I don't know where Alex went,
but I think he just went off and joined the army.
Orders in English, Alex?
Hey?
[Translation] Are they in English, Alex?
In French. In French? Yes
Squeeze the trigger. Cover your ears.
Fire
Wow
Excellent
Good morning, Vagabuddies. Welcome back.
Right now it is a beautiful morning in Jacques-Cartier Park
in Quebec, and we have an awesome day lined up.
We're going to be exploring the history, the culture of Quebec
and the whole region. But first things first,
we're going to be doing a little bit of old-school transportation,
the original way of getting around these parts, by canoe.
All right, so this is how it's going to work.
We're going to be dividing into two different canoes
so we can cover as much as possible.
I'm be rolling with Stephen, the Steve, and Mark is with Lorraine, and we are ready.
Are you ready? I'm ready. How many kilometers are we doing today? Seven kilometers right now.
Probability of flipping the canoe, above or below 50%?
I was going to say 50%
The Jacques-Cartier Park is actually surrounded by the
Laurentian Nature Reserves, which when added up is actually around the same size as Belgium,
which is pretty insane to fathom.
You get this beautiful u-shaped valley over
hundreds of thousands of years. During the last Ice Age,
this valley would have been filled with a giant glacier, and as that glacier
melted away, when the Ice Age was ending,
it chafed up against the rock and basically whittled it down to this really nice beautiful u-shaped valley.
We're surrounded by pine trees and
spruce trees and
it's just a really, really gorgeous place to be.
The river is named for Jacques Cartier who was a French explorer who charted these waters over 400 years ago.
French presence here in Quebec was originally about fur trading, and the French merchants that set up shop in Quebec City and Montreal
would meet with the First Nation's Tribes and trade furs.
This area here, this river,
became like a trading highway, a road of commerce where the First Nation Tribes
would bring the pelts down to the river and then on canoes,
they would transport them to the French merchants in Quebec City
and onwards to Europe where Canadian furs were fetching
enormous prices in the major cities of Europe.
We just pulled over on the side of the river here because there's a fairly large set of rapids, and
we're contemplating whether or not we're going to do a portage.
A portage is when you pick up your canoe and carry it around the rapids, but
portage is kind of a pain in the ass. So I think we're just going to cross our fingers, hope for the best, and
give running these rapids a shot. Let's go.
Bro
Tell me what happened.
What happened, Bro? We went in.
Everything was good.
Then we hit a rock, and
It kind of threw us off a little bit.
Then we hit another rock, and then we said, "Oh shit!"
Here we go, and we went in the water. And next thing we were just floating down the river.
You might recognize this plaza the Place Royale from one of Leo Di Caprio' s best films ever.
Titanic? No, not not Titanic.
Revenant?
No, but he was a fur trapper. French fur trapper in that one. You're getting closer.
This Plaza was the final scene in Catch Me If You Can when Tom Hanks
eventually pins down Leo in France.
They basically used, as you can see, this church, Notre Dame des Victoires,
which was
the church covered in snow in the final scene of Catch Me If You Can.
If you like that film, if you like Leo films,
drop a little comment.
Let us know which one's your favorite.
Now we're walking to the Petit Champlain.
This is what used to be right on the waterfront,
and it's a super historic area.
Despite the rough beginnings of the colony,
It actually started to flourish through the fur trade.
It became very wealthy and very strategic.
And this area was right on the waterfront where the ships were loaded up to take the first to Europe.
Actually we're here during a tall ship's convention
so there's tons of historic ships. You kind of get the feeling of what it was like during those times.
All that changed in the 1700s when the British challenged the French for control of North America.
To learn more about that history,
we're going to take the funicular up to the Walled City.
We're staying in front of the Hotel Chateau Frontenac on the
fortifications, and as you may or may not know Quebec City is the only fortified city in America's north of Mexico City.
So to get a better lay of the land, we're going to be going inside the fortifications,
places where the public are not
usually allowed, and we're going to be taking all of you with us. So stay tuned. We're going into the fortress.
In 1759 we have the Seven Years War, which is basically Britain and France
fighting each other all around the world for domination. The battle reached here in 1759
when the entire city was put under siege by the British.
There were thirteen thousand cannonballs launched at this fortress.
80% of the city was destroyed, and the decisive battle was fought just outside here on the Plains of Abraham.
The British won.
Quebec switched into British hands and became part of the colony of Canada.
Our exploration of Quebec's history and culture has taken us here to the Hotel Musee de Premier Nation,
the Hotel Museum of First Nations.
This place started off as a museum and then evolved into a hotel and a restaurant that bases all recipes off indigenous ingredients and traditions.
We're going to be staying the night in a traditional longhouse.
But first things first, we're going to meet up with Yolande who is the curator of the Museum,
a storyteller, and an expert in Wendake culture.
We were a group of survivors of around three to five hundred people. We came in the area because we had been
killed by the illness that came from overseas
because people that came from overseas had virus on them that for which we were not immune and
more than sixty six person talking about more than twenty thousand people of my nation died.
I began to understand that
the language is very very important because this is how
my ancestor
understand the world around them.
The mythology also is really important because the mythology are
bringing all the basic values: love, respect, sharing.
Every basic values that are necessary to survive in our world now.
It's important to go back to learn about it and offer it to the next generation.
Wow!
This is like every boy's childhood
dream of like an epic treehouse.
Except this is real. It's just incredible.
Look at the level of technology using all-natural materials.
This longhouse can sleep up to 24 people.
The beds are built in a very similar way that they would have been.
The logs are lashed together. It created multiple stories.
It's wild. I've never seen anything like this.
I have to say I have been very much impressed by this place.
There's a hotel inside with normal rooms, and we saw one of those.
They're really nice.
It would be a nice hotel on a normal basis, but the fact that it has a cultural mission of advancing
the culture and helping explain it and interpret it for foreigners, it makes it just that much more unbelievable.
Bonjour.
Ca va?
Good morning. That was quite the experience sleeping in long house
with the fire going all night after hearing some stories.
I think that we have had a complete Quebecois experience between the Old Town and here.
So hopefully you guys enjoyed this video, and it showed you that although this year Canada turns 150 years old,
there's a lot more history and culture here to discover.
So if you guys and girls enjoyed this video,
you know what to do: give it a big thumbs- up,
share it with your friends, and
subscribe and turn on notifications if you have not already.
And stay tuned because our
exploration of Quebec City and the surroundings is not done today.
We're doing a whole other adventure.
That video is coming soon.
Okay guys, in the meantime stay curious,
keep exploring, and we'll see you guys on the road.
Bon Voyage. Peace.