Yes – everyone speaks English. I was there over the summer, and had absolutely no problem (I only speak basic high school french).

I agree – and even if you did speak some French, it might not help you much as the Quebec accent can be really unintelligible until you’re used to it.

Still, I did find that using some French phrases seemed to be appreciated by the locals. Show as much respect as you can for the local language culture and it will be reciprocated…

Of course. While French is #1 in QC (much more so than Montreal even) a friendly ‘bonjour’ followed with English will not surprise anyone in the tourist district.

It’s seems everyone else has managed to get in an answer before I could…

Doesn’t stop me from answering.

In my experience in old Quebec City, the area within the walls, and much of lower town, sales people in the local shops actually often greet you in English before they try greeting you in French… It is very tourist driven, you don’t usually get this even in the English bastions of Montreal.

Being the tourist friendly city that Quebec is, I’d certainly take advantage of all the shops and restaurants that you can. There are many nice shops on Rue Petit-Champlain (North America’s oldest shopping street.)

Just outside old Quebec City is the Quartier Montcalm and Avenue Cartier is a quaint, animated street, the centre of commercial activity of the district. A variety of clientele buzz in and around its numerous eateries, cafés, specialty shops, and trendy night spots. If you exit from the St-Louis Gate the road name changes to Grand Allée, Cartier divides Grand Allée into east and west, no more than 15 minute walk from the gate, on your left is a historic battle field, the Plains of Abraham. You can also get to Cartier by leaving through the St-Jean Gate, and continuing along St-Jean until Cartier, though in my opinion this isn’t the nicer of the two routes.

Of course, the Quebecois are wonderful, kind people who will converse in either language. You’ll be fine – have a lovely time!

Thanks for all the good answers. I was a little aprehensive about not knowing French in Quebec City, but not so much now. Thanks for your advice.

You will be fine. I don’t know if you’ve been to Montreal or not but I noticed that people in QC tend to “expect” that you will speak French, whereas in Montreal you are more likely to be greeted in English. The people in Quebec are very nice though, the only place I really had to speak French was in the rural areas outside QC. I was traveling with my husband who does not speak French and we mainly operated under the policy of if the person we were interacting with spoke English then so would I, and basically I only spoke French when absolutely necessary and really there were only 2-3 times that that was the case and like I said mostly only in the countryside. Don’t worry about it, seriously, you’ll have a great time. It’s a really lovely place w/equally lovely people.

I speak French, but my husband doesn’t. Sometimes, he would go into a store first and say hello and they wouldn’t pay much attention. Then I would pop in and say “bonjour” and I would be surrounded by people helping me find what I wanted.

Can you survive without any French? Yes, totally. But you will have a much better time there if you at least speak a little.