Booklovers’ Guide to Quebec
Top tips for literary-themed travels in Montreal, Quebec City, and beyond.
I too have been unable to shut up about Heated Rivalry since it premiered on HBO during Thanksgiving week. Aside from the obvious reasons, I love how it has put the cultural spotlight on Canada’s film industry, indie musicians, and lakeside cottages.
As someone who went to journalism school in Ottawa, married an Eastern European immigrant to Quebec, and currently has a kid at the University of Toronto, I’ve long been a fan of Canadian arts and travel. So far, I’ve visited six of Canada’s 10 provinces. But Quebec is the province I return to the most, quite often for holiday skiing. My family appreciates the low-key ski slopes in Quebec, where abundant natural snow, lower prices than the U.S., and après-ski poutine in the lodge are usually guaranteed.
Winter is truly a great time to visit the province; they really know how to make brutal cold seem actually kind of wonderful, with a slate of festivals and events that celebrate the season. Quebec singer/songwriter Gilles Vigneault even famously sang, “Mon pays ce n’est pas un pays, c’est l’hiver (My country is not a country, it’s winter).”
Below, I share some favorite places, experiences, and great reads that illuminate Canada’s francophone-majority province. (Stay tuned for booklovers’ guides to other Canadian provinces!)
Montreal
Get your bearings by heading to Mount Royal park for a panorama of the downtown Montreal skyline from Kondiaronk Belvedere. The leafy upscale neighborhoods of Westmount and Outremont flank the mount, and are rife with chic boutiques and a global feast of restaurants. One of my favorites is BYOB Greek restaurant Petros. Appetite for Books in Westmount stocks cookbooks and offers cooking classes.
Montreal sits at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. Get a sense of how important its location was for trade and travel with the view from the 60-meter (197-foot) Ferris wheel in the Vieux Port, In winter, there’s an outdoor skating rink at its base.
The 8th-floor, open-air Terrasse at Hotel William Gray gets you above the hubbub of Vieux (Old) Montreal’s tourist-packed streets in summer. Zingy cocktails come with a view of ornate City Hall and Place Jacques-Cartier.
Downtown, the Quartier des Spectacles opens a popular skating rink in winter, best at night with its interactive video projections onto the ice.
A 15-minute walk from the rink is Schwartz’s. Yes, it’s greasy and touristy (and, some say, overrated) but we always stop there for a classic smoked meat sandwich, with half-sour pickles, fries, and a black cherry soda. If you want table service, be prepared to wait in line outside as they don’t take reservations. But next door, the line at the to-go counter is usually shorter and moves more quickly.
Around the corner from Schwartz’s, on Napoleon and St-Dominique Streets, is a nine-story-high mural of singer/songwriter, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen, who was born and raised in Montreal. His first novel, The Favourite Game, tells the semi-autobiographical story of a boy from a wealthy Jewish family coming of age in anglophone Westmount.
Bold murals and graffiti define Montreal streets. When we walk or drive around downtown, there’s always something to catch our eye. The city even hosts a popular annual MURAL Festival, celebrating international street art each summer.
The indie vibes are strong in the Mile End neighborhood, where you’ll find vintage shops, cool-kid clubs, and cafés with a degree in joie de vivre. It’s also home to Drawn and Quarterly bookstore, which is especially known for its shelves of graphic novels, and the flagship St. Viateur Bagel shop, whose loyal fans included the award-winning author and local boy Mordecai Richler. His 1959 comic novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz illuminates working-class Jewish life in Mile End in the 1930s and ’40s.
The Tin Flute, by Gabrielle Roy, is another classic Montreal novel, this one set during World War II in the once impoverished neighborhood of Saint-Henri, and published in 1945.
Author Louise Penny has written a series of murder mysteries, mostly set in the fictional town of Three Pines, which is based on the charming village of Knowlton, in the Eastern Townships, south of Montréal. Local tours take literary fans to sites inspired by the books (and now the Amazon series starring Alfred Molina). The Eastern Townships are also known for vineyards, dark skies, and family-friendly ski mountains.
Quebec City
When we drive north from Montreal, Montmorency Falls is a dramatic stop right before we reach Quebec City. The roaring waters plunge 272 feet (83 meters), taller than Niagara Falls. The waterfalls are part of a provincial park where you can go hiking and ziplining in summer. In winter, an icy crust can form above the falls (see video).
Quebec City itself is not only incredibly cute but is also a UNESCO City of Literature since 2017. Housed in the former Wesley Methodist Church, the Maison de la littérature (House of Literature) offers poetry nights, performances, exhibits, and other programs in a cool space that is part library, café, and cultural center.
One of Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache mysteries, Bury Your Dead, takes place partly at the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, which manages the Morrin Centre. A jail 200 years ago, the cultural hub is now home to a gorgeous Victorian library.
Staying at the elegant Fairmont Le Château Frontenac made me feel like a princess (maybe book-loving Belle?). The 6th-floor indoor pool is lined with windows that peek out onto Old Quebec rooftops.
Saguenay
Driving further north from Quebec City to the Saguenay region, we find cozy villages and easygoing ski resorts, like Mont-Fortin (particularly great for night skiing) and Le Valinouët (tagline: 100% natural snow). Near Le Valinouët, L’Eternel Spa is a Scandinavian-style spa retreat with hot and cold pools, saunas, and hammams, nestled in a woodsy setting. It’s all kinds of magical to be sitting in a steamy hot pool on a frigid winter night with pinprick stars above.
While I’ve only been to Saguenay in winter, I want to return in summer to linger at Saguenay Fjord National Park, where outdoor activities include kayaking, hiking, beluga whale-watching, and even a via ferrata.
On one hand, I want to persuade more people to explore this part of Quebec; on the other, I want to keep it my holiday secret. Luckily these landscapes are generous in their storied beauty. I guess I can share. —Amy Alipio
Loved this! Heading to Quebec City this week and these were some great recs 😌
Никогда не была в Монреале, но ваш рассказ , красочный и живой , очень увлёк меня. Благодарю вас.