Quebec bathed in fall colours

Coming in at twice the size of Texas, the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec has a separatist itch that refuses to be scratched away.

While Quebec is home to two of Canada's most vibrant cities - Montreal and Quebec City - vast stretches of wilderness make up most of the province - from boreal forest and mountain chains to fresh water lakes, Atlantic islands and sub arctic tundra. Most of Quebec's population lives along the meandering 1,000km-long St Lawrence River.

For outdoor adventure seekers, the Laurentian Mountains and the Saquenay Region provides a wide range of recreational opportunities, including skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing, hiking, cycling, sailing and horse riding.

The Laurentian Mountains boasts a handful of excellent ski resorts, with the slopes at Mont Tremblant home to the best runs east of the Rockies.

Meanwhile, the Saguenay Fjord - stretching for some 100km along the St Lawrence River - is a mecca for kayakers' with its steep cliffs and abundant wildlife.

Quebec's South St Lawrence region is blessed with the awesome Appalachian Mountains (the eastern counterpart to the Rocky Mountains) as well as abundant lakes, rivers, provincial parks, vineyards and the scenic Gaspé Peninsula where fresh maple is tapped directly from the tress.

Also part of Quebec are the atmospheric Iles de la Madelaine (Magdalen Islands), an archipelago of nine main islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence. With its distinctive white sand beaches and sandstone cliffs, it is particularly popular with cyclists, kite surfers and sea kayakers.

Montreal is the largest city in Quebec, a cosmopolitan, Europe-meets-North America party hub of 3.4 million people. Quebec City is the provincial capital and also its separatist heart.

Quebec is situated in eastern Canada, south of Nunavut, east of Ontario and west of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Most Quebecois are descended from French who settled here in the 16th century. They now speak their own dialect of French.