Québec

 
The name carried by the city and territory of Quebec comes from an Amerindian word meaning "straits", or "where the river narrows". At the time when Jacques Cartier visited the site, the Amerindians called it Stadacona. 

Founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608, Quebec was the first town to take shape in Canada. It was only after exploring the valley of the Saint Lawrence River that he chose this site, which he found more advantageous than Acadie, where the French first settled. 

It was from Quebec that Champlain undertook the expeditions to the Richelieu River, the Great Lakes and the Ottawa region. The taking of Quebec by the Kirke brothers in 1629 interrupted all exploration of the Canadian interior and the North American continent by Champlain, the missionaries and the explorers. They resumed after 1633, the same time as the settlement of New France.