QUEBEC, CANADA

First, how do you say Quebec?

• The English pronunciation is kway-BEK, with the accent on the last syllable.  BEK is said like a short BACK.
• The French pronunciation is key-BEK.  BEK is also said like a short BACK.
• No one says Q-BEK.

More about this province (which is like a state in the U.S.) and city.

• Quebec is Canada's largest province by area.  About equal to Alaska.
• Both Quebec City and Montreal are in this province, which is the only Francophone-majority in the country.
• I will not say much about Montreal.  First because for some reason, we went right pass it, and second because we will be on the Azamara for the total solar eclipse in August, which will take us from Iceland to Montreal.  However, we last night passed by this city, and the lights were fascinating, so I will tomorrow show a few photos.

• 
  Has a population of around 8 million, second to Ontario.
• From 1534 to 1763 was the French Colony of Canada, and, as this map shows, a lot more.
• After the Seven Year's War, from 1756 to 1763, where Great Britain beat France, Canada became a British colony.
• To get your wars right, this was not the one involving Napoleon Bonaparte.
• He was born in 1769.
• 
  Canada became a country in 1867, when Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec gained self-governance from the British Empire.

• 
  The Roman Catholic Church played a prominent role in the evolution of Quebec.  However, during the 1960's Quiet Revolution, secularization occurred, and the Church lost cultural and moral leadership.
• The history of this region goes back to migration from Asia 14,000 to 20,000 years ago.

• By the time European explorations occurred in the 1500s, there were eleven indigenous peoples.

• 
  When the Byzantine Empire fell in the 15th century, Western Europe began searching for new sea routes to the Far East.  
• Around 1522-23, Giovanni da Verrazzano persuaded King Francis I of France to commission an expedition to find a western route to Cathay (China) via the Northwest Passage.
• This failed, but it did establish a New France in North America. 

• 
  In the 1534-1542 period, Jacques Cartier explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and visited indigenous villages in what is now Quebec City
• But .France abandoned their efforts for almost half a century because of its financial crisis from various wars

• 
  Around 1580, the rise of the fur trade reignited French interest, and New France became a colonial trading post.

• 
  In 1603, Samuel de Champlain became the first European to discover and map Quebec.  With the support of King Henry XIV, he spent nearly a decade here and is often called the Father of New France because he founded the permanent settlement of Quebec City  in 1608.

• 
  At first missionaries from various religions appeared in Quebec City, but from 1627, Cardinal Richelieu allowed only Catholics to go.
• In 1663, King Louis XIV made New France into the royal province of France.  The sites involved were Acadia, Louisiana and Plaisance.  1200 new troops were sent to Quebec to fight off the Iroquois Indians.
• 
  By the way, speaking of the various King Louis, Remy Martin's Louis XIII cognac is named after King Louis the 13th (who reigned from 1610 to 1643) to honor him as the the first monarch to recognize cognace as a distinct, official category of spirits.  Called the King of Cognacs, a bottle sells between $3900 and $5500, but specialized editions go for over $80,000....per bottle.
• 
  To redress gender imbalance, the King sponsored the passage of approximately 800 young Frenchwomen, thus called the King's Daughters to the colony.
• The population in 1666 was 3215, and in 1672 jumped to 6700.

• 
  As earlier mentioned, New France was not only in Canada, but from Hudson Bay to the Great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
• Wars were aplenty around the mid-1700s involving the British, French, American colonists and indigenous tribes.

• 
  That earlier mentioned Seven Years' War in Europe won by the British curtailed French presence, and almost entirely when France ceded the western part of Louisiana and the Mississippi River Delta to Spain in 1762.

• 
  Great Britain took control of Canada in 1763
• All this turmoil resulted in 60,000 French Canadians in jeopardy, and a good many of them moved south, even down to Louisiana, where Acadians became Cajuns.
• By now, there was the Revolutionary War for Independence by British colonists south of Canada, and there was uncertainty who was loyal to what.

• 
  Colonial America won independence from the British in 1776.  All my life, just all I knew about North American history around this period was this war from freedom.  A whole lot more was happening then.  In the years that followed, attempts were made by this new country, the USA, and abandoned, to expand into Canada.  I did not know this.

• 
  Almost a century later in 1867, Canada was formed as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire.
• There will later be a more complete history of Canada, but the expansion to the Pacific was spurred by the 1850s gold rush, plus the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890s and the Canadian transcontinental railway. 

