Quebec City 400 years old

Quebec City Day One or 400 Years
Well today we traveled to the old city of Quebec and have arrived here on the 400 year anniversary of the founding of the city. Imagine being here in 1408. The city was founded by Msr. Champlain who was a French businessman. Little is said of the financier of the expedition who was Champlain’s brother in law Pierre Dugus because he was a Huguenot and many of them came to settle this area also. They however were French protestants and not catholic and were later persecuted by the Catholic Church which was a predominant influence in the area. Today unfortunately you can not find any of the protestant descendants of them because the church made them either get out or become Catholics.
But then the French Acadians who settled in Nova Scotia where later evicted by the British because of their French Catholic back round and the fact that they would not swear allegiance to the King of England
Quebec City is the only fortified (walled ) city in North America and we had to go in thru one of the gates in the wall to enter the inner city. The wall extends 4.9 Km and is only on the side of the city away from the river. It was thought that the cliffs by the river were sufficient to ward off any enemies from that direction.
The town is quaint with many again narrow brick streets, large stone buildings and a seminary and Notre Dame Cathedral as well as many other churches.
We took a guided historical tour of the wall and the and the Citadel which is still used as a barracks and home for the Canadian Army. Soldiers still are housed there and perform their duties.
The Citadel was actually completed by the British after they captured Quebec from the French, but the French built the wall (actually at different times three walls ) around the city.
The British made more than one attempt to push the French out of North America but it was in 1759 (?) that General Wolf met General Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham to the west of the walled city that the British won the battle. Actually they faked an invasion to the east of the city and Montcalm’s forces were there and then attacked on the west side by climbing the cliffs. Montcalm then met the British outside the walls of the city and the whole battle was over in 20 minutes. Had he stayed behind the walls the outcome might have been very different.
The French tried one year later to regain the city and won the battle outside the walls of he city but the British retreated into the walled city and were able to withstand any further onslaughts.
It is hard to imagine but the French had control of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River at one time virtually surrounding the British in the New World. Had they persevered we might all be speaking French at this time.
The Americans later tried to take the city but were also defeated in their attempts.
It really is a beautiful old city with lots of cute restaurants and shops and we had a really grand time seeing them.
Tomorrow we will go on a walking tour of the old city itself and some of the old buildings. Then the next day if we are up to another day in the city it will be a tour of the parliament buildings and the Musee de Art.

1 Seminary
2 The wall of the city
3 Street scene
5 Saint Louis Gate to the city