3 Best Sights in Quebec, Canada

If you find yourself humming "Getting to Know You" as you explore Mont-Royal Cemetery's 165 acres, blame it on the graveyard's most famous permanent guest, Anna Leonowens (1834–1915). She was the real-life model for the heroine of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. The cemetery—established in 1852 by the Anglican, Presbyterian, Unitarian, and Baptist churches—is laid out like a terraced garden, with footpaths that meander between crab-apple trees and past Japanese lilacs. Birders and nature photographers love to come to this cemetery for the 150 or so species of birds found here, including chestnut-sided warblers, ruby-throated hummingbirds, bluebirds, cedar waxwings, nuthatches, yellow warblers, woodpeckers, goldfinches, and more. And keep an eye out for the resident groundhogs and raccoons!

At 343 acres, Canada's largest cemetery is not much smaller than the neighboring Parc du Mont-Royal, and, as long as you just count the living, it's usually a lot less crowded. You don't have to be morbid to wander the graveyard's 55 km (34 miles) of tree-shaded paths and roadways past the tombs of hundreds of prominent artists, poets, intellectuals, politicians, and clerics. Among them is Calixa Lavallée (1842–91), who wrote "O Canada," the country's national anthem.  The cemetery offers some guided tours in summer. Phone ahead for details.

The burial place of many of the earliest English settlers in Canada was established in 1771 and is the oldest cemetery remaining in Québec City. Also buried here is Robert Wood, the disavowed half brother of Queen Victoria. Closed in 1860, the cemetery has been turned into a park. Next door is St. Matthew's Anglican Church, now a recently renovated public library. It has a book listing most of the original tombstone inscriptions, including those on tombstones removed to make way for the city's modern convention center.