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 .