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Visit Quebec 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.

Québec City spreads from its historic heart into a bland suburbia but the highlights lie beside the St Lawrence, with main attractions being evenly distributed between the upper and lower portions of what is known as Vieux-Québec (Old Québec). On the Cap Diamant, Haute-Ville (Upper Town) continues along the St Lawrence from the old city walls and the furthest you need to wander from here is to the Musée du Québec, set in the extensive parkland of the Plains of Abraham. As the oldest part of the city, this area comprises some of the main sights of interest, including the magnificent Citadelle. The Terrasse Dufferin is also worth a stroll to watch street entertainers, unproductive students or the views over the river, but it gets overcrowded in the evening. The second part of the city, the Basse-Ville (or Lower Town) is connected to Haute-Ville by funicular from Terrasse Dufferin or by several windy streets and stairs. One of the main pleasures of the area, besides the wonderful old houses and small museums, is the Musée de la Civilisation.

This itinerary begins at Vieux-Québec's Place d'Armes and then explores the upper part of Vieux-Québec and the rest of Haute-Ville as far west as the Musée du Québec. To finish the tour, you can explore Vieux-Québec's compact Basse-Ville, which can be reached directly from Place d'Armes. Strapped between the cliffs and the St Lawrence, this district is of considerable interest and is a pleasant area to wander around.

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