In the spirit of a travel journal, illustrated with more than 400 old postcards, Jacques Saint-Pierre travels through Quebec at the beginning of the 20th century. He passionately depicts the history of: La Belle Province.
By train or boat, the reader discovers the regions of yesteryear: Trois-Rivières and Mauricie, Joliette and Lanaudière, the Laurentians, the Ottawa Valley, Charlevoix, the North Shore, Saguenay and Lake Saint-Jean, Gaspésie, Bas-du-Fleuve, Lévis, Beauce and Lotbinière, Bois-Francs and Nicolet, the Richelieu Valley, the Collines Montérégiennes, the Vaudreuil-Soulanges peninsula and finally the Eastern Townships.
Between mountains and lakes, countryside and forest, loggers, fishermen and farmers rub shoulders with small industries. Despite a strong rural nature, large cities like Quebec and Montreal became dynamic and experienced cultural effervescence around 1900. The cold season is the time for sleigh rides, snowshoe expeditions and ice hockey. Tourism was still in its infancy.
Yves Beauregard, passionate collector and director of the history magazine Cap-aux-Diamants in Quebec, shares his skillful pen with that of Jacques Saint-Pierre. A brilliant historian, after having collaborated on several research projects at the University of Laval, he is the author of around thirty works including Montréal d’antan (Éditions Hervé Chopin, 2014), Histoire de Laval (PUL, 2008), Québec a century of memories in postcards (Éditions Anne Sigier, 2007) and Rural life 1866-1953 (Publication du Québec, 2001).
Éditions Hervé Chopin launched the “Images d’antan” collection in 2004, offering a new vision of the old postcard, a marvelous iconographic medium of extraordinary quality and precious historical interest. The collection offers a journey through time to discover or rediscover a city, a region or a country during the Belle Époque. With nearly 150 titles, it covers France and much more, offering a new look at life in the past, while promoting local history and heritage.