Place Royale, Quebec City

Quebec City, Lower Town. This small square is where Samuel de Champlain established his settlement in 1608, so it is the natural first stop for the story of New France. It took its name from the bust of Louis XIV erected in 1686, a reminder that the colony answered to Versailles. Look at the church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, begun in 1687 on the site of Champlain's habitation. Its name celebrates two escapes from English attack, in 1690 and 1711. What you see is partly a reconstruction: British bombardment wrecked the square in 1759, and a restoration from 1970 stripped away later additions to bring back its French colonial look. Knowing that makes it a lesson in how Quebec chose to remember its origins.