Museum sights in Québec
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Musée Marc-Aurèle Fortin
This museum has but a few viewing rooms dedicated to a sole Québec painter, Marc-Aurèle Fortin (1888-1970), whose depictions of lush trees and greenery transformed the art of landscapes. A self-taught genius, Fortin produced thousands of works. He painted until his death, even after he lost his legs, and later his eyesight to diabetes. Fortin's bold, colourful paintings are a sharp contrast to his tragic end.
reviewed
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B
Centre d'Histoire de Montréal
Housed in a handsome old fire hall on Pl d’Youville, the Montréal History Center has 300-plus artifacts that illustrate the city’s eventful past with the aid of models and videos. You can listen to the tales of real people while sitting in a period kitchen, or travel back in time while watching archival footage from the ‘40s and ‘60s. For sweeping views, head to the rooftop.
reviewed
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C
Centre des Sciences de Montréal
This sleek, glass-covered science center houses virtual and interactive games, technology exhibits and an ‘immersion theater’ that puts a video game on giant screens. There’s a huge range of different admission prices depending on which combinations of films and/or exhibits you want to take in. The center includes an IMAX cinema showing vivid nature and science films.
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D
Musée Stewart
Inside a former British garrison (where troops were stationed in the 19th century), this museum displays relics from Canada’s past as well as a multimedia model of Old Montréal. Demonstrations are given outside by actors in period costume, and there’s a military parade every day in summer. It’s a 15-minute walk from metro Jean-Drapeau station.
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E
Ursuline Museum
In Trois-Rivières, Rue des Ursulines is worth exploring, with its picturesque homes (some of which are now B&Bs) and its unseen history, which you can learn about in the Ursuline Museum. Founded by Ursuline nuns in 1639, the museum has a fine collection of textiles, ceramics, books and prints related to Catholicism. Frescoes adorn the chapel.
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F
Ursuline Museum
Rue des Ursulines is worth exploring, with its picturesque homes (some of which are now B&Bs) and its unseen history, which you can learn about in the Ursuline Museum. Founded by Ursuline nuns in 1639, the museum has a fine collection of textiles, ceramics, books and prints related to Catholicism. Frescoes adorn the chapel.
reviewed
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Centre Interpretation Société de L’histoire de Sherbrooke
In Sherbrooke, the little-known Centre Interpretation Société de l’Histoire de Sherbrooke has a small, permanent exhibition on the town’s history as well as temporary exhibitions; a tour of the city archives which are kept downstairs is included with the ticket price.
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Musée des Beaux-Arts
Sherbrooke is the main commercial center of the Eastern Townships, with several small museums. The small but beautifully conceived Musée des Beaux-Arts features intriguing exhibitions by Québécois and Canadian artists.
reviewed
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G
Armoury of the Mount Royal Fusiliers
The former munitions depot of this Canadian Black Watch regiment is a miniature château complete with steel turrets and battlements. Today it’s an administrative center and a museum of old military gear, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find it open.
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Musée de L’abeille
Northeast of Québec City on Hwy 138 is honey store and bee museum Musée de l’Abeille. It gets good reviews from families (kids for the ‘safari, ’ parents for the honey wine!).
reviewed
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Éspace Félix-Leclerc
Éspace Félix-Leclerc highlights the works of one of Québec’s most popular singers, whose ancestors were among the original island settlers.
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Parc Maritime de St-Laurent
At Parc Maritime de St-Laurent you can learn about the parish’s ship-building history.
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Centre d'Interprétation des Mammiféres Marins
The CIMM gives excellent background information on local sea creatures through multimedia exhibits.
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Centre d'Interprétation de l'Histoire de Sherbrooke
This center offers an engaging introduction to the town's history and rents out MP3 players for self-guided city tours on foot or by car ($10).
reviewed
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Musée Shaputuan
This is the North Shore's best aboriginal museum. The atmospheric circular exhibition hall, divided into four sections symbolizing the seasons, follows the Montagnais (Innu) people as they hunt caribou or navigate the treacherous spring rivers. Photography, traditional clothes, sculptures and mythological tales are incorporated.
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Musée Régional de la Côte Nord
This museum is a must-visit. It tells the history of the North Shore and its 8000 years of human habitation through a mix of gadgets and artifacts such as 17th-century maps.
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Musée Maritime
Before or after boarding the ferry in St Joseph de la Rive, drop into Musée Maritime. It details the schooner-building history of a region where it was common to see 20 different types of commercial boat on the St Lawrence. Visitors can climb aboard some beauties in the shipyard. There's also a display on the area's famous meteorite crater.
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Musée les Voitures d'Eau
The antique-shoplike Musée les Voitures d'Eau tells the island's nautical history through boat engines, buoys, anchors, plodding voiceovers and cheery explanations of the perils of the St Lawrence. There are also boats you can climb on.
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Musée du Bas St Laurent
The lively Musée du Bas St Laurent has a collection of contemporary Québec art, but the main event is the 200,000 vintage photos of the local area, used in thematic, interactive exhibits that explore life on the St Lawrence.
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Musée des Ursulines
For a slice of the town's religious history, stop at the Musée des Ursulines. The former hospital founded by Ursuline nuns in 1639 forms a pretty backdrop for the fine collection of textiles, ceramics, books and prints related to religion. Beautiful frescoes adorn the chapel.
reviewed
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Musée des Beaux-Arts
This museum has a good permanent collection featuring works by regional artists and also stages temporary exhibits.
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Musée de la Petite Maison Blanche
Nearby, also in the area known as 'the Basin,' is the spindly Musée de la Petite Maison Blanche. Built in 1900, the house withstood water with a force equivalent to Niagara Falls in a 1996 flood that caused $16 billion of damage to Chicoutimi.
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Musée de la Mer
Seven kilometers east of town is the Musée de la Mer, which narrates the Empress of Ireland tragedy, the worst disaster in maritime history after the Titanic. In the 14 minutes it took for the ship to disappear into the St Lawrence after colliding with a Norwegian collier, 1012 people lost their lives. The disaster was all but forgotten in the outbreak of WWI two months later.
On the same campus, you can join a guided tour and climb 128 steps up Pointe au Père Lighthouse, the highest in eastern Canada. The former keeper's cottage has displays on navigating the river and diving to the Empress, 45m down.
The wreck itself is considered one of the world's premier scuba diving
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