Article content

It happens once or twice a year, almost every year. No one knows when it started or why: French travel writers suffer hallucinations when they visit Quebec — and no other place, it seems. As a well-travelled regular reader of tourism articles in several French publications, I can attest that Quebec seems to be a particular weakness.

First, some historical background. The relationship between Quebec and France goes back to 1534. There were good times, when New France was a beloved colony of the good king Henry IV, and bad times, when Louis XV stopped caring about a “few acres of snow,” Voltaire’s description of Quebec, and gave it away to perfidious Albion and its mad but not so mad king, George III, under the terms of the 1763 Treaty of Paris, which put an end to the Seven Years War.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Lise Ravary: Travel writers from France can't seem to get Quebec right Back to video

Of course, for the 30,000 French men and women who had travelled to Quebec, and the 10,000 or so of them who settled here, it was a personal catastrophe. Not only was the battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 sloppily fought and lost by Montcalm and his troops in 20 minutes, at treaty time, in 1763, the French chose to keep Martinique and Guadeloupe over New France. Easier money could be made trading sugar and rum instead of cod and furs.