View of the Québec skyline at dusk from the Louis Jolliet in the Port of Québec

DAY ONE: ORIENTATION TOUR, DINNER, INTERACTIVE HISTORY LESSON

Bienvenue à Québec, the cradle of French civilization in North America. After checking into your hotel in the residential suburb of St-Foy, transfer into the Walled City where your guide will lead you on a walking orientation tour that will begin at Place d’Armes and introduce you to the Terrasse Dufferin, the majestic Château Frontenac and the Grande Allée and Assemblée Nationale.

After the tour, you’ll have dinner in the 300-year old stone vault of an historic building in the Quartier Petit Champlain.

Your first day will end in an historic stone fortification built in 1759 to defend Québec against of all people, the Americans, with an interactive history lesson (in which every student will participate) about the very harsh lives of the soldiers who were stationed there.

Overnight security services begin at 10:00pm.

DAY TWO: OLD QUEBEC, STE-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRÉ, DANCE CRUISE

After an extended continental breakfast buffet, board the bus and depart on a city sightseeing tour that will end at the tallest building in Québec, where you will ascend to the 31st floor observatory for a panoramic view of the Laurentian Mountains to the north, the Old City to the east and the ships passing en route to and from Montréal on the Saint Lawrence River immediately to the south.

You’ll have lunch on your own in the Quartier Petit Chaplain, the oldest part of the city, where the greystone buildings date to the 1600s, then depart on a ride up the Cote de Beaupré for visits to the Basilique Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré and 275-foot-high Montmorency Falls where the first battle between Generals Wolfe and Montcalm took place during the epochal summer of 1759.

Your second day will end on picturesque Île d’Orleans with authentic dinner and an evening of traditional music and folk dancing at a French-Canadian cabane à sucre (pictured above left).

Optionally, your group may elect to have dinner in the vault of a 300-year-old stone building in Old Québec then depart on a two-hour dance cruise on the moonlit Saint Lawrence River where you will meet and mix with other American and Canadian students on the largest excursion boat in Canada.

Overnight security services begin at the hotel at 10:00pm.

DAY THREE: CHASSE AU TRÉSOR, QUARTIER LATIN, AU REVOIR QUEBEC

After an extended continental breakfast, transfer to Place Royale where you will begin a cultural and linguistic Chasse au Trésor.

Your treasure hunt will begin at the statue of Louis XIV (at left) in the Quartier Petit Champlain, then wind through the narrow streets of Old Québec to the Assemblée Nationale, testing you on how much you’ve learned about the rich history of Québec.

After lunch on your own along rue St-Jean, you’ll have an hour to practice your French in the Quarter Latin, it’s time to meet the bus and depart for home.

Au revoir, Québec. À bientôt.