Promenade Samuel-De Champlain

Stretching 4.3 km from Pierre-Laporte bridge to Côte de Sillery, the Samuel-De Champlain Promenade is a large park on the bank of the St. Lawrence River.

A gift from the provincial government to Québec City for its 400th anniversary, the newly landscaped park affords those travelling on foot, by bicycle or by car a new viewpoint from which to admire the shoreline. Free admission. Contemporary art gallery, lookout tower and themed gardens.

Promenade Samuel-De Champlain offers four different experiences in different zones:

• Station des Cageux: Built around a reclaimed industrial wharf, this zone features a wetland that reproduces an indigenous shoreline ecosystem, a 25-meter observation tower, and access to the waterside. It is named after the brave fellows who played a major role in Québec folklore, the raftsmen.

• Boisé de Tequenonday: This unique old woodland crisscrossed with walking paths contains native archaeological remains that are over 5,000 years old. A small lookout affords a spectacular view of the river and south shore. The woods contain numerous hundred-year-old trees including pines close to 30 meters tall.

• Station des Sports: This section, dedicated to sporting activities, contains two soccer fields and a multi-use grass-covered play area to get athletes of all ages moving.

• Station des Quais: This zone is the cultural focal point of the Promenade. It includes four themed gardens that reflect the moods of the river.

- Quai-des-Brumes calls to mind the riverside atmosphere with granite blocks and fog machines that evoke the rocky shore and river mists.

- Quai-des-Flots with its fountains evoke water in all its forms and movements by the lapping river.

- Quai-des-Hommes is inspired by the human activity that spurred the area's development in the days of the timber trade. It recalls the link between human beings and the river.

- Quai-des-Vents depicts the unceasing wind along the shoreline. The long stems emerging from the garden call to mind the flight of birds.