The Founding of Quebec City, a 2008 joint issue official First Day Cover from Canada.

 

The 400th Anniversary of the founding of Quebec City is celebrated with a joint issue between Canada Post and France's La Poste. It's a fitting way to celebrate this major anniversary in the two countries that Champlain united four hundred years ago.

When Champlain and his associates travelled up the St. Lawrence River in 1608, after five long years of struggling to survive in Acadia, they were looking for a place to call home closer to the fur trade. They came upon Kebec and, nestled under the bluffs of Cap Diamant, they built a sturdy Habitation, designed to last. The tip of the Cap Diamant promontory was a strategic point that allowed them to keep watch over the St. Lawrence and control traffic on the river. But even Champlain could hardly have imagined that his settlement would be the cradle of French civilization in North America and home to the French in Canada for another four hundred years.

 

The stamp depicts an extraordinarily detailed scene: Champlain on his ship greets natives approaching in a canoe, while construction of the new settlement proceeds in the background.