• 
  This is essentially the railway we will be on from Toronto to Vancouver after this cruise.

• 
  Over 17,000 Chinese immigrants (some from the American effort) resulted in a base for their presence.  There are now 1.7 million, or 4.7% of the Canadian population.

• 
  However, in 2021 half the Chinese population were not born in Canada.  Chinese emigrants from 1996 to 2021 more than doubled their number.
• From 1970 to 1996, over 40% came from Hong Kong.
• The handover by the British to China occurred in 1997.
• But 87% of Chinese immigrants to Canada between 1998 and 2021 were born in Mainland China.
• 
  Two-thirds of Chinese in Canada live in Vancouver (20% of city population) and Toronto (11%).

• 
  Called the Great Hemorrhage, from the mid-1800s to the Great Depression, 900,000 people moved from Quebec to New England.  Today, snowbirds migrate to southern Florida during the winter.

• 
  Rushing on to Modern Quebec, I earlier mentioned that The Quiet Revolution from 1960 to the present revolutionized the nature of of this region.
• This was an intense period of modernization, secularization and social reform.  Religion suffered.
• This was also a period of a collective will of freedom of the French-Canadian people.
• Distinct Quebec music and art even developed.

• 
  But foremost was a push for independence which never quite gained majority support.  
• The October Crisis of 1970 used violence and bombings.
• However a 1995 referendum ended up being 49.4% Yes and 50.6% No.
• There is a current political revival for independence, but rougly two-thirds of Quebecers would today vote no.
• 
  Physically:
• With 0.11% of the world's population, Quebec has 3% of all renewable freshwater.
• Half a million lakes, compared to Minnesota's less than 12,000.  In fact, with 2 million lakes, Canada has more than the rest of the world combined.
• All time record high temperature is 104 F, with a record low of -60 F.
• 95% of electricity is hydroelectric.

• 
  With the above, is it necessary to write about Quebec City?  Yes.
• Population of 605,000, with a metro size of 900,000.  More than 90% speak French. 
• 66% Christianity, Irreligion 30.5%.
• Chateau Frontenac (now Fairmont Hotel) tops the skyline and the Rue du Petit-Champlain is ranked as the nicest and most beautiful street in Canada.  We'll see both on our tour mentioned below
• Was the first settlement in 1608 founded by Samuel de Champlain of France.
• In 1665, only 550 people and 70 houses, all membersof religious orders.
• The British captured the city in 1759 .  The population was 8000.
• Attempts were twice made my the USA to invade the city, during the Revolutionary War and again in 1812.
• Was the most populous city in Canada until the census of 1790, when Montreal surpassed the 14,000 population of Quebec City with 18,000 inhabitants.  Today?  Montreal has 4.4 million and QC  0.6 million.
• Is not the capital of Canada.  Ottawa became capital in 1857.

• 
  Noteworthy that Quebec City was where two key meetings were held.
• August 1943 to discuss D-Day and atomic energy development.
• September 1944 to plan the final strategy against Japan.

The view of the Port of Quebec from our stateroom.

We took a bus tour of the city.

King Louis the 14th.

Paintings on building.

This street is Rue du Petit-Champlain, ranked as the nicest and most beautiful street in Canada.

A lot of buildings.

Flag of Canada.

Then off to Montmorency Falls.  My Blue-Bar Pigeon sent a Sea Gull to greet us.

c

1.37 Canadian dollar to the U.S. dollar.  Just to see a waterfall.

Went back to Quebec to see more buildings.

Return to our ship.

Noticed this pile snow.

Dinner at The Restaurant.  Started with shrimp, salad and soup, with a glass of red wine.

Added a German Riesling.  Slight sparkle and fruitiness.

Dinner of steak and salmon.

Ended with a Chocolate Decadence.

Listened a while to Volodymyr and Andrey.

The most popular song of French Canada is l'Aloutte.  So is Frere Jacques.  Same as France.  Those are nursery rhymes, but regarding modern tunes, Celine Dion's Dansons is up there.  Patrick Watson's Je te laisserai des mots also tracks well.  Add Home (V.F.) by Roxane Bruneau and Michael Bublé.  Also, Charlotte Cardin's The Way We Touch.

From all reports, she is back.  Dion took a break due to her battle with Stiff Person Syndrome, but returned to live performance on her 58th birthday, 30March2026.

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