Today was a full‑tilt ramble through Old Québec, the kind of day where you bounce between charm, heat, and snacks with no real plan except “let’s see what’s up there.” Camping Transit made it easy by running a free shuttle to the Lévis ferry terminal, so we skipped the traffic and floated across the St. Lawrence on a quick twelve‑minute crossing with postcard views of the old city rising above the cliffs.
Old Québec itself feels like someone stacked a medieval village on a hill and forgot to tell gravity. Stone buildings twist upward from the riverside streets to the fort above, and every corner hides another shop—some selling tourist trinkets, others offering genuinely beautiful local crafts. We wandered upward at a slow, sensible pace, eventually ducking into the cathedral. Inside, the long nave and massive pipe organ gave it that unmistakable English‑cathedral vibe, and more importantly, it was blissfully cool compared to the stone streets outside, which were radiating well past the day’s 31°C forecast.
At one market stall, free olive samples did exactly what free olive samples are designed to do: we walked away with a four‑compartment tub of olives we absolutely hadn’t planned on buying. Naturally, this meant we had to commit to a French‑style lunch. A bakery provided the bread, a tiny goat‑cheese‑only shop supplied the cheese, and we found a shady park bench to assemble our impromptu picnic. The same cheese shop also served soft‑serve goat‑milk ice cream, and yes, we went back for it. Creamy, cold, and impossible to distinguish from regular ice cream—perfect for the heat.
Later we explored the archaeological museum tucked beneath the cliff‑top boardwalk, where the ruins of the governor’s first residence are preserved. Another excellent excuse to escape the sun. When we resurfaced, we took the funicular down—an overpriced three‑minute ride in a 35°C glass box packed with fifteen people, but it’s one of those “you do it once” things.
With an hour to kill before the return ferry, we hunted down iced lattes and lingered in the shade. The shuttle was waiting on the other side, ready to whisk us back to the campground and the sweet, sweet air conditioning of the trailer.
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