Ramparts of Quebec City

Quebec City, Upper Town. Quebec is the only city north of Mexico that still has its fortified walls, and walking them is the clearest way to see that this was a military stronghold first and a pretty old town second. The ramparts and gates, including the Saint-Jean, Saint-Louis and Kent gates, mark the line that French and then British engineers spent generations strengthening. The walls nearly disappeared. After the British garrison left in 1871 there was pressure to demolish them, and the new governor general, Lord Dufferin, backed a plan to keep them and build wider gates instead. Parks Canada's guided tours and its Artillery Park, with the French-built Dauphine Redoubt, run only in summer, so winter visitors see the walls alone.