A Walking Tour of Quebec City - Old Quebec (Look Up, Canada! series)

There is no better way to see Canada than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way, a downloadable walking tour from walkthetown.com is ready to explore when you are.

Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on North American streets.

There likely was not much question is Samuel de Champlain’s mind where he would build a settlement as he sailed up the Saint Lawrence River in 1608. At a spot where the channel narrowed a bit stood a magnificent cliff, facing upstream - a place where a fort could be erected to ward off any incursions beyond.

He hadn’t counted on the winters, however, and 20 of the 28 men in Champlain’s first “l’Habitation” perished. But the New World’s fur trade held so much promise the French settlers kept coming. The Company of One Hundred Associates was chartered to exploit the natural resources around Quebec for profit. By the time the businessmen’s organization dissolved in 1663 there was a full-fledged town of over 500 residents.

The government and the military and the Jesuits, who had early on established a college in Quebec, tended to live on top of the cliff. Below, down by the river, were the houses of the merchants, tradesmen and seamen. The first stairs to link the Upper Town and the Lower Town were constructed in 1635; today Quebec City proudly claims some 30 personality-filled stairways.

Quebec’s imposing geography proved its mettle in 1711 during the Queen Anne’s War with England as the British Royal Navy was unable to lay siege to the city. A half-century later, the Seven Years’ War proved to be a different story. It took three months of bombing before the armies clashed in climactic fighting on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. The British attackers withstood an initial charge by the defenders and it was all over in 15 minutes, although both sides lost their commanding generals.

It didn’t seem to matter much to the Quebec colonists which country across the Atlantic was dishing out the law. The British Parliament passed the Quebec Act in 1774 that allowed “les Canadiens” to openly practice Catholicism and speak French. When the American colonies to the south revolted against the British a year later, those Canadiens took a pass on joining in. Today 96% of Quebec City’s population of more than 600,000 speak French as their primary language.

The Quebec City site was blessed not only with natural defenses but a deep water harbour and by the early 1800s this was the third busiest port in North America. Lumber was the main export, along with tens of thousands of beaver pelts. The city started building up during that time and by the 1870s it became obvious that the impressive Citadele constructed atop of Cape Diamond was no longer needed. But Governor General Lord Dufferin blocked the destruction of the defenses and instead ordered them incorporated into the Quebec streetscape.

That kind of preservation thinking pervades Old Quebec where nearly half of all the buildings in the Historic District were built before 1850. We will set out to explore this unique cityscape and we will begin where Quebec once defied intruders but now welcomes visitors from around the world...