“You’re travelling First Class and you have access to the lounge” the man behind the ticket counter tells Mr NQN and I and in return we grin like chimps. No we’re not talking a plane here but our train from Montreal to Quebec (bye Montreal!). It’s no secret that whilst I do love eating all sorts of food from little caravans to Michelin star, the way I like to roll when I travel is luxury. It’s all about comfort!

We board the train to Quebec and take our seats. It’s a comfortable three hour ride between the two cities and we are plied with wine and a three course meal which is actually very nice indeed. There is said to be free wifi all throughout the train but it doesn’t seem to work once we start moving.

Our limo driver picks us up from the train station and takes us to the Palace Royal Hotel just a few minutes away. The hotel is all gold touches and we hear the magic words “Your suite is on level….”. I admit I didn’t hear anything after that-I love a good suite. When we go upstairs and are not disappointed. The suite open up to a view of the city and is enormous with a very large bathroom, a closed off bedroom and loads of cable tv stations (yes I am obsessed with television). And although there is no mini bar there is an excellent and very reasonably priced convenience store at the lower ground level of the hotel so we stock up on goodies there.

We have arrived at precisely the right time for Quebec City as the Summer Festival is in full swing. In fact this evening Iron Maiden are playing at the Plains of Abraham and the Black Eyed Peas are playing another day. We meet Richard from the Quebec City tourism office in the lobby and head towards the Boudoir Lounge where we have a quick meal before seeing a performance of the Cirque du Soleil. Mr NQN being a beef tartare lover chooses that and I go for the an entree sized salad (we’ve had so much food to eat so I’m eating light tonight!).

Complote $8.50

But first we start with cocktails! I have the Complote which has absolut peach, guava and lychee and it is fruitily fabulous.

Refresh $8.50 Gin Bomby, cinzano rose, blueberry juice and elderflower cordial

Salade Cambodgienne $8.50

I think by now you’ve heard how massive and generous the serving sizes are in Canada and this is no exception (and prices here are amazingly reasonable for the calibre of restaurant). This “Salad Cambodgienne” means Salad Cambodian and comes with pork with “nine perfumes”. The nine perfumes refer to the nine ingredients such as fried noodles, chillis, spring onion, iceberg lettuce and the sweet, aromatic Asian spices. It’s delicious and utterly satisfying. I realise how much I have missed spicy food!

Tartare de boeuf $20.50

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