One of my favourite streets in old Quebec is rue Couillard. It is narrow, mostly residential, and less than 0.2 km long. The street lies on a wavy tangent off the main tourist strip. There are surprises around every bend: New France cottages built in the 1600s, Victorian-era monasteries, and early 20th-century apartment buildings. Let’s go for a walk.
In recent years, Saint Roch has seen more changes than any other neighbourhood in Quebec City. Once a bleak slum/parking lot, it is now home to the second-largest Hugo Boss store in North America (after New York). Needless to say, this has led to some friction between new and old residents.
Fifteen years ago, most of this was a parking lot.
I was planning to make it to Montreal last weekend but my financial situation could only take me as far as Lévis, a short ride across the river. I fancied myself in faraway Hong Kong as I boarded our gros-village equivalent to the Star ferry only to face the brutal reminder that Lévis is nothing like Kowloon. Most of its 100,000 people live in sprawling suburbs. Still, there’s a nice central area that feels like a proper urban neighbourhood.
Rue Bégin, Lévis’ main street
All too often, layers of history are lost or obliterated when buildings are enlarged. These two vernacular apartment buildings in Quebec City’s Faubourg Saint-Sauveur are rare exceptions. You can clearly make out the extra storey added in the early 20th-century to these 19th-century mansardes. What’s your verdict: respectful evolution or architectural monstrosity?
I would have second thoughts about living in Quebec City if it wasn’t for my neighbourhood: Faubourg Saint-Jean-Baptiste.
Located directly outside the old city walls is this very dense area of rickety working-class homes. Most were built between the 1840s and the early 20th century. Saint-Jean-Baptiste has a grit lacking in other parts of the upper city. Power lines are tangled up like clotheslines across the streets, most of which are too narrow for trees. The neighbourhood is laid out in a grid patterrn on a steep hill, and has consequently been used on many occasions as a cheaper alternative to filming in San Francisco.
