available for summer stays on a per-week basis.

A beautiful accident The Laurentian region of Charlevoix (tourisme-charlevoix.com), northeast of Quebec City, has a 15-billion-tonne meteor to thank for its grand vistas and forested mountains. It crashed into the earth 350 million years ago and carved out a crater 56 kilometres wide making the region, now a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, one of the largest inhabited craters in the world; a truly Star Trek moment if ever there was one. Charlevoix, population 30,000, sits snuggly beside the Saint Lawrence River. Its mountainside villages and pastoral surroundings have inspired musicians, painters and writers since the 19th century. It’s inspired Daniel Gauthier, cofounder of Cirque du Soleil, most recently; it’ll inspire you too. Gauthier’s Le Massif de Charlevoix (tel: 877-536-2774; lemassif.com) recently introduced eight, 1950s, double-decker railcars that’ll explore 140 riverside kilometres between Quebec City and Charlevoix’s Baie-Saint-Paul and La Malbaie via one-day and overnight getaways (adults $275, kids 6 to 17 $225, under 5 $99). In winter, the train will include a Trail and Rail ski package to Gauthier’s already existing Le Massif ski resort. The Hôtel La Ferme in Baie-Saint-Paul is next. Scheduled to open later this spring, the five-pavilion, 150-room contemporary hotel will feature a woodpanelled exterior, giant sliding-glass doors, catwalks and terraces,

A meteor crashed into the earth 350 million years ago, making Charlevoix one of the largest inhabited craters in the world

as well as ornamental grass, rock and water gardens. It’ll also include a resto and spa, and a farmer’s market in summer and winter, and will be reachable via the new train, a new shuttle from the ski resort and, of course, by car. Baie-Saint-Paul is 93 kilometres, or about a 1.5-hour drive, from Quebec City. Camille Chin

For 2000+ conference listings, go to doctorsreview.com/meetings Spring • March 2012

Medicine on the movE