Trois-Rivières
Trois-Rivières is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. The city's name, which is French for 'three rivers', is named for the fact the Saint-Maurice River has three mouths at the Saint Lawrence River; it is divided by two islands in the river.
Trois-Rivières hosts the FestiVoix de Trois-Rivières, a 10-day summer music festival which attracts in excess of 300,000 visitors annually. The city also hosts the Festival International de la Poésie – an international poetry festival – as well as the Festival International Danse Encore, and the MetalFest de Trois-Rivières every November. In 2009, Trois-Rivières was designated as the 2009 Cultural Capital of Canada for cities having a population of 125,000 or more.
Trois-Rivières is officially the "Poetry Capital of Quebec".Numerous plaques displaying poetic verses are installed throughout the centre of the city. An International Festival of Poetry is held annually in the first week of October.
The city's main thoroughfare is Boulevard des Forges, an area several blocks long in the heart of the Old Town composed of century-old buildings housing a great variety of cafés, restaurants, clubs, bars, and shops. In the warmer months, the area is regularly closed to vehicular traffic to accommodate various festivals and events, turning the downtown core into a pedestrian mall.
Notable landmarks include the Forges du Saint-Maurice, a foundry dating back to the 1730s, the Ursulines Monastery, and Notre-Dame-du-Cap Basilica.