﻿ Quebec, Canada - places of interest

Quebec, Canada

Perhaps, Quebec was the last fortified city north of Mexico, but it welcomes visitors with open arms. Visit the Citadel, where you will be able to watch the ceremony, Canadian military forces. As for food, you can spend the afternoon over tea at the Chateau Frontenac, or follow the lead of the locals and taste the French fries with cheese and hot sauce.

City in S Quebec province, on the N bank of the St. Lawrence River where it is joined by the St. Charles River. Its name may be derived from an Algonquin word meaning narrows. The first European here, the French explorer Jacques Cartier, who spent the winter of 1535–36 in the area, found the Indian village of Stadacona on the site. Quebec, itself, the first permanent settlement in Canada, was established in 1608 as a trading post by another French explorer, Samuel Sieur de Champlain. In 1663 it officially became a city and the capital of New France.

The English captured Quebec in 1629, but it was returned to France in 1632. It withstood English sieges in 1690 and 1711, but on September 19, 1759, during the French and Indian War, the city surrendered to the British for the last time, after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham five days earlier. In 1763 all of French Canada, including Quebec, was ceded to Great Britain. During the American Revolution an American army failed in an attempt to take the city in 1775–76.

Quebec was the capital of Lower Canada from 1791 to 1841, and of the Province of Canada from 1851 to 1855 and again from 1859 to 1865. It has been the capital of the Province of Quebec since 1867. In October 1864 the second of two conferences resulting in the confederation that became the present Dominion of Canada was held here. During World War II, in August 1943 and September 1944, meetings to plan Allied strategy were held here between President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, together with other leading military and civilian figures.

Old fortifications and buildings from the colonial era make Quebec a picturesque city, popular with tourists. The old fort, La Citadelle, has been restored as it was between 1820 and 1832. The population is overwhelmingly of French descent and is Frenchspeaking.