Old Quebec

Old Quebec — Vieux-Québec in French — occupies the upper promontory of a basalt outcrop rising steeply from the St. Lawrence River, and it is one of the few remaining walled cities north of Mexico. The urban fabric is remarkably intact: streets still follow their 17th-century French regime pattern rather than a modern grid, and the ramparts and city gates from the French period survive in a completeness that gives Old Quebec a medieval urban quality found nowhere else in North America.

The Château Frontenac hotel dominates the upper town skyline in both mass and position. Built between 1893 and 1899 as part of the Canadian Pacific Railway's chain of grand hotels, it is the world's most photographed hotel and sits on the site of the original 1620 French governor's residence. Its copper roof has weathered to a green that echoes the surrounding landscape, so that it reads as if it has always been there.

The Dufferin Terrace, a boardwalk in front of the hotel, extends the building's presence and provides one of the classic views across the river — a view that is documented as the reason the original French governor chose this promontory for settlement in the early 17th century.

The lower town — Basse-Ville — is connected to the upper town by a funicular railway that has operated continuously since 1879 on the same incline, or by the longer and significantly steeper Breakneck Stairs. The lower town is where Quebec City's commercial life began in the 17th century, with the Notre-Dame-des-Anges monastery and the old harbour where Samuel de Champlain established the settlement.

The Citadelle of Quebec City occupies the highest ground at the eastern tip of the upper town promontory, and it has been continuously garrisoned since 1831, making it the longest continuously operating military establishment in Canada. It is a working army base, not a museum, and this gives it a different character — soldiers are present and going about their duties, which is a different experience from a historic site where the military is represented by exhibits.

The Quebec Winter Carnival — Carnaval de Québec — is one of the world's major winter festivals, held for approximately two weeks in late January and February, and it is deeply embedded in Quebec's identity. The ice sculptures, night parades, the canoe race across the St Lawrence, and the carnival's mascot Bonhomme have a cultural weight in Quebec that is difficult to explain without understanding how seriously Quebec takes the proposition that winter is an asset rather than a burden.

Beyond the carnival itself, Quebec has made an art of living in the cold: heated terraces, the underground city, winter markets. The city has found ways to make its climate into a resource rather than simply an endurance test, and Old Quebec in winter reveals something essential about the city that the summer tourist season partially obscures.

The only fortified city north of Mexico in North America, with walls and gates that survived largely intact from the 17th and 18th centuries.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site combining French colonial, British military and modern Quebecois urban culture in a compact, walkable neighbourhood.

Château Frontenac is the most photographed building in Canada and, regardless of the architectural debate about its authenticity, its position above the St. Lawrence is genuinely extraordinary.