Winter in Québec City

OLD QUÉBEC UNDER THE SNOW

The city in its finest coat

On foot from Monsieur Jean: 2 to 10 minutes

Some landscapes do not need explaining. They simply impose themselves

There is a particular light in Old Québec on winter mornings. The low sun makes snow sparkle on the rooftops, the stone façades turn blue in the shade, and the cobblestone streets (almost empty at that hour) belong to those who take the time to cross them.

Dufferin Terrace, with Château Frontenac drawn against a winter sky. Petit-Champlain lit up from late November onward. These images belong nowhere else.

Old Québec in winter is the same as it is in summer. And yet it is an entirely different city.

The concierge can help with:

• Winter walking routes according to your interests and the day’s weather

• Café addresses for warming up between walks

Every year, from November onward, Place d’Armes and the neighbouring streets of Old Québec change character. Wooden chalets appear, garlands light up, and something in the air shifts. The Quebec City German Christmas Market brings a Northern European atmosphere to Québec — one that the neighbourhood’s centuries-old stone receives with disarming ease.

Local artisans, chocolate, maple products, mulled wine. A short outing, dense and memorable. Especially in the evening, when the lights take over everything else.

The concierge can help with:

• Advice on the best evenings according to crowds and programming
• Restaurant reservations in Old Québec after your visit

The Dufferin Terrace toboggan slides

Old Québec’s rush of adrenaline

On foot from Monsieur Jean: 8 minutes
Next season: December 2026, weather permitting

From the belvedere of Dufferin Terrace, with the St. Lawrence River in the background, Quebec City’s traditional toboggan slides offer a high-speed descent over several hundred metres. It is an activity without an age limit. You go up once to see. You go back up five times because stopping is not really an option.

The setting belongs in a category of its own. There is no other toboggan slide in the world with this view

The concierge can help with:

• Tickets available through the Monsieur Jean concierge
• Combined route with tobogganing, skating and hot chocolate on request

Hôtel de Glace

Ephemeral architecture

By car from Monsieur Jean: 25 minutes
Reopening in January 2027 at Village Vacances Valcartier. Exact date to be confirmed according to conditions.

Every winter, a team of sculptors and builders spends weeks creating something that will exist for only a few months. Hôtel de Glace is made entirely of snow and ice. Its corridors, sculptures and luminous spaces change every year.

You do not come only to sleep. You come to see what human creativity can invent when it accepts the condition of melting away.

The concierge can help with:

• Visit tickets available through the concierge
• Round-trip transportation solutions from Monsieur Jean

SKATING

Place D’Youville and the Plains of Abraham

On foot from Monsieur Jean: 5 to 12 minutes, depending on the rink

Quebec City has several outdoor skating rinks with public access, but two stand out for their character. Place D’Youville, framed by the city’s historic fortifications, is the most central and the brightest in the evening. The Plains of Abraham offer a larger rink, with an open view toward the river and a feeling of space the dense city does not often provide.
Skating in Quebec City in winter is a way of meeting the city on its own terms.

The concierge can help with:

• Skate rental options nearby
• Advice on the best times according to crowds

Snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and downhill skiing

Nature within reach of the city

On foot for the Plains. By car: Mont-Sainte-Anne 45 min, Le Massif de Charlevoix 80 min

Winter in Quebec City gives direct access to outdoor landscapes few major cities can claim. On the Plains of Abraham, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing trails open with the first significant snowfalls. Forty-five minutes from Monsieur Jean, Mont-Sainte-Anne offers slopes for every level with a view of the St. Lawrence from the summits. Farther along the Côte-de-Beaupré, Le Massif de Charlevoix is one of the world’s most spectacular ski areas in terms of vertical drop and panorama.

The snow is there. The rest depends on the mood of the day.

The concierge can help with:

• Transportation solutions to the ski areas according to your preferences
• Equipment rental on request
• Trail and slope recommendations according to level and weather

FAT BIKING

Seeing the city differently on snow

Departure from Monsieur Jean or trail access by taxi: 15 minutes

Fat biking is one of those activities that can seem intimidating before it begins and becomes immediately natural once you are on the saddle. The wide tires grip the snow without much effort, and the region’s winter trails — on the Plains, along the river, in Jacques-Cartier National Park — offer routes for all levels.

It is another way to get outside. And to see Quebec City from an angle you may not have expected.

The concierge can help with:

• Fat bike and equipment rentals on request
• Guides for first rides and routes suited to your level
• Equipment rental (clothing and fat bikes)

Ice canoeing on the St. Lawrence

The most Québécois activity of all

By taxi from Monsieur Jean: 20 minutes to the departure point

Some experiences only make sense once you live them.

Ice canoeing is a sporting tradition born on the St. Lawrence, practised for centuries to cross the partially frozen river. Today, certified operators offer a safe way to experience it: paddling between drifting blocks of ice, climbing onto solid floes, feeling the force of the river underfoot.
It is not an activity you forget. And Quebec City is the only place in the world where it exists in this form.

The concierge can help with:

• Certified, supervised providers selected by the concierge
• Round-trip transportation solutions included

DOG SLEDDING

Running through silence with the huskies

By car from Monsieur Jean: 60 minutes
Weather and snow dependent, generally December to March

SNOWMOBILING

The Charlevoix forests at speed

By car from Monsieur Jean: 60 minutes
Weather and snow dependent, generally December to March

The Quebec City region has one of the most extensive snowmobile trail networks in Québec. One hour from the city, the boreal forests of Charlevoix offer multi-hour routes through dense woods and clearings with views of the river.

