Top 15 Most Interesting Facts About Quebec

1. Province Motto: Je me souviens, French for "I remember." It was carved above the entrance to the Parliament Building in Quebec City in the 1880s and appeared on provincial license plates from 1978. It is a reminder of the province's history and heritage.
2. Province Bird: The Snowy Owl, adopted in 1987. This large white owl of the Arctic tundra spends winters in the open fields and shorelines of southern Quebec, and it is a favorite sight for birdwatchers.
3. Province Mammal: Quebec has no official provincial mammal. It has, however, designated the Canadian horse as a Quebec heritage breed. This sturdy horse descends from animals sent from France to New France in the 1660s and is sometimes called "the little iron horse."
4. Province Flag: The Fleurdelisé, first raised over the National Assembly on January 21, 1948. It shows a white cross on a blue field with four white fleurs-de-lis, one in each quarter, recalling the French royal banner and Quebec's French heritage.
5. Total Area: About 1,542,056 square kilometers (595,391 square miles), making it the largest province in Canada, with about 15 percent of the country's total area. It is more than twice the size of France.
6. Capital and Confederation: The capital is Quebec City. Quebec was one of the four original provinces that formed Canada on July 1, 1867. With more than 8.5 million people, it is home to about 22 percent of Canadians, and Montreal is its largest city.
7. A French-Speaking Province: Quebec is the only province where French is the sole official language, and about three quarters of residents have French as their mother tongue. The Charter of the French Language, passed in 1977, protects its use in public life, and Montreal is one of the largest French-speaking cities in the world.
8. A Walled City: Quebec City's old town is the only fortified city with its walls still standing north of Mexico. The Historic District of Old Quebec became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, and the Château Frontenac hotel on its cliff is among the most photographed hotels in the world.
9. Maple Syrup Capital: Quebec produces about 70 percent of the world's maple syrup. In spring, "sugar shacks" (cabanes à sucre) across the province serve pancakes, baked beans and maple taffy poured on snow.
10. The St. Lawrence: One of the great rivers of North America flows through Quebec, widening into an enormous estuary and gulf. Whales, including belugas and blue whales, feed where the Saguenay Fjord meets the St. Lawrence at Tadoussac, and the Saguenay is one of the southernmost fjords in the world.
11. Hydroelectric Power: Nearly all of Quebec's electricity comes from hydropower, and Hydro-Québec is one of the largest hydroelectric producers in the world. The giant James Bay Project in the north was one of the biggest construction projects in Canadian history.
12. Home of Cirque du Soleil: The world-famous circus company began in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 with a troupe of street performers, and it is now headquartered in Montreal. Montreal also hosted Expo 67 and the 1976 Summer Olympics.
13. Winter and Food Traditions: Quebec City's Winter Carnival is one of the largest winter festivals in the world, and the Hôtel de Glace near Quebec City is rebuilt from ice and snow every winter. Poutine, French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy, was born in rural Quebec in the 1950s.
14. Percé Rock and the Gaspé Coast: A huge limestone arch rises from the sea off the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula. Nearby Bonaventure Island is home to one of the largest northern gannet colonies in the world, with well over 100,000 birds nesting on its cliffs in summer.
15. Three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: The Historic District of Old Quebec (1985), Miguasha National Park (1999), famous for its fossil fish, and Anticosti Island (2023), a rich fossil site that records a mass extinction about 445 million years ago.

Geography of Quebec

Quebec stretches from the farmland along the U.S. border all the way to Arctic tundra in the far north, covering a vast area of forest, lakes and rivers. It borders Ontario to the west, Hudson Bay, James Bay and Hudson Strait to the north and northwest, Newfoundland and Labrador to the east, New Brunswick to the south, and the United States (New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine) to the south. About 90 percent of its land lies on the ancient rock of the Canadian Shield, and most people live in the fertile St. Lawrence Lowlands, which run along the river between Montreal and Quebec City. The Appalachian Mountains cover the south and the Gaspé Peninsula, and hundreds of thousands of lakes and thousands of rivers shape the landscape.

• Highest Point: Mont D'Iberville (Mount Caubvick), at 1,652 meters (5,420 feet), in the Torngat Mountains on the border with Labrador. The highest point in southern Quebec is Mont Jacques-Cartier, at 1,268 meters (4,160 feet), in the Chic-Chocs of Gaspésie National Park.
• Lowest Point: Sea level along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Hudson Bay, James Bay and Ungava Bay.
• Mountain Ranges: The Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal, the Appalachians (including the Notre Dame Mountains and the Chic-Chocs), the Torngat Mountains in the far north, the Otish Mountains in the interior, and the Monteregian Hills, a line of isolated hills near Montreal that includes Mont Royal and Mont Saint-Hilaire.
• Major Regions:
  • Montreal and Laval: The island city of Montreal and its neighbor Laval, home to nearly half of Quebec's people, with a lively mix of culture, food and history.
  • Quebec City and Charlevoix: The provincial capital and the cliffs, farms and artist villages of the Charlevoix coast, with Île d'Orléans just downriver.
  • Eastern Townships (Cantons-de-l'Est): Rolling hills, lakes, vineyards and ski areas near the Vermont border, settled by Loyalists and later by French Canadians.
  • Laurentians and Lanaudière: Mountain resorts, lakes and ski hills north of Montreal, including Mont-Tremblant and Saint-Sauveur.
  • Outaouais: The Ottawa River region across from Canada's capital, with Gatineau Park and a mix of urban and wilderness areas.
  • Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec: The St. Maurice River valley and La Mauricie National Park, with forests, lakes and the historic city of Trois-Rivières.
  • Bas-Saint-Laurent and Chaudière-Appalaches: The long south shore of the St. Lawrence, with farms, ferries and charming villages.
  • Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Côte-Nord: The Saguenay Fjord, Lac Saint-Jean and the wild north shore of the St. Lawrence, a prime area for whale watching.
  • Gaspésie and the Magdalen Islands: A rugged peninsula of sea cliffs, lighthouses and fishing villages, plus a chain of sandy islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
  • Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the North: The mining and farming lands of northwestern Quebec, and beyond them Nord-du-Québec, which includes the Cree territory of Eeyou Istchee James Bay and Nunavik, the Inuit homeland of Quebec's Arctic.

