The evening of my arrival at the carpark of Yorkdale Shopping Centre I have the visit of the security service which wished me a good stay, I informed it that I remained three nights and that consequently I left Monday 12/09 in the morning. This day there early the security service informed me that the gate of the carpark was closed for cleaning but that it would open it for my departure. The security service was very attentive with me, example to be followed! On the move to Ottawa I made a detour to see the tiny village of Merrickville located on the Rideau Canal which connects Kingston to Ottawa with 47 locks on a way of 200km. This work of civil engineering is listed with the World Heritage.

Ottawa is the capital of Canada with approximately 900,000 inhabitants. Queen Victoria chooses herself this localization, compromised between Montreal and Toronto. The aspect of the city was created by the French architect Jacques Greber after the WWII, I dream, a Frenchman. The city counts many museums worthy of a capital, I visited only two of them.

Tuesday morning I was in the expectancy of the weather of the day. The sky was dark but a strong wind drove out the clouds. I decided to travel by my bicycle. As each time the way to approach the downtown from a suburbs is problematic. Here there are cycle tracks but how to choose, on the way I informed myself near the cyclists met, I arrived without difficulties. The downtown is equipped with buildings of resolutely Victorian style resembling to City of London.

My first visit was at the National Gallery of Canada in a modern concrete & glass building, the showrooms are vast, the plan is readable.  Collections are remarkable, curators have large financial means undoubtedly to acquire works of Canadians, first nations and international. Of course No Photo, but I am unrepentant.

National Gallery of Canada 
Ottawa 
13/09/2011 

Time passed very quickly at the beginning of afternoon I were in Canadian Museum of Civilization. A complete level is devoted to the First Nations, then another to Canada and an exhibit of Japan works. The last level is the final bouquet; it recalls 1000 years of Canadian history through a series of reconstituted sites in natural size, highly advisable. When I left the building, a violent storm stated and I returned soaked like a soup. It would be necessary to spend several days in Ottawa.

Canadian Museum of Civilization 
Ottawa 
13/09/2011 

Before leaving Ottawa I had selected Walmart in Montreal using my GPS of the cities where I thought to spend three nights. On the way at the border of Quebec I stopped at a Visitor Centre for the harvest of booklets, the French-speaking hostess provides me all desired information and much more, I was in country of knowledge. She advised me a campground in the west of Montreal but I did not listen to her and I went to Walmart. While arriving which was not my disappointment some signs announced that the carpark was prohibited to motor homes with a fine of CA$50 plus the fee of towing… I left immediately westwards to the campground indicated by the hostess. I was accommodated by the owner, a jolly fellow, with whom I got along extremely well. The campground is shaded with permanent vehicles. I choose my site but the WiFi access was poor. After Québécois French palaver I successful to locate the antenna but I did not have the access code, of new palaver by telephone to obtain it. The last purple passage was a discussion to know how to go to Montreal by public transport, by bus then train. The following day was a great experiment.

Jacques Cartier went up the Saint Laurent river in 1534 up to Hochelaga which became Ville-Marie in 1642 during the forwarding of Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve then was renamed Montreal. It remained French until the Treaty of Paris into 1763 which yielded Canada to the United Kingdom. The small museum of the Château de Ramezay tells its history. Today it counts nearly 4 million inhabitants. It is the only city of really bilingual in Canada knowing that the streets of the downtown and the old port bear resolutely French names, all saints of Christendom are present.

The first day of visit was rainy most of the day with a temperature of around 16°C. It was not pleasant to visit the city under such conditions squelching in water the LP guidebook under the left arm, the umbrella in the left hand and the camera in the right hand. The campground is at about 100 meters of a bus stop which goes to the Vaudreuil station to reach Montreal by train at the Lucien L'Allier station, the way lasts around an hour and a half. My first visit was the Museum of the Art which has  various paints of European schools, alas the rooms were closed under reorganization. Despite everything it exposed a private collection given to the museum of items having belonged to Napoleon 1st and to the First Empire. I immersed myself with pleasure during this glorious time of the French History.

A Panel of Experts by Jean-Michel Basquiat 
Montréal 
15/09/2011 

Then I devoted the afternoon to walk in downtown and the old port by following the walking tour proposed by Lonely Planet. In the city I noted some strange curiosities.

The Place d'Armes under the command of a statue of Chomedey de Maisonneuve exhibits iconic monuments of the city. The Basilica Notre-Dame was built in 1829  on the plan of an American architect of Irish origin and Protestant. The interior was arranged while taking as a starting point the the Sainte Chapelle of Paris. At side the seminar is the oldest building in Montreal, it was under restoration. Two buildings of great  height flank the place of which the first in Canada built in red sandstone and that Art Deco. Finally the sumptuous headquarter of the Bank of Montreal was built circa 1817.

The Promenade des Artists offers an exceptional panorama on the district Point-à-Callière with the museum of Archeology and on the old port with the Clock Tower. I strolled in the Marché de Bonsecours transformed into shopping malls. The Chapelle de Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours is devoted to seamen who prayed for a safe passage.

