Summer Sojourn to Canada: Exploring Montreal and Quebec City

A July 2026 Sojourn led us to Quebec to delve into the region’s material culture history tracing from early inhabitants to New France to Modern artistry. Experts in the field, as you will see below, welcomed us with traditional Canadian hospitality to standout sites in Montreal and Quebec City.

Magnificent Montreal

The largest city in the Quebec province, Montreal has benefited from a prime location along the St. Lawrence River. Our exploration of this UNESCO “City of Design” began with a walking tour of Old Montreal led by architectural historian Justin Bur. Returning to our Montreal headquarters, the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, an introductory lecture by Philippe Halbert, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, acquainted us with the region’s vibrant artistic past.

The first full day of the Sojourn took participants to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts out of hours with Halbert and former curator Rosalind Pepall. The museum is especially strong in European and North American furniture, ceramics, glass, textiles, metalwork, and industrial design objects. In addition, we enjoyed a special look at works by Canada’s famed “Group of Seven” artists, as well as the museum’s stunning collection of silver. Château Ramezay’s Executive Director André Delisle welcomed us to this unique site, one of Montreal’s oldest surviving examples of French colonial architecture, and prime locale for the American Continental Army in Canada during the Revolutionary War. At the Canadian Centre for Architecture, members saw the 1874–75 Shaughnessy House, a Second Empire-style mansion, as well as its magnificent reference library which attracts architects and researchers from around the world. The full day ended with a reception at the gallery of Noel Guyomarc’h, who shared objects from his personal jewelry collection.

Quintessential Quebec City

En route to Quebec City, Sojourn participants visited the Château Dufresne, a 1915–18 mansion complex designed by Montreal architects Jules Renard and Maurice Perrault for brothers Marius and Oscar Dufresne, inspired by the Beaux-Arts tradition and French Classical architecture. The renowned Fairmont Le Château Frontenac hotel was our Quebec City headquarters, and we enjoyed an orientation lecture there from historian David Mendel. A walking tour of the Upper Town with Mendel introduced us to the Ursuline Monastery and Museum, a site dating to 1641–42 featuring original timber framing, woodwork, staircases, roof structures, and metalwork. A stunning chapel altar was completed in 1730 by Noël and Pierre-Noël Levasseur. The museum is located in the former house of Madame de La Peltrie and showcases an impressive 17th- to 19th-century embroidery collection.

The next day, Davide Mendel took us on a walking tour to the 1800–04 Holy Trinity Cathedral, the late-18th-century Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec, the Seminary of Quebec, and the The Joan of Arc Garden in The Battlefields Park on the Plains of Abraham. After lunch, we visited the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, and at the Quebec Craft Center (MMAQ), Director Thierry Plante-Dubé showed us highlights of this training, research, and artistic production institution with approximately 25 studios. Our tour ended with a special out-of-hours tour of the Quebec Parliament Building, built 1877–86 based on designs by architect Eugène-Étienne Taché, concluding with dinner in its exclusive dining room.

All agreed: our first Canadian program in years was edifying, inspiring, and a wonderful reminder of how much Canada has to offer. The expert insights and genial company made the itinerary especially delightful. See our Facebook and Instagram channels for more photos from our visits. To learn more about Decorative Arts Trust programs, explore our Calendar of Events. We hope you join us soon!