Tours are held every hour on the hour between 10am and 6pm. They are offered in both French and English. Reservations are recommended. Cross the lobby and go down the stairs to the lower level. You will see a costumed guide at a desk; you pay her your $7 fee and she gives you a badge to wear. This makes it easy to remember who is in your group. French and English tours have different color badges.
On a practical note, the restrooms at the Chateau Frontenac are not open to the public. You need your room key to open them. I remembered this from our stay last year. I suggest that if you need to use the restroom you hover around the door, eventually someone will let you in. I felt no guilt whatsoever - for the price I paid for my room last year, I am sure it includes lifetime use of the facilities.
Our guide, Charlotte, was great. She is playing the part of a hundred-year-old chambermaid who has never left the Chateau. She encouraged all of us to enter into the game and pretend it was 1893. We all had to say where we came from and how we got here. Needless to say, cars weren’t an option. This broke the ice and made for a very enjoyable tour.
We learned some interesting facts about the Chateau: it has 18 floors of rooms, the roof is made of copper and the famous green color is due to oxidation. The hotel employs between 500 and 600 staff in the summer and the chef has a garden in a courtyard on the fourth floor. We also learned about Governor Frontenac - one interesting tidbit was that his wife sent his heart back to New France saying that was where it belonged. (Evidently he spent very little time with her when he was alive.)
If you have ever dreamed of seeing the most expensive room at the Chateau, the tour is the least expensive way to not only view the Van Horne Suite but to get to sit on the sofa. It offers a splendid view of the St. Lawrence River and three very well appointed rooms.
The D-Day invasion was planned in the Churchill Lounge. One fascinating note was that a notebook was lost at the conference which contained the complete plans for the invasion. Luckily for the Allies, it was found by a waiter, who turned it over to his supervisor. The rest is history.
The tour takes one hour and involves climbing some stairs. There were young children on our tour and they seemed to enjoy it as much as the adults. The tour ends in the corridor off the lobby. This is where the shops are located, so while not a gift store per se, it certainly is a shopping opportunity.