What's behind that wall?

[imec]

Quebec City was founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain. The city has many areas and aspects to it - certainly more than I have seen. Over the next few posts I'll try to give you a flavour for what this fascinating city has to offer.

Much of the oldest part of the city is within a large wall. In this first post I'll try to give you a general idea of what that area looks like and I'll focus on Upper Town. Much of this space is packed with shops, small boutique hotels and of course, cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs. The variety of architecture is startling.

The first 4 pics show the old city as seen from our hotel room just after checking in on Thursday afternoon. The wall and two of the gates may be seen in the foreground.










Approaching the wall you get a better appreciation for its size.

[imec]

Just inside the wall is a small skating rink (artificially chilled). Oh, and the guy in the dreads isn't break dancing.





As mentioned earlier, the architecture is all over the map...















Even Art Deco is well represented...

[imec]

Some places have been "re-architected"...





and some things are just not quite what they seem.





This alleyway is home to a group of artists who keep their works locked away but ready for exhibition with the turn of a key - similar to the Bouquinistes of Paris...

[imec]

Well, lets just wander along and see a bit more of upper town.

[cristina]

Beautiful, beautiful photos, imec!

But I am pretty sure that Champlain was thoroughly dead by 2008.

In any event, I look forward to more photos and commentary!

[imec]

Nov 18, 2009 4:14:08 GMT cristina said:

Beautiful, beautiful photos, imec!

But I am pretty sure that Champlain was thoroughly dead by 2008.

Thanks cristina and ;D yes, Sam was dead and gone for the 400th anniversary - Paul McCartney showed up though.

(date now fixed )

[cristina]

I'm channeling my inner-editor tonight. You and HW might want to start thinking about an anti-cristina support group.

[lagatta]

Québec was founded in 2008? I guess I was hallucinating about being there in the 1960s, perhaps even the 1950s (though I was very small). Sorry to be so anal but that is also why I'm good at research. (1608, of course).

Before Champlain there was Cartier and of course before Cartier there were Algonquin people. The name of this village was understood as Stadaconé in French and Stadacona in English. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadacona Wonder why he pissed off the locals, kidnapping them and having them die and all that...

imec those photos are of quality postcard or coffee-table art book calibre! Your skills and "eye", your new camera and a bit of help from Mother Nature with the unusuallly wonderful sun in November here.

I love the art-deco Clarendon - have stayed there. The rooms are pretty but small as in many European hotels, though perhaps it has been renovated since. The small rooms suited me fine.

Québec is lovely and I haven't seen it much as a "tourist" of late.

[fumobici]

Nice. Beautiful photos, thanks for sharing.

[hwinpp]

It looks very European, if I may say so without copping anything...

When you walk around the city like that Imec, do you follow a guide or do you just stride out on a whim?

[imec]

It's useful to have some sort of idea what you're heading for HW and possibly a map, but the area within the fortifications is not huge, so pretty difficult to get truly lost. And if you do, the people are very friendly although some do not speak much English. Many people comment on the "European feel" of the place and I include myself in that group.

[Deleted]

A beautiful representation of some place I never had a second thought about wanting to visit.(I say this out of my sheer ignorance of the city and Province).
Love all the varied types of architecture,the Art Deco is gorgeous!
And yes,presents as very European.
Good to know there is somewhere a little closer to home I could affordably visit with such a European feel to it.
I think I should like to visit in springtime or summer though.
Thanks imec.

[bixaorellana]

My gosh, Imec -- just when I think you couldn't possibly top your other travel reports, you pull this out of your trick bag!

It's obviously a very beautiful city, but you have done such justice to it with your gorgeous and brilliantly composed photos and the very helpful and fun commentary. (sorry, I know I'm burbling, but this is just so good)

I'm embarrassed to say I know almost nothing about Canada and, until I saw that movie with Robert DeNiro in Montreal, I never thought of it as a desirable travel destination. This thread certainly changed that forever!

[lagatta]

Québec is lovely, and like many colonial cities in the Americas retains strong traces of its European roots, though it is important to view it as one of the old (European) cities of the Americas, whether the roots are British, French, Spanish or Portuguese (not much material trace left of the Dutch presence in what is now New York City and the surrounding area, though there are common NY words like "stoop" that are Dutch).

I do confess that it I find it odd that casimira and bixa from Louisiana have never thought of visiting Québec, though I also confess I've not been down to New Orleans and elsewhere in Louisiana either, though I'd certainly like to - life has taken me elsewhere.

Though since you do NOT live in Winnipeg I would suggest travelling here in late Spring, summer or EARLY Autumn. We usually have beautiful weather while the leaves are turning. It has been unusually sunny and clement this November, but no temps above 10c or so.

I especially advise early autumn visits to Europeans - in general their springs are much nicer, and their autumns drearier.

[Deleted]

Finally got home and was able to see these excellent pictures since I didn't have enough time this morning. The wall looks like it is about the same size as the walls of Carcassonne.

However, I must disagree with those of you who thinks it looks European. Well yes, it does look European compared to Detroit or Los Angeles, but every single time they try to fob off Québec or some other similar location as Europe in the movies, I immediately identify it as "Canada."

I particularly remember in the dreadful Spielberg movie "Catch Me if You Can" there was a scene near the end in a so-called French village, and it looked so un-French to me that I was gagging.

This is not at all to say that anything looks wrong (meaning "not pretty") about it, just that Canada (and more specifically Québec) has a specific look of its own based on its climate. It would probably be easier to pass off Québec as a Scandinavian town to me in a movie rather than as a French town.

[bixaorellana]

Imec, do you by any chance have some close-ups of the trompe-l'œil walls? I tried magnifying them, but can't really see detail. It's so well-done, and there is so much of it.

Was it very cold there? People look pretty bundled up to me, although there is one woman in a quilted down coat and bare legs.

[imec]

I'll work up some closeups for you. Yes it was a bit chilly - but being from the prairies, it didn't seem that bad to me.

[imec]

Let me know if there's anything specific you want to see close up. The originals are 10MB RAW images so we can go quite close.