Little France

Quebec is a city and port at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, the administrative center of the province of Canada of the same name, the former capital of New France is a colony on the North American continent. Quebec is the only city in Canada in which ancient quarters are surrounded by stone walls. The ancient Lower City is surprisingly similar to the North French prototypes – the medieval cities of Loire. Here there are narrow, winding streets built up with stone houses of the 17th-18th centuries adjacent to each other.

Now the Lower City is a respectable and fashionable area of ​ ​ Quebec. Many 17th-century buildings survived in the Upper City, including Catholic cathedrals, Jesuit and Franciscan monasteries, a citadel and a parliament. Now on the narrow streets which are usually filled with tourists numerous shops, shops, restaurants and bars are located. The ensemble of Old Quebec is a rare example of a fortified North American city of the colonial period. Now inside the old walls of the Citadel there are several museums. Near the gate of St. John one of the four in the Fort, is the Artillery Park, which includes a redoubt and some buildings erected in the interim of the French regime. Of the architectural monuments of the city, the most famous are the Church of Notre Dame de Victoire, the Anglican Cathedral and, of course, the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Quebec. The parliament building, the National Assembly building, erected in the French Renaissance style, and the huge Chateau-Frontenac Hotel, built in the shape of a giant castle, attract attention.

The city also houses the oldest lift in North America connecting the Upper and Lower City, and the oldest square in North America – Royal, on which several museums are located. The old quarters of Quebec in 1985 were recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage monument. Outside the city, it is worth visiting the Chute-Montmorency park with its huge (above Niagara) waterfall and the Chutes de la Chaudiere park with its equally remarkable waterfall 120 meters high.

Little Paris

Montreal is Canada’s second largest city. It is the economic, cultural, scientific and transport center of the province and Canada. Montreal is the second largest French-speaking city after Paris and is often called the “Paris of North America.” Despite the boiling energy and key-beating life, Montreal, one of Canada’s oldest cities, has preserved many historical monuments and buildings of ancient architecture. The historical center of Montreal is a web of narrow, cobbled humpback streets with countless souvenir shops with dark walls from time to time, completely hung paintings and pictures showing these very streets, monuments, churches. If Montreal’s business center looks like a typical American city with its multi-storey skyscrapers, then the older part of the city clearly traces the European style.

In total, there are more than 300 churches in Montreal, a huge number of chapels and prayers, the names of saints are assigned to city streets and squares, bridges, schools and hospitals. And therefore, Canadians themselves often call Montreal the city of all saints. Even the top of Mont Royal Hill is crowned by a 33-meter illuminated cross symbolizing the Catholic faith. In Montreal, about 30 different museums are opened – from the “traditional” ones: such as the Museum of Canadian History, the Montreal Museum of Archeology and History, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Decorative Art or the Museum of Modern Art, to quite unusual ones – such as the Bank of Montreal Museum or the Puppet Museum.

It is worth visiting in Montreal and the Olympic Stadium – the venue of the 1976 Olympic Games. Near the stadium is the Biod of Montreal, in which the most diverse representatives of flora and fauna from many parts of the world are gathered under one roof. It recreates 4 active ecosystems with plants, animals and the landscape of the tropics, northern coniferous forest, coastal zone and the Arctic. There are 15 bridges in the city of Montreal, including the famous Jacques Cartier Bridge, transferred over the St. Lawrence River and named after one of the founders of the French colonies in North America. The bridge is almost 4.5 km long. Montreal is an unusually green city with more than 350 parks, the most famous of which is Mont Royal Park, created by American designer Frederick Olmsted, author of Central Park in New York.

Economic engine

Toronto is the capital of Ontario, Canada’s largest city, located at the intersection of waterways and land routes. Toronto is a city where a wide variety of cultures have mixed, more than half of the country’s population has immigrated and continues to immigrate here from other countries.

This is a multinational metropolis that speaks different languages. The symbols of Toronto are – the CN television tower is the tallest in the world, Downtown is the historical old part of the city located on the shores of Lake Ontario, the most beautiful Yang Street is the longest in the world. You can get acquainted with the history and culture of the city and country by visiting its museums – the Royal Ontario Museum, an ethnographic museum. Unique Museum of Military Glory, which is a fort-fortress built in 1793, Castle on a hill, built based on castles in the style of different eras by financier Sir Henry Pellat, Automobile Museum, Polytechnic Museum. Be sure to look into the city’s art galleries, such as Art Gallery of Toronto, Market Gallery, McLaugein Gallery, McMichael Canadian Collection (paintings and sculptures by Native American and Eskimo authors).

Toronto is home to Metro Toronto Zoo, the world’s largest zoo. It contains about 3,000 diverse animals. The zoo is a popular place for Russian immigrants to relax. Another favorite leisure destination is High Park (the second, after Central Park in New York, by area park in North America). Toronto ranks third (after London and New York) in the world in terms of the number of concerts, performances and other shows taking place in it. The most famous theater and concert halls are Massey Hall, The Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Hummingbird Center, Royal Alexandre Theater, Roy Thomson Hall.

At 1.6-2 hours from Toronto there is the famous Niagara Falls. Not far from the waterfall begins the main street of the city of Niagara Falls, where you can visit the Museum of World Rarities and the Museum of Wax Figures, with a department of medieval torture, visits to which not everyone can withstand. For children, there is their own Disneyland with the zoo (Marinland), where among people there are hand deer, an aquarium with dolphins, Dinosaur Park, etc.