Tour of Old Quebec City
Lee Crocker’s notes from July 22, 2023 –Old Quebec City – UNESCO World Heritage Site
Our first full day in Quebec City proved to be a wonderful adventure. We rose early in the morning and walked to breakfast at one of University Laval’s many dining halls. After breakfast, we took a public transit bus to Old Quebec to tour the historic sites on foot. Our walks brought us to a tally of 19,000 steps, which our steps-to-miles calculator told us was a total of 8.47 miles. We’re tired, but it is a “good” tired.
Here's the group on the bus:
Upon arriving at the walled city, we were informed that Quebec City is the oldest walled city in North America. Quebec is a Huron word, which literally translated means “where the river narrows.” The walls were built by both British and French forces between 1608 and 1871. The wall was completed by the British who were attempting to keep out American forces.
Early on we met our tour guide, Pierre, who greeted us, and started his informational talk with, “We (Quebecois) are not French, but we speak French. We are Quebecois first, then we are Canadians!
Here is our group meeting Pierre in front of the Chateau Frontenac, the most photographed hotel in the world:
In the light rain, Pierre introduced us to our first good view of the Saint Lawrence River from the “Boardwalk’ called Dufferin Terrace. We learned that the Saint Lawrence is the source of 25% of the world’s freshwater. The Quebecois care deeply about the health of the river, as Pierre shared that each year all the mayors from cities on the banks of the river, all the way west to the Great Lakes, meet to discuss how to keep the river clean. These yearly meetings have helped. Fifty years ago, no one could swim in the Saint Lawrence, and now it is clean enough to offer safe swimming and recreation. In the photo below you can see the Dufferin Terrace and, beyond it, the widening of the Saint Lawrence to the northeast.
In the early part of the talk, Pierre shared about the first peoples, who came to this region about 10,000 years ago. At length Pierre continued the historical timeline forward, discussing the first European settlers and the many battles between the French and British for possession of Quebec.
The biggest of these was the Battle of the Plains of Abraham – part of the French and Indian Wars. In 1759, General Wolfe (British) sailed to Quebec City bringing 200 warships and 5,000 well-trained and munitioned soldiers. The troops and ships leveled the city, destroying almost everything. Then, on September 13, 1759, there was a final push by the Brits. The French General Montcalm was mortally wounded, as was Wolfe. However this siege ended the war, and Quebec fell under control of the British. In 1867, Canada was created and Quebec became a province.
During the tour we saw Aux Anciens Canadiens, a restaurant housed in one of the oldest buildings in the city, built in 1676.
We also visited the School of the Ursulines, among the oldest schools in North America, and the Ursuline Chapel. The school was founded by French Ursuline nun Marie de l'Incarnation in 1639 to educate French and Indigenous girls. Marie de l'Incarnation was canonized in 2014 by Pope Francis. In the first photo below you can see the ornate Ursuline Chapel, and in the second, the grave of Marie de l'Incarnation.
Today, 800,000 people live in the greater Quebec City area. 99% of the people speak French. The Quebec Act of 1774 allowed the Quebecois people to maintain their language and Catholic religion, despite being under British rule. In other parts of the British Empire, colonial governments imposed the English language and religion, but Quebec was the only exception. These people have held onto their language and customs, so they continue to thrive as a French language culture – not French people, but Quebecois people who speak French.
The tour also brought us past several beautiful large murals depicting the history of Quebec:
Here's a final photo of our whole group with Pierre at the end of our tour:
After our tour, we had lunch and visited the Musee de la Civilisation. The exhibits were widely varied from themes on the First Nations people, new ways to conceptualize civilization for the future, Rene Levesque (the most memorable Premier of Quebec), and modern-day understandings of gender around the world.
This painting in the museum depicts the acculturation that occurred in Canadian "Indian Affairs" schools:
What a great day we had. On Sunday the 23rd we will travel to the town of Wendake, where we will visit a First Nations site called Onhoüa Chetek8e (the 8 is pronounced roughly like a "w"), an interpretive site devoted to the culture of the Huron people.