For those looking for speed, fresh air and the feeling of being far away from everything, in very little time.

The concierge can help with:

• Quality providers selected by the concierge
• Round-trip transportation solutions available

Winter tables

Quebec City chefs at their most ambitious

On foot from Monsieur Jean: 5 to 20 minutes

Winter is the season when Quebec City restaurants give their best. Menus grow longer, techniques become sharper, and chefs cook for people who have walked in the cold and deserve to be rewarded. Québec winter cuisine is generous, precise and rooted in the land.

Saint-Roch, Limoilou, Old Québec, Grande Allée:  every neighbourhood has its tables. The concierge knows the ones worth making a detour for this season.

The concierge can help with:

• Personalized selection according to your preferences and the evening of your visit
• Reservations and suggestions for Québec wines and spirits

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Ice fishing

Village Nordik at the Port of Québec

By taxi from Monsieur Jean: 15 minutes
January 30 to March 7, 2027. Direct view of Old Québec from the site.

In the heart of winter, Village Nordik settles onto the frozen river at the Port of Québec. You come to fish, of course, but also to slow down. Sitting in the warmth of an igloo, looking back at Old Québec from the river, waiting patiently beneath the ice: ice fishing belongs as much to winter tradition as to the Québécois art of living.

It is a simple, local and deeply seasonal experience. A moment apart, between the cold outside, the warmth of the shelter and the pleasure of doing as people do here, when winter turns the river into a place to inhabit.

The concierge can help with:

• Fishing cabin reservations available through the concierge
• Advice on the best time slots according to crowds

Quebec Winter Carnival

Ten days at the heart of the world’s largest winter carnival

On foot from Monsieur Jean: 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the site
February 5 to 14, 2027. Grande Allée, Parc de la Francophonie, Place George-V.

Quebec City in February is not a destination. It is a celebration.

Since 1955, the Quebec Winter Carnival has transformed the city into a vast celebration of winter. Bonhomme’s Ice Palace, night parades with allegorical floats and pyrotechnics, monumental snow sculptures, ice canoe racing on the partially frozen St. Lawrence — for ten days, the city moves to a rhythm nothing else can reproduce.

At Monsieur Jean, Carnival begins at your door. Grande Allée is a fifteen-minute walk away. And the room, on your return, keeps its promise.

The concierge can help with:

• Passes and tickets available through the concierge
• Advice on highlights according to your stay: parades, sculptures, ice canoe race
• Restaurant reservations on Grande Allée during Carnival

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Jardin d’hiver

Contemporary art in the snow-covered city

On foot from Monsieur Jean: 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the route
2027 dates to be confirmed by Manif d’art

Some works are visited in a museum. Others are placed in the city by winter.

Between two editions of the Québec City Biennial, Jardin d’hiver invites contemporary art beyond the walls. Streets, public squares and selected downtown spaces become an open-air route, freely accessible, followed at the pace of walking and cold light.

You come across installations, unexpected forms, discreet or monumental presences. The eye changes. A façade becomes a setting. A square crossed too quickly becomes a pause. The city, under snow, can be read differently.

For winter 2026–2027, official dates have not yet been confirmed by Manif d’art.

The concierge can help with:

• Monitoring the publication of official 2027 dates and routes
• Creating a cultural walk according to weather and your pace
• Combining Jardin d’hiver with a Saint-Roch or Old Québec address to continue the outing somewhere warm

AURA at Saint-Roch Church

An immersive spectacle in the heart of the city

By taxi from Monsieur Jean: 10 minutes
Permanent experience at Saint-Roch Church, presented for a minimum of five years. Schedule varies by season. Duration: 45 minutes.

Moment Factory, the Québec studio behind some of the world’s major immersive experiences, has installed AURA inside Saint-Roch Church in Quebec City. For 45 minutes, projections, light and orchestral music transform the church interior into a visual and sonic odyssey.

AURA was first created for Notre-Dame Basilica in Montréal, then for Paris. Quebec City is the third city to host it. It is the kind of spectacle that can justify an evening on its own.

The concierge can help with:

• Ticket reservations available through the concierge
• Suggestions to combine AURA with dinner in Saint-Roch

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Winter in Quebec City is lived outside. It is absorbed in warmth.

After a day in the cold, the body asks for something precise. Not a list of services. A place to truly settle in.

At Monsieur Jean, the rooms are designed to welcome that moment. The heat, the dimmed light, the relative silence of the stone streets. Winter mornings here have their own texture.

For those who wish to go further, Strøm Spa Nordique offers a winter experience few places reproduce with such precision. Alternating between an outdoor hot bath at 40°C and the minus 15°C air outside, in a snow-covered landscape, releases something incomparable. Just minutes from the city, Strøm becomes the ideal pause to extend winter differently — and Monsieur Jean offers a package designed to help guests fully enjoy it.

In-room treatments are available at Monsieur Jean by reservation, solo or as a duo.

The concierge can help with:

• Massage and in-room treatment reservations at Monsieur Jean
• Selection and reservations for Nordic spa experiences in the region