Party time in Ville de Quebec

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/07/2007 (6758 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

QUEBEC CITY — This city loves to party, but even for a spot where balloons, banners and festival flags regularly catch the wind off the St. Lawrence River, Quebec City is pulling out all the stops for its 400th birthday bash.

It’s going to be quite the party, says Roxanne St-Pierre, a representative of the 2008 Quebec City 400th Anniversary Society. If you want to be part of it, better start marking your calendar now, she says.

Designated a UNESCO “World Heritage Treasure,” Quebec’s capital attracts more than five million tourists every year. Organizers figure with all the events planned for the anniversary celebrations, the city will become an even bigger magnet for visitors. The birthday candles, songs and dancing will come next year, but right now the rainbow shining over the Plains of Abraham seemed the perfect introduction for my visit to Quebec City. This historic site, the battleground where British and French forces struggled for supremacy in 1759, will be one of the venues for the celebrations.

I had another viewpoint of the vast park during my first dinner in the city, as I gazed out over an evening panorama 165 metres above the city’s bustling streets. L’Astral, the revolving rooftop restaurant at Hotel Loews Le Concorde, serves up stunning 360-degree views of the city along with your entree. The 90 minutes it takes to make a full revolution is one of the best ways to get oriented to the city’s layout. It’s certainly one of the tastiest. Not that there’s any shortage of top-notch dining spots down at ground level.

Quebec City’s restaurants and cafe terraces naturally reflect French culinary traditions; however, they offer a global menu that will transport your tastebuds from Marrakech to Dublin. This is a city to people-watch and the city’s famous terraced cafes open up to the streets, where you can dine, drink and simply watch the world go by.

The scene is a far cry from what the tiny group of hopeful adventurers led by Samuel de Champlain experienced when they landed on the shores of the St. Lawrence.

The legendary explorer, map-maker and governor of New France founded Quebec City in 1608. His modest trading post was to grow into a city of more than 600,000 that today is considered the cradle of French civilization in North America. Champlain’s landfall not only established Quebec City, it also set the stage for the evolution of Canada, says city guide Michelle Demers.

“You have to remember that not only Quebec began here, it is also where Canada was born. It was the country’s first permanent colony,” Demers says.

For history buffs, Quebec City has few equals in North America to rival its urban landscape. It is North America’s only walled city, its narrow, cobbled streets dominated by architectural gems both modern and old. The sombre Gothic lines of the imposing Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac looks more like a castle than a hotel. The city’s massive fortress, La Citadelle, is not only an historic defensive fort, it’s still an active military base.

Quebec City has an abundance of excellent museums, but for an explanation of the struggles between the French and English over control of the city, take a visit to the Fort Museum.

Just up the street from the city’s efficient information centre, the Fort Museum recreates the six sieges of Quebec City, as well as a stunning portrayal of the battle on the Plains of Abraham.

With an enormous model of the city as it was in 1759, the presentation uses audiovisual technology to highlight the movements of the opposing forces.

You can find other reminders of how Quebec City rubs shoulders comfortably with the past and present. Beyond the city’s battlements, silent cannons aim towards the distant banks of the St. Lawrence, and the ferries quietly plying back and forth across the great river.

Ignoring the comings and goings at the Chateau Frontenac, Canadian school groups and Japanese tourists gaze down at the archaeological digs underway around the hotel’s foundations. From the Battlements and ramparts of the Upper Town, the city streets wind down to Lower Town, towards the river front and port, the scene of numerous reclamations and renovation projects through the years.

The latest round of construction is geared towards next year’s anniversary.

The official site of the 2008 festivities — Espace 400e — will be on the newly revitalized Bassin Louise in Quebec City’s Old Port. Up to a million tourists are expected to visit the site June 3 – Sept. 28 for the event.

Right now, however, I have discovered this city’s reputation for being a fascinating and walkable town has its drawbacks. Sometimes history has to take a back seat to cold beer, and a cozy spot to do some more people-watching.

CanWest News Service