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Spread over Cap Diamant and the banks of the St
Lawrence, QUEBEC CITY is Canada's most beautifully
located and most historic city. Vieux-Quebec, 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 Qu?bec 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
cafe. Moreover, despite the fact that the city's symbol is a hotel,
the Chateau Frontenac , the government remains
the main employee, not tourism, and some of the more impressive
buildings are government-run and off-limits.
Arriving from Montreal you're immediately struck
by the differences between the province's two main cities. Whilst
Montreal is international, dynamic and forward-thinking, Quebec
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 Eglise Notre Dame-des-Victoires to the
Basilique Notre Dame de Quebec 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 Musee
de la Civilisation , in Vieux-Quebec, expertly presenting
all aspects of French-Canadian society, and the Musee
du Quebec , in the Haute-Ville, west of Vieux-Quebec,
which has the finest art collection in the province.
Outside the city limits, the town of Levis
and the Huron reservation, Wendake ,
make worthwhile excursions, whilst the churches and farmland of
the Cote-de-Beaupre and the Ile d'Orleans
hark back to the days of the seigneurs and habitants . The gigantic
Basilique de Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre , attracting
millions of pilgrims annually, is one of the most impressive sights
in Quebec, and for equally absorbing natural sights there are
the spectacular waterfalls at Montmorency and
Sept-Chutes , and the wildlife reserve in the Laurentians
.
