Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Les Chocolats Favoris


Establishment Les Chocolats Favoris
Address 32, avenue Begin
Lévis, QC Q6V 4B9
1 418 833-2287
Type Tasty Treats

Today's Field Trip takes us to the little village of Lévis across the river from Québec City for a visit to Les Chocolats Favoris, a chocolate and ice cream shop serving some of the best chocolate dipped ice cream cones this Scotch Chick has ever tasted. So, grab your ferry schedules, Loyal Scotch Chix Fans; we're off to Lévis.

The CA Scotch Couple can thank the good folks at Trip Advisor for leading them to this little Tasty Treat shop. Les Chocolats Favoris doesn't get much play elsewhere. There is only one post on it on Virtual Tourist, and CA Scotch Chick totally missed any chatter on it on Chowhound. Moreover, most of the web sites that come up in a Google search are in French. It is well worth knowing about though, and it is a great deal easier to get to than one might suppose.

The ferry from Québec City to Lévis is easily accessed from Lower Old Town, and makes the trip across the St. Lawrence River approximately every half hour. Purchasing a ticket at the booth is a simple matter, and the trip across the river affords one of the best views of Québec City around.

Avenue Begin, a lovely street lined with restaurants and food shops, including Les Chocolats Favoris, sits high on the bluff, so there is a bit of a climb to reach this Tasty Treat, but it is well worth the effort. The directions can simply be summed up as turn right out of the terminal, find the grey stairs on your left, and start climbing. Once you reach the street above, keep climbing until you hit the cross street avenue Begin. Turn left on avenue Begin and follow it down to the ice cream of one's dreams. It exercises the lungs a bit but it is actually a lot easier than it sounds, and the stairs leading up have some great photo ops (giving one an opportunity to stop and catch one's breath).

Panoramic View from the Stairs

And, the goal really is the ice cream of one's dreams. While Les Chocolats Favoris has homemade hard ice cream, what one is there for is the soft serve ice cream dipped in French chocolate. Often the lines for this Tasty Treat snake out the door, but it was rainy and a bit chilly on the day the CA Scotch Couple made their pilgrimage, so they had the place to themselves.

CA Scotch Gent was staying true to the "When in Canada" rule, and ordered the maple ice cream dipped in milk chocolate, while CA Scotch Chick went the dreamsicle route, opting for orange ice cream with dark chocolate. Both ice cream cones were quite good. The chocolate that was coating the ice cream was so much thicker than any the CA Scotch Couple had ever experienced. It prevented the ice cream from melting down the cone and provided a nice chewy experience.  

CA Scotch Gent's cone was incredible. Once again, the maple syrup route was more of a caramel flavor, and the combination of this rich caramel-like ice cream with good milk chocolate was amazing. CA Scotch Chick's orange didn't have enough orange flavor to make it a dreamsicle, but it was very tasty. Next time she is getting the maple syrup one. 

The trip down the hill takes a lot less time than the climb up, partly because one knows where one is going. The ferry back is just as easy as the ferry over, and there is even the funicular on the Québec City side if one doesn't want to face another climb. Considering the calories they had just consumed, the CA Scotch Couple opted for the climb. 

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