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Québec City:
Spread over Cap Diamant and the banks of the
St Lawrence, QUÉBEC CITY is Canada's most
beautifully located and most historic city. Vieux-Québec,
surrounded by solid fortifications, is the only walled
city in North America, a fact that prompted UNESCO to
classify it as a World Heritage Site in 1985. In both
parts of the Old City – Haute and Basse – the winding
cobbled streets are flanked by seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century stone houses and churches, graceful
parks and squares, and countless monuments. Although
some districts have been painstakingly restored to give
tourists as seductive an introduction to Québec as
possible, this is an authentically and profoundly French
city: 95 percent of its 600,000 population are
French-speaking, and it is often difficult to remember
which continent you are in as you tuck into a croissant
and a steaming bowl of coffee in a Parisian-style café.
Moreover, despite the fact that the city's symbol is a
hotel, the Château Frontenac, the government
remains the main employee, not tourism, and some of the
more impressive buildings are government-run and
off-limits.
Arriving from Montréal
you're immediately struck by the differences between the
province's two main cities. Whilst Montréal is
international, dynamic and forward-thinking, Québec City
is more than a shade provincial, often seeming too bound
up with its religious and military past – a residue of
the days when the city was the bastion of the Catholic
Church in Canada. On the other hand, the Church can
claim much of the credit for the creation and
preservation of the finest buildings, from the quaint
Église Notre Dame-des-Victoires to the Basilique
Notre Dame de Québec and the vast Seminary.
In contrast, the austere defensive structures, dominated
by the massive Citadelle, reveal the military
pedigree of a city dubbed by Churchill as the "Gibraltar
of North America", while the battlefield of the
Plains of Abraham is now a national historic park.
Of the city's rash of museums, two are essential visits
– the modern Musée de la Civilisation, in Vieux-Québec,
expertly presenting all aspects of French-Canadian
society, and the Musée du Québec, in the
Haute-Ville, west of Vieux-Québec, which has the finest
art collection in the province.
Outside the city
limits, the town of Lévis and the Huron
reservation, Wendake, make worthwhile excursions,
whilst the churches and farmland of the Côte-de-Beaupré
and the Île d'Orléans hark back to the days of
the seigneurs and habitants. The gigantic
Basilique de Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré, attracting
millions of pilgrims annually, is one of the most
impressive sights in Québec, and for equally absorbing
natural sights there are the spectacular waterfalls at
Montmorency and Sept-Chutes, and the
wildlife reserve in the Laurentians.
Click here to go to Quebec City web site. |
