Fall foliage
itinerary

Place-Royale and Petit-Champlain before ten, while the lanes still belong to residents. Coffee at Paillard on rue Saint-Jean.

Walk the ramparts to the Citadelle, then out across the Plains of Abraham — the maples along the Grande Allée edge turn first.

Dufferin Terrace at golden hour, dinner at La Bûche.

Montmorency Falls — thirty metres taller than Niagara, framed by red cliffs in October. Cross the suspension bridge over the top, take the stairs down the east side.

Ferry to Lévis and back for the skyline, or the Musée national des beaux-arts if the weather turns.

Steak frites at L’Entrecôte St-Jean. Book before you leave home.

Drive the Chemin Royal right around the island — 67 km, six villages, orchards heavy with apples. Cider tastings, blackcurrant, chocolate, and roadside stands selling squash by the crate.

Sainte-Pétronille at the western tip for the Château Frontenac across the water, backed by the whole colour line.

Back in town by dusk, or push on to Baie-Saint-Paul and sleep in Charlevoix.

Route 362 from Baie-Saint-Paul to La Malbaie — a cliff road above the St. Lawrence that is, for three weeks a year, the best drive in eastern Canada. Stop at Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive.

Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie for the deepest colour, or Canyon Sainte-Anne’s footbridges on the way back.

Two hours each way from the city — worth a night in Charlevoix rather than a round trip.

Parc national de la Jacques-Cartier, forty minutes north: a glacial valley with the river running through it and colour on both walls. Walk Les Loups for the view down the whole trench.

Mont-Sainte-Anne gondola if you’d rather ride than climb — the summit reads the Laurentians and the river at once. Then Wendake on the way in.

One last hour on rue du Trésor, where the painters work through October.