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European flair and French joie de vivre — you’ll definitely find these
elusive old-world qualities in Montréal and Québec City.
Visiting Montréal is like escaping into a little corner of Europe, except
that you don’t have to cross the Atlantic to get here. And Montréal
doesn’t feel European only because life and business is carried out
mostly in French. Things are really different here. People eat later (and,
may I add, better), they party differently (ditto), and life is infused with
a touch of European style. Montréalers seem to keep one eye on Paris
all the time.
Visiting Québec City is like slipping into the past without actually leaving
the present. One of the oldest, most picturesque cities in North America,
Québec City has preserved all its historic charm while hanging on to its
vibrant and distinct culture.
To give you a better idea, the whole province (state) of Québec consumes
half the wine sold in all of Canada. Yet Québec is only about 20
percent of the country’s total population. Although the rest of Canada’s
colonial roots are English, Protestant, and Anglo-Saxon, in Québec, the
French arrived first, making its roots Catholic and Latin. So, life’s bound
to be a little different in many ways in this, still-predominantly-Frenchspeaking
corner of the world.
Yet make no mistake. Both cities have their feet firmly planted in North
America. Distinct as they are, Montréal and Québec City feel familiar,
too: The road system looks similar, telephones work the same way, and
people here smile at strangers. You’ll feel a je ne sais quoi about both
cities, but people here won’t seem as foreign as the people you meet
when traveling to another part of the world. |