Pointe-à-Callière 
Montréal 
15/09/2011 

Not far the splendid Town hall inspired by that of the town of Tours with its famous balcony from where French President Charles of Gaulle announced: “Long Live free Quebec”. Charming Château de Rameza exhibits a de Dion-Button which was the first car imported in Canada. My visit finished in timid sunbeams at the Place Jacques Cartier where the British set up a Nelson column.

Hôtel de Ville 
Montréal 
15/09/2011 

The day was without rain with a covered sky and a timid sun. A strong wind got a cold temperature. The day began in the east the city in the old Olympic space where the velodrome was transformed into a Biodôme, re-creation of four ecosystems with trees and animals in semi-freedoms. A way curves in this environment where animals play hide-and-seek for the pleasure of visitors. On the way the meeting of birds on the way is completely extraordinary. At the basement a room in rotunda recalls the evolution of animal species on a scale of time in geon.

Biodôme & Tour Olympique 
Montréal 
16/09/2011 

The Stade Olympic is capped with a roof supported by cables attached to a Tower which asserts the title of the highest tower in the world. A funicular climbing it to an observatory for a bird's eye view of the city, weather and color windows does not allow good pictures.

Funicular 
Montréal 
16/09/2011 

A little further away the Botanical Garden exhibits in a building, Insectarium, all species of insects in the world. The setting in scene is very didactic and readable, I learned much. Alas assigned time did not enable me to stroll in the large Botanical Garden.

Insectarium 
Montréal 
16/09/2011 

At the end of the morning I took again it fast tired subway to go to Chinatown where I lunched. On the way I visited the Place des Arts and Place Sun-Yat-Sen.

The afternoon was occupied by visiting the excellent Musée de Pointe-à-Callière which proposed a history of the wine from its discovery to the Gaul. Items presented came from the European museums and more particularly from France. Its origin dates back to the empires of Mesopotamia. The basement of the building presents in the ruins of the foundations of the previous buildings a history of the city since the arrival of the French, highly recommendable. Finally the belvedere offers a panorama of the port from outside without pane. After two days of overview of Montreal I left it with my heavy heart of the tragic end of Nouvelle-France which extended from Canada to Louisiana.

Musée Pointe-à-Callière 
Montréal 
16/09/2011 

On the way to Quebec City I made a detour to see the first factory in Canada, the Forges du Saint Mauricie, created in 1730 by François Poulin de Francheville. They were operational until 1883. The excavations updated the walls of dwelling houses and the Big House was rebuilt. Blast furnace it remains nothing one the other hand the chimney of the lower forge remains in its original state. The guided tour gives explanations on the operation of the blast furnace. Informative signs of the Big House as well as of the blast furnace are remarkable. A 20-minute video puts in prospect this realization and its environment, enthralling. The day was agreeably sunny.

Les Vieilles Forges 
Les Trois Rivières 
17/09/2011 

La Grande Maison 
Les Trois Rivières 
17/09/2011 

The site of Quebec was the place of mooring of the Jacques Cartier's vessels at the time of his second voyage in 1535. This area was for a long time a Huron habitat. Samuel de Champlain founded the city in 1608 and named it Kebec. After various incursions the British entered the city in 1759 after a hard battle where Generals Wolfe and Montcalm found death. In 1763 the treaty of Paris gave the New France to England.

The historical city listed with UNESCO is located between the fortifications and the old port where the stone buildings built after some grinds fires offer to the tourists an idyllic vision of the life in the 18th century whereas in this time there the middle-class men walked in streets where water and dejections in any kind accumulated.

Samuel de Champlain 
Québec 
18/09/2011 

The icon of the city is Le Château de Frontenac  -1893 - on the hill dominating the Saint Laurent.

The current building of la Basilique Notre-Dame-de-Quebec dates back to 1759 afterwards of important destruction at the time of the seat of the city by the British. The Baldachin dates back to 1787, it is on caryatids.

I visited only one museum, the Musée des Français d'Amérique, located into the historic site of the Seminar of Quebec, is the first creates in North America. It recalls the colonization of this part of the world with the arrival of the ecclesiastics, the foundation of the seminar and the hospital of Augustine. Consulting the files on line I still found cousins established in Quebec in this time.

The Church Notre-Dame-des-Victories -1688- is the oldest built out of stone, damaged in 1759 it was restored and in its nave an ex-voto of the copy of Brézé, vessel which transported French soldiers in 1664.

A bird's eye view from the Observatory of the city makes it possible to appreciate the strategic position of the Citadel and westwards the battle fields of 1759. The Citadel was preserved and increased by the British, fearing an invasion of the Americans who did not come like the Fort Bastiani of the “Tatar Desert” by Buzzati. It was a sunny day after dissipation of the morning fogs, many were the tourists to stroll in the streets of the Upper Town.