Un site de choix pour fonder Québec / An Ideal Site to Found Québec

On July 3, 1608, Samuel de Champlain, lieutenant to Pierre du Gua de Mons, established a trading post where Place Royale stands today, choosing what he later called the most practical and best-situated point at Québec. The site's practicality came from a topography shaped by three major geological formations: to the north, the hard granite Laurentians of the Canadian Shield; between them and the Québec headland, the lowlands of crumbly sedimentary rock forming the Saint Lawrence Shelf; and Isle Orléans, the south shore, and Cap Diamant as part of the Appalachian chain. Champlain chose the site not for its geology but for strategic reasons, and in 1620 he built Fort Saint-Louis on the commanding cape to improve defense against possible enemy attack. The fort later sheltered the chateau of the same name, which served as the governors' residence for more than 200 years.

Quebec · Canada