North America's most unique city

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

Bolded part, it's definitely not the case, at least in my opinion.

It's mostly the opposite: if you enter the province driving, it'll slowly turn into Quebec and eventually you'll realize you're now deep into it. It's a continuum, and every single one of the areas of Quebec that are just next to a border shows common traits with whatever lies on the other side (usually due to shared history and evolution).

Yeah, it's not otherworldly for sure but this also depends on the person and how observant they are, how focused they are on language as a marker of foreignness, etc.

There are some subtle differences IMO as soon as you cross the border, that are not necessarily related to language.

I wouldn't say that for the vast majority of people, Quebec feels exactly the same to most people. It's more like a foreign-ish, French-influenced variant of the place you just left behind.

[Acajack]

Whereas, when I worked in tourism in Ontario, the reactions of American visitors we had ranged from "it's virtually the same as the U.S.", to ""OMG I can't believe this place feels so different and foreign!". The former group was quite a bit more numerous than the latter. These were people visiting southern and eastern Ontario.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Whereas, when I worked in tourism in Ontario, the reactions of American visitors we had ranged from "it's virtually the same as the U.S.", to ""OMG I can't believe this place feels so different and foreign!". The former group was quite a bit more numerous than the latter. These were people visiting southern and eastern Ontario.

I would say to an American Canada sort of feels strange because it's so similar yet has subtle differences. So it ends up feeling like you've not entered a foreign country at all, but stepped through a dimensional portal into an alternate United States.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I wouldn't say that for the vast majority of people, Quebec feels exactly the same to most people. It's more like a foreign-ish, French-influenced variant of the place you just left behind.

Sure, but that's a gradual change. Every single border area is more Anglo and more connected to either the US or Anglo Canada than the average for Quebec as a whole, while on the other side these areas are more francophone and more like Quebec than average/typical areas that are further away from the border.

Eventually you end up in Old Quebec City and it does feel exotic, but there's no special point on the drive (the one that Centropolis would do, which I've done probably 15 times when "trucking" stuff back home from Amarillo, but all the other points of entry I'm familiar with are also continuums) where you have an unambiguous cultural shock coming from having suddenly entered obviously foreign territory.