A Brief History of Quebec

Indigenous peoples have lived in this land for more than 10,000 years, including the Algonquin, Innu, Cree, Mohawk (Kanien'kehá:ka), Huron-Wendat, Atikamekw, Abenaki, Mi'kmaq, Naskapi and Inuit. French explorer Jacques Cartier claimed the land for France at Gaspé in 1534 and wintered near what is now Quebec City the following year. Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City in 1608, and Ville-Marie, now Montreal, followed in 1642. New France grew slowly around the fur trade and the farms of the seigneurial system. In 1759 British forces won the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, and in 1763 France gave up the colony. The Quebec Act of 1774 protected the French language, civil law and Catholic faith, and the Constitutional Act of 1791 created Lower Canada, which was the scene of rebellions in 1837 and 1838. Quebec joined Confederation in 1867 as one of the four original provinces. In the 1960s, the Quiet Revolution modernized the province's government, economy and schools, and a growing movement for sovereignty led to referendums in 1980 and 1995, both of which were narrowly defeated. Today Quebec is a leader in aerospace, hydroelectricity, technology, film, design and the arts. Places to explore this story:

• Visit Old Quebec and Place-Royale, the site of Champlain's 1608 settlement, to walk streets that are among the oldest in North America.
• Visit the Plains of Abraham in the National Battlefields Park, where the 1759 battle that changed the course of Canadian history took place.
• Visit the Citadelle of Quebec, a star-shaped fortress still used by the Royal 22e Régiment, and watch the Changing of the Guard in summer.
• Visit Pointe-à-Callière in Old Montreal, the city's archaeology and history museum, built over the site of the founding of Ville-Marie.
• Visit Fort Chambly National Historic Site, a stone fort on the Richelieu River that shows New France's military frontier.
• Visit Wendake, the Huron-Wendat community near Quebec City, to learn about First Nations culture at the Onhoüa Chetek8e traditional site.
• Visit the Musée de la civilisation in Quebec City and the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal for the full sweep of the province's story.
• Visit Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site, the quarantine station in the St. Lawrence where thousands of Irish immigrants arrived in the 1840s.

Top 10 Things to Do in Quebec

1. Visit Old Quebec on foot, walking the streets of the Petit Champlain district, riding the funicular and strolling Dufferin Terrace beneath the Château Frontenac.
2. Visit Old Montreal and the Notre-Dame Basilica, then climb Mont Royal for a view of the city and a stroll through the park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
3. Visit a sugar shack in early spring for a traditional maple meal and fresh maple taffy on snow.
4. Visit Tadoussac for whale watching, with the chance to see belugas, minke whales, finback whales and even blue whales in the St. Lawrence and Saguenay waters.
5. Visit Mont-Tremblant, a lively resort with skiing in winter and hiking, biking and lake activities in summer, and a colorful pedestrian village at its base.
6. Visit Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island on the Gaspé coast and take a boat tour to see the huge gannet colony up close.
7. Visit Montmorency Falls just outside Quebec City, a waterfall that is taller than Niagara Falls and can be crossed by a suspension bridge or cable car.
8. Visit during a major festival, such as the Quebec Winter Carnival in February, the Montreal International Jazz Festival in late June and early July, or the Festival d'été de Québec in July.
9. Visit the Eastern Townships Wine Route and the villages of Sutton and Magog for vineyards, cideries, cheese makers and lakeside walks.
10. Visit the Charlevoix coast, driving the Route du Fleuve through Baie-Saint-Paul, La Malbaie and Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive for river views, galleries and farm-to-table dining.

Top 10 Destinations in Quebec

1. Visit Quebec City, a UNESCO World Heritage city with cobblestone streets, stone walls, the Château Frontenac and a lively dining scene.
2. Visit Montreal, a creative and cosmopolitan island city known for its restaurants, festivals, bagels, smoked meat, street art and historic old port.
3. Visit Mont-Tremblant, the Laurentians' flagship resort, with a national park of the same name nearby.
4. Visit Charlevoix, a UNESCO biosphere reserve of steep hills and river views, known for its artists, food and the town of Baie-Saint-Paul.
5. Visit Tadoussac and the Saguenay Fjord, the best place in the province to see whales and the meeting of the river and the fjord.
6. Visit the Gaspé Peninsula, including Percé, Forillon National Park and the lighthouse villages of the coast.
7. Visit the Magdalen Islands, a chain of sandy islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with red cliffs, dunes, kitesurfing, seafood and cozy colorful houses.
8. Visit Île d'Orléans, a rural island just downriver from Quebec City, with farm stands, orchards, wineries and 17th-century villages.
9. Visit the Eastern Townships, a region of lakes, hills and vineyards with a mix of French and English heritage, centered on Magog, Sherbrooke and Sutton.
10. Visit Gatineau Park and the Outaouais region, a large park of lakes, forests and trails just across the river from Ottawa.

Plan Your Visit

For more information about Quebec, visit the province's official tourism site: Travel Quebec