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An elegant heritage museum sits across the street from the Hôtel de Ville in an 18th-century former governor’s home. Artifacts from Aboriginal societies through to the arrival of British and French colonizers up to 1900 are on display. The gift shop has unique souvenirs and the comfortable café terrace faces onto the Jardins du Gouverneur and Place Jacques-Cartier (see Musée Château Ramezay).

Canada’s distinguished transcontinental railway system owes a great debt to the many Chinese laborers who made it a reality. After 1880, when the railway was finished, Chinese workers decided to settle in Montréal and gathered together in this enclave to protect themselves against local discrimination. Today the area is also home to many other Southeast Asian communities. A stroll through the lantern-lit streets around boulevard Saint-Laurent and rue de la Gauchetière will impress visitors with bargain boutiques, inexpensive ethnic eateries and cultural hodgepodge.

This circus troupe began life as street performers in La Malbaie, east of Québec City. Using an inventive mixture of world music, acrobatic brilliance and dazzling costumes, these entertainers have now conquered the world with their unique brand of magic. There are performance sites in Montréal, Las Vegas and Florida.

The Sieur de Maisonneuve erected a cross in 1643 after the Ville-Marie settlement survived floods (see La Croix).

The Sieur de Maisonneuve ambushed by Iroquois stands at Place d’Armes.

Nelligan (1879–1941) was a romantic figurehead who ushered French-Canadian poetry into a new epoch and is revered by Quebecers as their beloved literary spokesmen. In 1897 Nelligan joined the École Littéraire de Montréal and caused a triumphant public reaction to the reading of his poem “La Romance du Vin.” In later years Nelligan’s sanity deteriorated and he spent his last days in an asylum.

Built as a military defence against the British in the 18th century, the striking stone gate (Porte Saint-Jean) is now a tourist draw from which visitors can access and walk for 4 km (3 miles) along the city’s ramparts. The area around the gate, also known as Quartier Montcalm, has an intense concentration of Québécois specialty merchants, as well as designer boutiques, cultural outlets and nightclubs. Bring your appetite too, because this zone is famous for its bistros and restaurants serving fine French cuisine.

Leclerc (1914–88) worked as a radio announcer, actor and comedian, but he is best remembered as a consummate storyteller, singer and song-writer, penning works about the Canadian countryside, solitude, and love. His monument is found on Ile d’Orléans, and a statue of him has been erected in his honor in Parc Lafontaine in Montreal (see Parc Lafontaine, Montréal).

Iroquoian and nomadic Algonquian peoples had lived in Québec for thousands of years when the first Europeans arrived. “Kebec” is an Algonquian word meaning “place where the river narrows.”

Born in Manitoba to a French mother, and the youngest of 11 children, Roy (1909–83) escaped her family’s poverty and moved to Québec in 1939, where she began her career as a respected and prolific French-speaking novelist. Her first work, Bonheur d’occasion (The Tin Flute) , was published in 1945, winning her the Prix Fémina award and the first of three coveted Governor General’s awards.