I'm Jen with The Travel Women and welcome to Quebec City Kelly and I are New
Yorkers and we are here exploring with our local tour guide: "Bonjour Internet
My name is Marie-Pierre and I'm a tour guide here in
beautiful Quebec City that you see all around you
so it's been four years now that I'm a tour guide here I was born and raised
here in this beautiful city so I'm very happy that you get to see it. Thank you so much for walking with us, we are going to walk around this
beautiful hotel. Tell me more about what makes this special?
Perfect perfect so just here we have the famous Château Frontenac, the Frontenac
hotel so it was built in 1893 as a hotel, so to accommodate passengers that
were travelling with cruise ships (and by train) so very very luxurious cruise ships that
were coming in here to explore Canada but didn't want to stay 15 nights inside
the Train they wanted to explore each city as they were they were crossing like
most visitors do so in Canada we have this line of very prestigious hotels
from from across the coast so that's how Quebec City got the Chateau Frontenac
about 125 years ago. Montreal got the Queen Elizabeth. Ottawa
the Chateau Laurier and so on to the west. Right now it (Chateau Frontenac) has 611 rooms
it's a five-star hotel so even Justin Trudeau (Canada's Prime Minister) has a suite inside
did you know? -I did not know that- Celine Dion has her very own suite
so around us right now beyond these our Terrasse Dufferin a beautiful
boardwalk where visitors and locals get to meet, get to talk, get to walk on this
sunny day like today and a stunning view of the river the Saint
Lawrence river we have just on the other side over there -gorgeous- and today we
have two cruise ships coming in so we have cruise ships during spring right
now summer and by the end of fall they're all gone home to the Caribbean but right here they are in Quebec City
- What makes Quebec so French in French Canada, tell us more about the French angle?- Perfect, that's a
great question my city here has four hundred years and
it was established by a French explorer named Samuel de Champlain in 1608 so
Champlain came here to create a fur trade post it was the main economy at
the time so the place here was called "New France"
you got "New England" in the US we have "New France" here so that's the French
started and here has for the first fur traders in a few minutes we're
going to see Samuel de Champlain just in front of us with the statue in front of us. (laughing) We've been under a
French regime for about 150 years then the British came and we
became a British colony for about a hundred years or so then 1867 is the
confederation and when we decided to be a more independent country, last year we celebrated the 150
anniversary of Canada so and we had to fight very very hard French speakers because to
keep our French alive ourFrench culture alive but that doesn't make us
really French I mean I don't I speak French but I don't share the French
culture so many French around here, yes
there is a little bit of French culture but English, British well British,
Scottish, Irish and native culture. -So you learn French in school? Do you learn
it first before English? Actually most of us in here in Quebec City for like 95%
of the population here French is the language we use every day like yeah that
we have at home just like you guys your mother spoke to you in English so far as
it's in French and school is in school it's the law to have school in French
then you have English courses like as a second language
yes. -Great way to learn a language to have it all ingrained yeah
exactly exactly so but I feel that the most people that can really have a
good conversation they put the extra effort to it so they traveled
they've had more conversations and they they watch a lot of Netflix well
-This has been so great if you had just tell people one thing about Quebec City
that makes it so special and so different what would it be? I just have
to say one thing? -or multiple things- I would say the unique quebecois culture is it represents people that live
here and the province of Quebec and everything that makes this special to be
in such a European looking neighborhood around here and also have this strong
identity which is different from our friends from the other provinces in
Canada and the US so it's hard to really say in a few seconds in a few minutes
how we the quebecois are different but you have to come and see us to see for yourself. -Great answer, it is so true it feels like you're in a
mini Europe a mini Paris. - It feels like you are in France - I love it. I love it! So you
can travel to Europe but it's so much closer here and thank you so much really
appreciate it. -It was a pleasure - Take tours with this girl, she is so great, link
below thank you so much and au revoir. Au revoir! Merci!