A modern metropolis, Canada's capital breathes the calm of an administrative city, but conceals a second nature where the souls of the trappers and loggers who built it always exalt the call of the forest. An intensely Canadian experience. Ottawa is the capital of Canada, as we all know. It is also the fourth largest city in the country with over 800,000 inhabitants (excluding the agglomeration). But Ottawa is not just another capital city! It looks more like a good provincial town, slightly asleep, calm, quiet and peaceful. We are a long way from the frenzy of the great urban metropolises. Marking the border between Quebec and Ontario, Ottawa, southeastern Canada and northeastern Great Lakes, along the Ottawa River, Ottawa is a quiet city of 900,000 people, situated in the middle of a privileged nature that once made it an important forest centre. Its climate, hot in summer but rather chilly in winter when the average temperature is minus 10°C, offers a wide range of sporting activities, ranging from tennis to swimming, ice skating or snowmobiling. Once installed in your hotel in Ottawa, one of the first things to do is to offer you a short boat ride on the Ottawa River to discover the city's skyline. You will soon notice that the restaurants offer a succulent diversity and will probably not resist the pleasure of buying maple syrup, symbol of the region, caribou, a mixture of strong alcohol and red wine or, why not, trappers' snowshoes. Rideau Shopping Centre with its 180 stores, ByWard Market craft stores or exclusive Sparks Street boutiques will surprise you with their wide selection and quality. But Ottawa is mostly magnificent parks, starting with Gatineau Park, 350 km2 of which will let you discover the natural wonders of the region, Pink Lake, King Mountain or Lusk Cave. Parliament Hill and its three neo-Gothic buildings are a symbol of Canada, while the city is symbolized mainly by its Rideau Canal, which cuts it in two and becomes a large open skating rink in winter. The Fine Arts Museum and the Canadian Museum of Civilization, which traces the country's history through life-size reconstructions, are also worth a visit. Don't be fooled by its peaceful appearance, Ottawa moves around a lot at night, from the ByWard Market, founded in 1826 by Colonel By near the Rideau Canal, to bars and nightclubs and Elgin Street, to the many pubs and restaurants. In the summer, the streets of Canada's capital host many jazz and other festivals that will keep you awake to the hour. Capital of the country, Ottawa does not really have a good reputation among tourists and Canadians: government city, slow city, nothing happens, not "fun", in short, a "lame city", a boring city in the shadows of Montreal. Yet Ottawa has a few pearls and a quality of life not necessarily found elsewhere. Ottawa is officially bilingual and highly bi-cultural (bi-cultural, although the majority remain anglophone). Quebec, especially Gatineau, a francophone suburb, is just across the Ottawa River. Also, while you are in Ontario, you will find a strong and vocal Francophone cultural community (in a positive sense of course). Indeed, the city has several green parks where it is pleasant to walk: the famous garden of the Provinces and Territories, splendid, Major's Hill Park, one of the most important in the city, Confederation Park, which hosts most of the local events (Winterlude, Canada Day, Ottawa International Jazz Festival...), LeBreton Flats Park, one of the largest and home to major music festivals, including Ottawa's famous Bluesfest, or Hog's Back Park, which offers a perfect view of the magnificent Hog's Back waterfall on the Rideau River. History permeates this park which was in the front row during the difficult construction of the Hog's Back dam (1826-1832). And of course, the city wouldn't be what it is without the famous Rideau Canal. This canal, built from scratch to link the Ottawa River and the St. Lawrence River, is indeed an essential relief in the city, used in all seasons for leisure activities: cycling, jogging or walking on the banks of the canal in spring, summer and fall, ice skating in winter.