As a Québec City tour guide, I walk the streets of the old city every day. From Avenue Cartier to La Place Royale, from St. Roch to the Citadelle, I shepherd tourists over the curbs and cobblestones of the Vieille Capitale. Although my clients occasionally grumble at the city’s many staircases and hills, in the end they all feel that this city is best seen on foot. Not only do I agree, I do so categorically. Québec is eminently walkable, yielding the best of its many treasures to those willing to don their most comfortable shoes. Whether you prefer to stride, march, or amble, you can attain anything here by foot: great restaurants, world-class museums, places of historic interest. Those who live here choose to walk to many of the practical destinations: government ministries, grocery stores, and schools.
Knowing all of this, I was in no way surprised to see Québec City near the top of Jeff Speck’s recently published list of the most walkable cities in the world. Jeff Speck is a Washington DC, city planner who sees the survival of the twenty-first century city in its ability to foster pedestrian culture…streetlife.
Québec City is alive with streetlife and walkable, indeed!