2 Best Sights in Quebec City, Quebec

This park, named after Abraham Martin, who used the plains as a pasture for his cows, is the site of the famous battle on September 13, 1759, that decided New France's fate as part of the acrimonious Seven Years' War. On that date, British soldiers under the command of General Wolfe climbed the steep cliff under the cover of darkness, ultimately defeating the French through a single deadly volley of musket fire, causing the battle to be over within 30 minutes. At the Museum of the Plains of Abraham, check out the multimedia display, which depicts Canada's history, as well as the numerous family-friendly activities at Martello Towers.

Nowadays, locals come here to cross-country ski and admire the relentless St. Lawrence River even as it freezes over in winter; in July, the Summer Festival takes over with tens of thousands of concertgoers.

Behind iron gates, next to the Notre-Dame-de-Québec cathedral, lies a tranquil courtyard surrounded by austere stone buildings with rising steeples, structures that have housed classrooms and student residences since 1663. François de Montmorency Laval, the first bishop of New France, founded the Québec Seminary to train priests in the new colony. In 1852 the seminary gave birth to Université Laval, the first francophone university in North America.

Today priests still live on the premises, and Québec City's architecture school occupies part of the building. The small Second Empire–style Chapelle Extérieure, at the west entrance of the seminary, was built in 1888 after fire destroyed the 1750 original; its interior is patterned after that of the Église de la Trinité in Paris.