Elle a quitté Tours pour fonder une ville au Canada...au 17e siècle !

Marie Guyart was born in 1599 in Tours, the daughter of a master baker. At 17, she married a master silk craftsman who achieved considerable financial success.

• She became a wife and mother, then a widow in quick succession. • She took over the family business and managed a dye workshop. • She also ran a river transport business. • She established herself as a shrewd and tireless businesswoman.

From age 14, Marie felt called to religious life. In 1631, after securing her son's future, she entered the Ursuline monastery in Tours.

Her true goal was to sail to New France to establish a monastery, a 'Jerusalem of the frozen lands,' aligned with the monarchy and Church's mission to spread the faith.

• Marie embarked in 1639 with two fellow Ursulines: Marie de Savonnières de Saint-Joseph and Cécile Richer de Sainte-Croix. • Two other women accompanied them: Madame de La Peltrie (a lay benefactress) and her servant Charlotte Barré. • The voyage was arduous, marked by storms and illness.

The group reached Québec on August 1, 1639 and laid the first stones of the Ursuline Monastery.

It was North America's first girls' school, tasked with educating generations of young girls—both Indigenous and French.

The monastery stands at Place des Tourangelles in Québec, 5,000 km from Tours, honoring its foundress's Touraine origins.

• Marie became a renowned educator at the Ursuline Monastery. • Courses taught chemistry, astronomy, and physics. • The Ursulines acquired and imported from France a remarkable orrery from the 1830s. • The Cultural Pole still preserves impressive scientific collections today.

Marie was a prolific writer who composed vast volumes of letters to her son, ecclesiastical authorities, and patrons in France. These sources provide unique testimony about the colony, relations with Indigenous peoples, and women's history in the 17th century.

• The sisters owned extensive vacant land at the time. • They cultivated their lands, subdividing them or selling plots. • Sainte-Ursule and Sainte-Anne streets owe much of their development to the Ursulines. • The Montcalm neighborhood and Champs-de-Bataille Park were also developed on their lands.

Though cloistered until the 1960s, the sisters contributed significantly to Québec's urban planning and development of the New World.

The Augustines arrived in the Americas with the Ursulines. Their mission was primarily hospital work, and they quickly became central figures in daily life in Québec.

• The Hôtel-Dieu of the Augustines became the hub of medical advancement in Québec. • They founded hospitals throughout the province, totaling 12 institutions. • The University Hospital remains impressive and stands at the heart of old Québec.

In 2000, after more than 350 years of presence, the aging religious community withdrew. The last sisters chose to anticipate their departure by preparing an immense legacy.

• The downtown monastery remains an inhabited and vibrant memorial site. • All 12 monasteries deposited their archives and collections for an extraordinary museum. • The space functions as an unique lodging center with massages, wellness treatments, and spiritual retreats. • The Augustines ensure their successors continue part of their mission serving residents and the sick.

• Cathédrale-Basilique Notre-Dame de Québec is far more than a place of worship. • It is the seat of the archdiocese and the first Catholic cathedral built north of Mexico. • Its first bishop, François de Montmorency Laval, oversaw a diocese extending to Acadia and New Orleans.

• In 1759, British bombardment largely destroyed the cathedral. • It was rebuilt grandly to rival the Anglicans. • The Anglican cathedral dates from 1804, and Bishop Jacob Mountain ensured its steeple surpassed the Catholic basilica's. • In 1922, a fire allowed Catholics to rebuild their cathedral and overtake the Anglican temple.

• The cathedral features a magnificent baldachin over the choir. • It houses three organs by Casavant Frères, an internationally renowned Québec firm. • The crypt holds the remains of its founder François de Laval, four governors, and numerous bishops.

Since 2013, the building has a holy door given by Rome for the church's 350th anniversary. Such doors are rare, found in only a few basilicas worldwide, making Québec a pilgrimage destination.

The Museum of Civilization stands where the museum is today, an area submerged during Marie Guyart's time. Over centuries, the old city has continually reclaimed land from the river.

• The museum dates from the 1980s and was designed by Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. • Limestone walls echo neighboring houses. • Copper roofs evoke Château Frontenac. • Triangular roof windows resemble traditional dormers. • A bell tower draws inspiration from old city steeples, all within an ultra-modern building.

• During construction, archaeologists discovered eight 18th-century small ships. • Among them, four 'flat boats,' military vessels the French used to transport troops and supplies. • Shallow, light, and easy to maneuver on rivers and lakes, these boats played a strategic role. • An estimated 4,000 existed under French rule. • This vessel is the sole visible remnant of pre-Conquest maritime heritage.

• The museum incorporates an 18th-century house of merchant Guillaume Estèbe, typical of French regime urban architecture. • Two permanent exhibitions: 'It's Our History' and 'Québec, Otherwise'. • The first immerses visitors in the richness of Québec's Indigenous cultures. • The second synthesizes all Québec history with artifacts from the Cartier-Roberval archaeological site.

Each early August, Québec hosts the New France Festival, revisiting the city's history through historical reenactments, concerts, and demonstrations.

• Period games and First Nations myths and legends. • Performances, exhibitions, and grand meals. • Lectures on local culture. • Free access to heritage sites.

It's a convivial gathering that attracts large crowds and revives the ferment of 17th and 18th-century life in the region.

The Festival offers the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in the past of Marie Guyart, Champlain, and the first settlers, with an atmosphere that inspires deeper learning about local culture.

The tomb of Marie of the Incarnation rests in a modest oratory, between the interior chapel reserved for the community and the exterior chapel open to all the faithful.

The oratory houses magnificent baroque art from that era, with over fifteen paintings.

• Some paintings are by Jérôme Preudhomme. • Others by the celebrated Frère Luc. • These works shaped Québec art history. • They served as models for many local artists.

The Ursulines were true cultural transmitters, passing artistic and spiritual values through their educational work and architectural legacy.

Marie Guyart embodies an exceptional woman who shaped an entire chapter of North American history through her vision and commitment.

• The colony was marked by faith and resilience. • Visionary women like the Ursulines and Augustines left a lasting legacy. • They left a significant mark on Québec's heritage.

• Far beyond buildings or ancient objects. • Stories and preserved archives. • Living spaces continuing their mission. • A present enriched by the past.

When these women came to the New World, it was to build another world, a project that shaped Old Québec and continues to inspire it.

The famous Château Frontenac dominates one section of the city. In reality, it's a hotel, not a castle, built during the modern railway tourism boom.

• Place d'Armes and Place Royale. • Statues of famous figures like Champlain. • Streets and squares with historic names recalling the founding.

• Historical murals covering some city walls. • The Fresco of Québecers at the corner of Notre-Dame Street. • It depicts Champlain, Jacques Cartier, Papineau. • It also features Augustines and Ursulines, including Marie Guyart.

• Québec is a city of paradoxes: American yet European. • Classically formal and ultra-modern. • Dynamic and relaxed, bustling with activity yet surrounded by nature. • An unmissable destination to discover Franco-American history.