34 Best Sights in Quebec, Canada

Although Square Victoria officially lies within the Quartier International, or International District, Montrealers consider it a part of Old Montréal. The square nicely blends its French and English heritage with an 1872 statue of Queen Victoria on one side and an authentic Parisian métro entrance and a flower market on the other. Both are framed by a two-block stretch of trees, benches, and fountains that makes the square a pleasant place to relax and admire the handsome 1920s office buildings on the east side. The Art Nouveau métro entrance, incidentally, was a gift from the French capital's transit commission.

This is possibly the prettiest Anglican (Episcopalian) church in Montréal. Step into its dim, candle-scented interior and you'll feel you've been transported to some prosperous market town in East Anglia, England. The double hammer-beam roof, the rich stained-glass windows, and the Lady Chapel on the east side of the main altar all add to the effect. It certainly seems a world away from Centre Bell, the modern temple to professional hockey that's across the street.

Founded in 1639, the Ursuline Chapel and its Couvent des Ursulines stand as North America's oldest institution of learning for women. Step inside to discover some of the finest wood carving in all of Québec, painstakingly gilded by the nuns themselves. Though the exterior was rebuilt in 1902, the interior reveals the original chapel, a masterpiece that took sculptor Pierre-Noël Levasseur a decade (1726-1736) to complete.

Throughout the month of August, an international competition of fireworks performances set to music lights up the skies between Old Québec and Lévis, launched from barges on the St. Lawrence River, near the ferry docks. Special shows are presented on the sites before the first rockets launch.