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Old Cars and Vintage Weekend 2025 in Québec City.

In September 2025, another edition of Vintage Weekend took place in Quebec City. This year, more than 200 vintage cars were on display on Saint-Paul Street and on the grounds adjacent to Espace Quatre Cent in Quebec City’s Old Port.

Stéphane Lavallée's 1959 Corvette at Quebec City's Vintage Weekend
Stéphane Lavallée’s 1959 Corvette at Quebec City’s Vintage Weekend

As usual, restaurant owners had their hands full serving the many curious visitors who came to admire the cars. In addition, they had to contend with the presence of travelers who had recently disembarked from the three cruise ships moored in the harbor. The next photo shows the energetic team at Bistro St-Malo hard at work feeding passersby.

The restaurateur of Bistro St-Malo at work on St-Paul Street at Weekend Vintage 2025
The restaurateur of Bistro St-Malo at work on St-Paul Street at Weekend Vintage 2025

This year, musicians from Calgary entertained the crowd with songs from the 1950s. The audience was delighted by the excellent quality of the performance, both in terms of singing and music. The same can be said of the dancers, who took us back in time with a few hits from that era.

Retro dancing on St. Paul Street at the Quebec Vintage Weekend in 2025
Retro dancing on St. Paul Street at the Quebec Vintage Weekend in 2025

Below, cars occupy the space surrounding La Vivrière, a fountain sculpture commemorating the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Gary Lynch's Hudson Hornet Hollywood 7x at Quebec City's Vintage Weekend
Gary Lynch’s Hudson Hornet Hollywood 7x at Quebec City’s Vintage Weekend
Burger Heaven Lights on for Service at the Weekend Vintage in Quebec City
Burger Heaven Lights on for Service at the Weekend Vintage in Quebec City
Paul Forest's 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air with modified color
Paul Forest’s 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air with modified color
1952 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday and Michel Savard at Quebec City's Vintage Weekend
1952 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday and Michel Savard at Quebec City’s Vintage Weekend

Above, Michel Savard poses proudly next to his 1952 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday. As for André Guillemette, he had original parts shipped from Great Britain to do justice to his 1962 Jaguar Mark II, which can be seen below.

André Guillemette's 1962 Jaguar Mark II at Quebec City's 2025 Vintage Weekend
André Guillemette’s 1962 Jaguar Mark II at Quebec City’s 2025 Vintage Weekend
Reflections in Michel Métivier's 1967 Pontiac GTO at Quebec City's Vintage Weekend
Reflections in Michel Métivier’s 1967 Pontiac GTO at Quebec City’s Vintage Weekend

A final photo shows St. Paul Street with Charles Boisseau’s 1965 Corvette Stingray.

Charles Boisseau's 1965 Corvette Stingray at Quebec City's Vintage Weekend
Charles Boisseau’s 1965 Corvette Stingray at Quebec City’s Vintage Weekend

Click on the link for more tourist attractions and photos of the province of Quebec on my blog.

Categories
Graphic novels and comics

The graphic novel “Super Canon”

The graphic novel "Super canon" from Philippe Girard.
The graphic novel “Super canon” from Philippe Girard.

With “Super canon— Le marchand d’armes qui visait les étoiles”, writer Philippe Girard offers us a high quality graphic novel, as much for the scenario as for the drawings and colour choices. For this work, he benefited from an author residency in Liège. He certainly enjoyed his experience in Belgium much more than his writer’s residency in Poland, where he had to fend for himself because the hosts hadn’t respected the scheduled introductions and appointments. At the time, he used his misfortune to produce a very interesting graphic novel entitled “Le Starzec — un mois à Cracovie”.

Graphic novel "Le Starzec - Un mois à Cracovie" by Philippe Girard.
Graphic novel “Le Starzec – Un mois à Cracovie” by Philippe Girard.

“Super Canon” is based on a true story, that of Canadian engineer Gerald Vincent Bull. Of course, it’s impossible to retrace this man’s life step by step, so the author has created a character named Doctor Gerry.

On reading the book, we realize the incredible talent of Gerald Bull, the scientist who revolutionized ballistics. We bear witness to his chequered destiny, tormented as he was between his youthful dreams and his boundless ambitions.

To balance his research budgets and keep his company afloat, he gradually transformed himself into an arms dealer. He offers his service to multiple states, including Canada, the United States, Israel, Iraq, Iran, China. In the process, he becomes the object of constant surveillance by many agencies and accumulates enemies.

A page from the graphic novel "Super Canon" by Philippe Girard.
A page from the graphic novel “Super Canon” by Philippe Girard.

We’re dealing with a genius who has purposely blocked any critical thinking about his weapons of destruction. He dreams of a powerful cannon to send satellites into space, but the intelligence agencies of other countries hold very different plans for his invention.

He naively believes that he will be able to serve several masters with divergent interests, without this causing him the slightest problem. It borders on childish reasoning, on wilful blindness in the pursuit of the high life.

My only reservation regarding the content concerns the first page of the story. I find an ambiguity about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction (box 5, page 3).  This was indeed the initial fear raised by the United States, but repeated follow-ups by UN inspectors had shown that Saddam Hussein had no such weapons. The invasion of Iraq couldn’t be justified on such a basis. The invasion went ahead anyway, and none of these supposed armaments were found in Iraq. I would have liked the UN’s conclusions to have been mentioned. This would have allowed to establish the book’s scenario on a basis that left no room for doubt.

A page from the graphic novel "Super canon".
A page from the graphic novel “Super canon”.

Otherwise, one thing’s for sure: you’ll enjoy this extremely well-crafted graphic novel.

Click on the link for other graphic novels and comics on my blog.

Title: Super canon

Author: Philippe Girard

Publisher: Casterman, 2023

ISBN: 978-2-203-24112-1